I wanted to have a professional website for a long time. Not for lead generation - most of my clients already know me personally or through referrals - but for building and controlling my professional image in a way that feels genuine. LinkedIn is great for professional networking, but it’s hard to stand out. I wanted a platform where I could present myself authentically - without constraints and on my own terms. I wanted a space where I could talk about my work in a personal yet professional and engaging way. At the beggining of 2024, I finally decided to build it. Below I’m sharing some details on the process, costs, and lessons learned from this experience.
I bought my domain (michalprzadka.com) in February 2024 and reached out to my good friend Emilka Bojańczyk for some advice. Emilka runs a branding and design studio, and she immediately saw it a a project we could do together, not just a website but full-on branding and design. Initially, I hesitated about the scope and investment. Maybe I should test the waters first? Did I even know what I wanted? Would they get my vision? Emilka convinced me to trust the process and commit to the whole thing - brand identity, logo, website design, LinkedIn presence and of course all the deliverables and content that come with it. When we started, I only had a vague idea of what I was buying, but I trusted her and the process.
Today I want to share some notes on the scope, costs, and lessons learned from this experience.
The budget
The entire project took eight months and cost around 40,000 PLN (~10,000 USD). Here’s the budget breakdown:
- Visual identity and design concept: 30,000 PLN (7,500 USD)
- Content strategy and copywriting: 3,500 PLN (850 USD)
- Webflow development: 4,400 PLN (1,100 USD)
- Images refinement: 1,600 PLN (400 USD)
Plus about 1,200 PLN (300 USD) for annual subscriptions and services.
40k PLN may sound like a lot, for a simple, lightweight website. A ready-made template would have been much cheaper. But I saw this as an investment in my professional future - I wanted it to look premium, and I believe that quality will pay off in the long run, one way or another. I hope. But for now, I just like it, as it is, and I feel good about it. That’s also important.
Lessons learned
There are four insights I am taking away from this. They’re not entirely new lessons for me, but I wasn’t fully aware of all of them before starting the project. It might have gone smoother if I had been.
1. Branding is much more than just design
Developing the visual identity took longer than expected, but it turned out to be much more than just website design. Podpunkt created a structured visual narrative around my brand - a story of “surreal natural-mechanic forms and synthetic biology” that I can use across different mediums.
They also crafted a custom logo and a set of visual elements related to using and working with language and AI prompts. The consistency of these ideas impressed me from the very beginning and inspired me to create new images and visual elements that align with these visual codes. This foundation became particularly valuable when creating custom client gift boxes this Christmas - something I couldn’t have done without their work.
To be honest, even after this whole project, I’m still not sure what exactly I was buying from Podpunkt. I wonder how they might pitch their services to make it easier for someone like me to understand and commit. Was I buying a brand? My own brand? Some ideas about my visual identity? A story to share with my clients? It seems that what they actually created for me was a framework for crafting brand-related stories that I can use in various ways. The true value of this framework is probably yet to be seen in my future work and experiments.
2. Copywriting is hard (for me)
This was my first time working with a professional copywriter, and I learned that outsourcing the writing process is actually quite difficult for me. I care deeply about what I write, so having someone else articulate my ideas - no matter how skilled they are - feels uncomfortable. When I write, whether it’s a journal entry, a blog post, or a LinkedIn article, I want to sound just like me. I want to be me. It’s impossible to fully simulate my patterns of thought, skills and flaws, or idiosyncrasies to make it sound like me. And I immediately notice the difference, for better or worse.
I still hope to get better at this. My plan for this year is to outsource at least some of my writing - or at least the editing of my writing. I simply have too much else to do to handle all of it myself.
Even with these issues and concerns, I still think working with a copywriter was a good idea. It forced me to sharpen my messaging and think more deliberately about what I wanted to say. We had a few strategy sessions where I had to clearly articulate my value proposition, understand what my audience needs and wants, and figure out how I can help them. Agnieszka asked all the right questions and helped me clarify my thoughts. That is a service I will probably use again in the future.
There’s another question worth asking here: why work with a copywriter in the first place if I can just ask GPT to write for me? Well, I can, but doing so would take time and focus away from other important tasks - something I want to avoid. An even better solution might be to ask the copywriter to use GPT on my behalf. I actually expect that there will be more and more services like this in the future: people acting as skilled proxies for LLMs. Even if I know I could do a better job myself by directly leveraging these models for certain tasks, the service could still be useful and worth paying for, in line with the comparative advantage principle.
3. Fiverr is unpredictable
My website is rather small and simple, so I decided to build it in Webflow and turned to Fiverr to find a good provider. My plan was to hire a freelancer or a small studio to build it for me in a week or two. It was my first time using the platform for a project of this scale. I had used it in the past for smaller gigs with good experiences, but I was cautious. I’d heard people say that Fiverr can be hit or miss, even if you choose to work with more expensive partners with plenty of good reviews.
This was exactly the case here: the developer I hired took two months to deliver something that was supposed to be completed in 10 days (according to his own timeline!). He always sounded very professional, polite, and helpful, but he was also extremely slow and sloppy. To get what I wanted (and what I paid for) took many weeks and numerous rounds of revisions. The final deliverable does look the way I wanted it to, and the final price does compensate for the extra effort and time. However, had I anticipated these bumps, I would have been less stressed and simply braced myself for a longer journey.
One practical piece of advice I have for working with Fiverr is to always start with simple, smaller gigs to test your potential partner before committing to a larger project. You’ll spend a bit extra - since you’re likely testing a few options before selecting the best one - but it will save you a lot of time and stress in the long run. This is, at least, my current approach to Fiverr.
4. LinkedIn enjoys the details
LinkedIn is a strange place. I do spend a lot of time there, but at the same time, I find much of the content irrelevant, uninteresting, or simply not worth sharing. Someone changes their job - okay, fine, good luck! They attend a conference - great, but why should others care? They use a new tool or discover a life hack - nice, but is there really something to learn from that would inspire others or make them rethink their own habits?
Whenever I share anything, I always ask myself: is this really worth people’s time and attention? Is this more valuable than most of the stuff they’ll see here today? Would I care to read it if someone else shared similar content? There are quite a few posts I never published because they missed the mark.
All these thoughts were swirling in my head as I wondered how to share the news about my website. How could I deliver real value to my audience, rather than just announce an achievement that’s mostly relevant to me? While pondering this without a clear answer, I came across a great post by Tomek Karwatka. The original is in Polish, but here’s my translation of the first few lines to give you the gist:
Why is LinkedIn content often crap?
The idea that you need to read 100 books to write one is one of the most absurd myths out there. Anyone who believes it might become a literary critic at best - but never a writer.
To write anything - a book, an article, or even a LinkedIn post - you first need to accumulate real experiences. Describing what you’ve lived through naturally creates a story. Stories educate and have been with us forever.
Most content on LinkedIn is garbage because people don’t write about what they actually do. Instead, they write what they think will interest their clients. Consultants, for example, write about the things they consult on, assuming it will appeal to those who actually do the work. Guess what… it won’t.
Yeah, exactly…
So, in the end, I decided to share details about what I did. To keep it concise, I focused on financials. Just as I did in the previous section of this post, I outlined my overall budget, how much I paid for various services and products, and my experiences with the suppliers I worked with. Instead of bragging, I offered a transparent look into my process and costs - a tangible reference point for anyone considering something similar.
It turned out to be a great idea. My website post quickly became my most popular post of the year, with nearly 10,000 views and over 4,700 members reached. It also motivated some users to share useful and largely positive feedback. (Thank you to everyone who reached out!) Unsurprisingly, sharing valuable data is far more impactful than showing off.
Was It Worth It?
For someone with more experience and better luck, this project could probably be completed in two months instead of eight. But looking back, I don’t regret the time or investment. What I received wasn’t just a website - it was a complete visual identity system that tells my story consistently across all platforms.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. The site is professional, clean, and well-structured. More importantly, it gives me complete control over how I present myself professionally. It’s become a foundation for building my brand in ways I hadn’t initially imagined.
For consultants considering a similar journey, my advice would be to think beyond just the website. Consider how a strong visual identity and clear messaging can enhance your entire professional presence. It might take longer and cost more than expected, but if done right, it’s an investment that keeps paying dividends. Well, I hope so at least :)
Special thanks to Diana Makulska, Emilka Bojańczyk, and Magdalena Dobruk from Podpunkt for the visual identity; Agnieszka Twardosz for the copywriting; and everyone who provided feedback and support throughout this journey.