I first launched this website in early 2007, getting started with a blog post about contracting in large companies that’s surprisingly relevant even seven years on.

To be honest, ‘launched’ is a grand term for a site I threw together in a couple of hours. It was built on the versatile WordPress platform and I created it after deciding I needed some kind of online presence.

Low effort, decent rewards

That low-effort site served me well. When I decided to go freelance in 2008, I just had to make some minor changes. For a long time, it looked much like the screenshot above.

Those changes seemed to work. The site achieved decent search rankings for some relevant terms and even brought in a few clients.

But as time went by, my trusty web presence became something of an embarrassment.

When I first gave a talk espousing the value of good design and explaining that copywriting and web design are two sides of the same thing, it seemed ridiculous that my own site was built on a dated, out-of-the-box template.

A classic case of ‘do as I say, not do as I do’.

Enough was enough

A mere two years later, I decided enough was enough and started looking at the options for building a new site.

I considered using something like BaseKit to do it myself, or developing a new WordPress site to boost my technical skills. After all, in the dim and distant past I was good enough at coding to get a degree in Computer Science.

But I dismissed those ideas swiftly. I believe in good design and I respect the skills of designers who’ve spent years learning their craft.

I wanted to work with someone who had expertise, rather than cobbling something together.

Finding the right team

I ended up approaching several designers, any of whom I’d have happily worked with.

I eventually settled on Carabi + Co, a group of web professionals I’ve been part of for a couple of years.

Much hard work later and I’ve ended up with the site you see in front of you. Here’s who did what:

• Ty Wilkins took care of the super-cool illustrations
• Henric Sjösten worked magic with the brand identity
• Andreas Ubbe Dall handled most of the design and dev
• …and Alex Carabi managed the project

Oh, and I did the content, obviously.

That, in brief, is how I got here. Finally, I have a site that a web writer can be proud of.

Watch this space for a more detailed post about the process we went through to actually build this site.