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We build service business websites for a living. Here's what the inside of a project actually looks like on day 1:
I don't open Figma. I don't look at templates. I don't pick fonts.
I sit down with a blank doc and write answers to 3 questions:
If this business could only say one sentence on their homepage, what should it be?
What's the one thing their best clients consistently praise in reviews?
What does their strongest competitor's site do that theirs doesn't?
Those 3 answers shape everything - the headline, the structure, the proof, the CTA. The design work comes after. This part takes 2-3 hours and determines whether the site converts or just looks good.
That's a nice format there
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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two years ago I was charging less than a grand for a website.
this week I crossed $960k on Contra.
same hands and same tools but the thing that really changed is I stopped charging for my time and started charging for what the work is worth to the company.
took me way too long to get this however when you bill hourly you're basically punishing yourself for getting good, you spend years getting faster and cleaner and the reward is you make less for the same result which makes no sense.
and half the time you're designing for a company that's about to raise millions, you're a big part of why they look fundable in the first place. charging that by the hour like it's a favor never sat right with me.
so at some point you just say the number, not a random one though.
sit down, figure out what each thing is actually worth to you, write it down, then say it out loud without doing the nervous little discount thing we all do.
the pricing was never the hard part but believing I was worth it was and I'm still working on that some days, however the number's finally catching up to the work.
anyway, road to a million, one project at a time. the count's live on my Contra profile if you want to watch it happen.
Amazing!
Why overcomplicating your layout kills readability.
Most content-heavy sites fail because they try to show everything at once. Sidebars, badges, related articles, and tiny fonts create cognitive overload. The user gets tired after two paragraphs and leaves.
Good design is about aggressive editing. You need to manage where the eye goes first.
In this layout, the hierarchy does all the work:
• A massive headline sets the mood and context instantly
• Generous white space prevents visual fatigue
• The clean grid ensures the reader actually focuses on the text
We don't need complex decorations to make a web page look expensive. We just need perfect typography and discipline.
Are you building a product or content platform that feels too cluttered? Drop a link below, and I’ll tell you where your users are getting stuck.
Love the color theme!
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