When Rewriting Your Website Turns Into Rethinking Your Whole Business

At some point in your business, you hit a moment where the project you thought you were doing turns out to be something much, much bigger. For me, that moment happened this year. I committed to doing a website rewrite after not touching my own website for years. What it actually turned into was  analyzing and tearing apart almost 10 years of offers, sitting with some pretty vulnerable business questions, and figuring out what I actually want the next chapter of my business to look like.

Today I'm sharing all of it on Talk Copy to Me: Why the podcast went quiet for a bit, what an offer audit really looks like when you're doing it for yourself, and two new ways to work with me this summer if your website is the project you've been putting off.

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EPISODE 189.
Read the show notes and view the full transcript here: Coming soon!

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Here's the info on your host, Erin Ollila
Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform – and even transform – its intended audience. She graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and went on to co-found Spry, an award-winning online literary journal.

When Erin’s not helping her clients understand their website data or improve their website copy, you can catch her hosting the Talk Copy to Me podcast and guesting on shows such as Profit is a Choice, Mindful Marketing, The Power in Purpose, and Business-First Creatives.

Stay in touch with Erin Ollila, SEO website copywriter:
• Learn more about my intensive options or just book a strategy session to get started right away
• Visit my website to learn more about my business, services, and products

Transcript

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So I sat down to rewrite my website and ended up rewriting my entire business instead. Yes, I know how that sounds, but stick with me for a second, because if you have ever started what felt like a straightforward project and then watched it turn into something you weren't quite prepared for, you will recognize exactly what I'm about to describe. Or if you've ever worked with someone who's doing your website design or copy, you'll also understand how things can spiral sometimes, where you have to really reevaluate your offers, your brand messaging, and how you want to stand out and appear in your business. My website is not quite done yet, but I think I finally understand why that is, and that's what I wanna talk about today here on the podcast Okay, so today is June 30th, the last day of quarter two, which means that we are exactly halfway through 2026. Can someone please explain to me how that happened? I cannot really account for where the time has gone this year, but I thought it would be really great to jump back in from the podcast hiatus and use this time marker, the really weird blink-and-you-missed-it midpoint of the year, to do something that I don't do often, and which that is really honestly just to talk to you about my business and the future of my business. Because I think that if you have worked with me in the past, are thinking of working with me in the future, or, you know, just have the idea of a website rebrand or a business rebrand on your mind, you know there's a lot to figure out, and that feels overwhelming. So why not just use the perspective that I think I've gained over the past couple of months and reflect that back out to you? Because I know my clients feel the way that I've been feeling when we work together. And that's why I think it's really important to be honest with you about how I've been feeling and the changes I'm making and just, I don't know, what's inspiring these things. I will say, 'cause I've actually been asked this by a couple of different people, this episode is going to kick off the regular weekly schedule of Talk Copy to Me. The hiatus is completely over, and yes, I know it's summer, but you will still get brand-new content from me every week moving forward. So let's start by talking about how the year has been so far., If I had to choose just three things to describe 2026, for my business, it would be Rewrite Your Site, done-for-you client work, and then redoing my own website. That is h- like, all of where my focus has been. And I think that Rewrite Your Site might have taken up the most brain space, but in a good way., The program, the students, the original, teaching and trainings, as well as updated teaching and trainings. I have loved going deep with my students on their copy, their messaging, the choices that they have to make in how they position themself within their industry or compared to their competitors. And the students that I have worked with this year have given me so much to think about in terms of how I want the program to evolve. The done-for-you work that I've done with clients has been a steady presence too, which has been great, especially when it's filling particular time gaps for me. Between the Rewrite Your Site launch or before I started my own website rewrite, so it has been really nice to have some projects baked in where I'm doing the actual writing for clients. But even that, I have been sitting with a lot of questions about done-for-you work and what role that will play in my business going forward. I am gonna make myself pause here because I am actually gonna have a whole conversation next week, or I guess it's not a conversation, a monologue for you next week, about the role of done-for-you services in my business and what I'm seeing in the marketing industry in general. But I'm gonna save that next week, okay? So zip it, Erin. Back to done-for-you stuff, um, next week. But the third thing I mentioned was my own website work, and it's not done. I had zero plans to be in the month of June talking about my website not being done. In fact, I really thought it would be complete before the spring even got here. The reason that didn't happen is because I was so focused on, um, fostering a sense of community and really doing as good of a job that I could for my original round of Rewrite Your Site students in the, you know, winter or, or… Yes, the early winter of 2026, um, even the early spring, and I-- so I'm okay with that. Once March came around and I was still s- you know, so focused on my student work, I pushed back the deadline knowing that I would work on it and give it the space that it needed in quarter two. But quarter two definitely shook things up for me, and that's why the site's not done, and that's really a lot of what I wanna talk about today So here's what happened. When you sit down to write your own website copy, and I mean really write it, not just, reshuffle sections or choose a few different phrases, right? You cannot afford to fake your way through strategy. I have said this over and over again on the podcast. You need to be 100% clear on what you're offering, who it's for, and why it matters. You have to know these things before the words will cooperate with you. And as a done-for-you writer as well, I often find the only potential red flags that I see in clients is that unsurety. Like, they don't know what th- what they're heading toward. They know that they're moving in a certain direction, but they might not be able to vocalize exactly what the offers will be on their website. So often, I will encourage them to do a specific amount of work if I think that they have a lot of figuring out to do before we work together. And if I don't think that they have a lot of figuring out to do, it's more just maybe, like, molding some of the current projects to better fit their needs or their clients' needs, I will definitely onboard them and work with them on that. Um, but doing it for yourself brings that up, like, tenfold, right? When I sat down to do it for myself, I knew that there were some pretty strong things that I had to figure out first, mostly because I had been in business for 10 years. So last October was 10 years since I officially opened my doors for business from a part-time perspective as a freelance writer while also working as a managing editor at a marketing agency that focused on blog content, case studies, emails, things like that. but this summer will actually be 10 years that I started full-time, and I left my agency to completely work for myself. So in those 10 years, obviously, I think we can all acknowledge that a lot of things have changed. Interestingly enough, my services have not changed that much. I did start creating content only, meaning no copy. Most of the people that hired me were really big brands, enterprises, or larger companies that were looking to onboard me for my SEO content writing skills, or content strategy. Over the past 10 years of being the person who does this all on my own, I also began to make a lot more friends in the same space that I was, which was solopreneurs, service providers, and they did not have the same budget that these large brands had. But they also needed the help.? And because of that, that's really where the website words started coming into play, and I started to offer website copywriting for smaller businesses because that was the best way that I could give the most impact to that type of audience. So for almost 10 years, I did those two things, copy and content, all from the realm of searchability, basically, like how do we optimize things so that way we can get people to see them, and conversions. Because SEO does not matter if you are not actually converting people to do what it is that you want once they get there., So I haven't drastically changed anything in the past 10 years, which is interesting 'cause I've seen so many of those people that are also, maybe service providers or solopreneurs that have joined me on this journey that have changed their business many times and in some pretty drastic ways where they don't offer things that they once did. So it's been nice to be consistent But in 10 years, and especially with the inception of AI, which I should probably mention here, though I might talk about it a little bit more next week., With AI, it has changed so much about how I can run my business or who is hiring me, , why they're hiring me, and what I think the best, way people can work with me in the future. And that all came together in this culmination of now I have to figure out what the next 10 years of this business looks like moving forward. So in quarter two, as I committed to working on my website, with the hopes of getting it launched before I had my 10-year anniversary, I did something that I probably should have done a long time ago, and that is truly and deeply analyzing all of it. Every offer that was on my site, every direction that I had considered but maybe not leaped into or, , offered publicly but only did for some clients behind the scenes, everything I'd been curious about, what brought in the most clients, what earned me the most money, what I enjoyed the most, where I thought I got my clients the biggest impact, and I sat with the question of what I want my next phase of business to look like Friends, that is not a fast process. At least it wasn't for me, and I also know it's not for my clients because this is something that we'll circle around so many times before we make a firm commitment and get started with the writing. I personally needed to think, let some things go, and let other things develop, and I needed to stop trying to write while I was doing that. I needed to make those decisions, even if it meant just ruminating and not doing anything, which felt very frustrating, but even if it meant doing that before doing the writing,'cause the decisions needed to be made. And I think that's why, as you'll notice, the podcast went quiet over the past two months. It's not that I wasn't into the podcast. It was just that I was so distracted by doing the thinking, working through the questions, , being a service provider for my done-for-you clients or a mentor copy coach for my students in my program, and I didn't know what else to share while doing that real work. I was going to originally say I wasn't ready to talk about it until I had something real to say, and I guess that's true now that I'm on the other side. I think it's more while I was going through it in the past two months of not regularly scheduling episodes. I think it was just I didn't know what to say, right? I had so much to say, but I hadn't made those decisions. I was just in the thinking phase, and I think I'm past that now. The decisions have been made, and I'm in the moving forward stage. So if you all want to clap for me at this moment of time, which I will just like insert some like hand clapping for myself, I am actually in the writing stage, which is thrilling, and it's actually so much easier because the decisions have been made. So It-- let's circle back to , what this episode's about, 'cause I could ramble for days, but you don't have days to listen to me., Because I've been thinking a lot about how I work with clients, specifically the difference between done-for-you work, where I am the one doing all of the strategy, all of the writing, and all of the editing, as compared to done-with-you work, where most often I am guiding someone through doing it themself or, depending on the type of work, partnering with them, where we're pretty much , equally doing some of that, like work and implementing., I've had to figure out what exists, what stays, what goes, and all of that. Now, Rewrite Your Site lives in the second category, the done-with-you work, and I have… Just to use that as an example because, again, there has a been a lot of figuring out, and I don't think it all needs to be addressed here. But I think Rewrite Your Site is something that I have used the podcast to talk about. People have found out about the program because they have been podcast listeners and then decided to join. So I think it's a great example of how to talk about, like a done-with-you, , project and what that looks like for me in the future. What I've noticed after running Rewrite Your Site as a group program is that the people that find their way to the program are often coming with pretty significant overhauls in mind. I love full site rebuilds. I love the depth of the work. I love how someone can really, truly learn their own brand voice and how to write with it in the program. But it also has truly been making me wonder about the business owner who doesn't need the whole shebang., The one whose site's mostly there, but the copy isn't quite landing., Where does he go? Where does she go? How can I serve them? And from a completely different perspective, if for those clients that Rewrite Your Site would be a good fit for, I'm still really struggling with whether it should be cohort-based or a one-on-one done with you experience. That is what made me hold off of launching Rewrite Your Site to get started in early 2025, and instead, , I launched it for sale at the end of 2025. Because I think while I love cohort-based and I love teaching to a group, I don't think that there's a, a, a program necessity to have to be in a group. I think that there are a lot of people that also really love some done with you help that don't want to do it, from a group perspective. They don't want to show, their work in progress to a group. And the most importantly is their timeline doesn't necessarily match my launch timeline, which I think is important,'cause I'm just choosing launches of when they're convenient for me. I could advise at any point in the year. So those are two very separate programs. It's really a question of whether I need to serve someone who needs a significant overhaul or if there is any capacity in my business to help people that need maybe smaller, effort in their website in order to improve on conversions. And then the big question of, , whether the program itself should be one-on-one or cohort. And I decided that I think that I know how to figure out, like, what the answer is to that. I'm gonna stop wondering and start by working with clients in those ways that I'm imagining. So I have two new potentially limited offers that I shared with my audience. Last week, I sent an email to my newsletter subscribers that shared two new ways that they can work with me this summer. Now, I'm gonna be honest, I have recorded this at the same time that I am sending that email, so I don't know if anyone has bought and I am already at capacity., They did get first dibs, but that's 'cause I like to do that. I like to have the people who, who are in my community get the chance to buy first. But you are here now. So there's a chance that they have not been spoken for yet, and I want to offer them to you as well. The first is a one-on-one version of Rewrite Your Site. So it's the same framework. You will access the same trainings, you will get the same resources, and then we'll do the work of brand messaging, strategy, uh, story mining, writing all of your website pages, editing them all, and developing a strategic launch plan. But instead of being in a group and having, a predetermined timeframe for you, it will be just the two of us. You will work at your own pace, which is very likely going to be the same timeline, , an eight-week approach like we do in Rewrite Your Site, but it will be at your own pace. And I say that specifically because I think there are some people that could work through this a lot quicker than eight weeks, and I am also open to extending it slightly because I know for some individuals, they have a lot more time in the summer to do their own business work, and for some individuals, the summer is very busy with maybe, you know, children at home or client projects, that they just need a little bit more space to complete things. So you'll work at your own pace, and you will get direct feedback from me woven throughout. Now, if you've been interested in Rewrite Your Site but wanted something more personal,, or didn't want that group element, the investment is the same, $2,500 like the group program and with a payment plan so you don't have to pay that all at once. I do wanna state something clearly. If this works the way that I expect it to work with someone this summer, this one-on-one element, there is a very good chance that I am going to move away from the group model completely And only offer Rewrite Your Site as a one-on-one done with you, , experience. And if I do that, I will probably raise the price higher moving forward since it is much more direct access with me. But for now, we're keeping the price the same. You're getting everything that you'd get in Rewrite Your Site, and you're getting one-on-one time with me. But let's move on to my second question, this audience question about who I can help with my copy mentoring and my years of website and marketing strategy. And I've decided to test out an offer that I'm calling the site edit. This is for the business owner that does not need an entire full website rewrite, but the one who knows their site could be working harder, it just isn't converting as well as they'd like, or speaking in the right brand voice or tone that they're hoping for. It's not for someone who wants to blow it all up and start over again. They just want sharper copy, and they'd rather have a professional handle the writing while they just stay close enough to make sure that it actually sounds like them. In site edit, we will start with a strategy session together and determine exactly what needs to get fixed, on what pages, in what priority order, , and then after our call, I will be the one who goes in and edits and rewrites what's already there. When I'm done with this block of time of rewriting, we'll then join together again on a call where we'll review and finalize everything. So that means on the final call, we're like co-writing partners. We'll talk about phrases that still need a little adjustments. We'll talk about, whether we need to move things around, add things in, and we'll, finalize everything together on that call. So I'd like to test this at one or two different projects. I'm gonna set a cheaper introductory price here, of $1,250, but after this, I will be raising the price. I'm not sure exactly what that will be. I'm assuming it'll be about 1,800 here, just knowing the amount of editing time and time on calls that I'll be spending. But for this summer, I'm gonna open up two of these slots, for 1,250 and then one spot of the one-on-one rewrite your site for the standard 2,500. So I'm excited to do this, and I would personally love it if I could just block my calendar off for the summer and focus all of my attention on these two to three projects. And you can stop just having that, like, nagging sense of guilt or shame that when someone tags you on social media and says,"Oh, so-and-so does," let's say, "graphic design," or, "So-and-so is an accountant," you don't feel utterly embarrassed to share your website with them. I'm so tired of that for my clients., If I could change anything, honestly, it would just be not hearing that from people. I just think if you run a, a great business and you have clients that love working with you, you deserve a website that shows how well-liked you are, and y- you deserve one that clearly articulates your offers, who your audience is, who you like to work with, so that way you can be booked ahead. And I don't think there's any reason why you can't have that. It's more just committing to getting it done, especially if you have, a veteran marketer, copywriter in your pocket getting you to that finish line. So- If you're interested in either of those two offers, all you need to do is email me. I would do it as soon as possible. To get started, ask me any questions that you might have because I want the two or three people that I work with on this summer feeling very confident that they've made the right decision. And I think, like I said, it's gonna be so helpful for me to know, how much priority that this done-with-you offer or offers that I have gets on my new website. You know, I mentioned that my 10-year anniversary of full-time business ownership is coming up, and I, I think that's just the perfect time for that reset. You know, new clarity l- leads to a new site, and that's just a brand-new chapter. So over the next few weeks here on the podcast, I will keep talking about some of my decision making, behind, what's happening in the future of my business. Today, I focused mainly on the done with you element of working with clients, just because I've already talked to my email list again about how I would like to work with them or you this summer. Um, but I… That's not it. Done with you is not the only way I work with clients. So I will be back next week to talk about my thinking on done for you work. And not just for my business, because I think where I settled or where I struggled even the most with done for you services as a marketer and copywriter was how much offerings have changed, not due to my own making, but due to how individuals and businesses use AI to create copy for themself. Those outside circumstances is really what has changed my offers. The world itself has changed how copywriters do business. So als- again, I'm trying so hard not to talk about it now. I will save that for next week. But besides that, I honestly know, , or at least I don't think I'm the only one who's ever , found themself in a season where a project that they thought would be one thing turned out into something much bigger. And I know from my own clients that a simple website copy project is never a simple website copy project. It's always a real analyzation of what's worked, what hasn't, and what the future is. So I hope you join me again next week again to, to learn more about the done for you services element of business. And I… If you're interested in any of those done with you offers, I would love to hear from you. But for now, even if you're not, thank you so much for being here with me. If you have stuck around during this quiet stretch, just know that I appreciate it more than you know. If you're new and you stumbled here accidentally, welcome. This show is usually a bit more structured than this, and it covers all of the marketing decisions that small business owners need to think about, specifically around copy, content, SEO, which is just,- audience traction and conversion. I will see you next week, where we'll keep talking copy