The Website Refresh That Got Out of Hand

Or: How I Meant to Update Some Copy and Built an Entire Content Studio Instead

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The Beginning: Just Clean Things Up

It started simple.

I opened the site on September 18th thinking I'd spend an afternoon cleaning up the navigation. The header was clunky. The layout needed consistency.

"Two hours max," I told myself.

Refactored the layout. Made it cleaner. Changed some wording that had been bugging me. Pushed it live.

66 files changed. 7,491 insertions.

Should've seen the warning signs.

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The Testimonials Trap

A few days later I thought: We should collect testimonials properly.

We had a contact form—why not a testimonial form? Easy.

Turns out: not hard, but not simple either.

Built the form. Then realized we needed:

• A database table
• An admin panel
• Email notifications
• Video uploads
• Spam prevention
• A public display page

That "simple form" became a full testimonial management system.

Here's the crazy part: building that entire system only took a few hours. Tools like Cursor and Claude made it effortless to think of something in the morning and have it working by lunch.

I pushed it live and thought, "That's it. Done."

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The Discovery Form

Around the same time, I thought our contact form was too basic. Name, email, project description… not enough to actually start a conversation.

So I built an AI-powered discovery form.

Instead of a static box, it interviews you. It asks follow-up questions like a good consultant would. By the time someone books a call, I already have the context I need.

The best part? It only took a few hours to create. This is the kind of feature that used to require weeks of planning and coding. Now it's available to anyone willing to try.

The only problem now? Getting more people to actually fill it out.

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The About Page Sidequest

Then someone asked: "Where's your about page?"

Fair point.

Wrote one in an hour. Added it to the nav. Done.

This one actually stayed small. Weird feeling.

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The AutomaticGPT Showcase

Next up, I wanted to feature AutomaticGPT. We'd built something cool—people should see it.

Planned to just add a small highlight on the homepage.

But then: "It needs a detail page." Then: "It should be a reusable template."

One section became:

• A detail page
• Template system
• Layout variations
• Call-to-action component

What would've taken weeks before, I built in just a few hours. The speed changes everything.

And it looked so good.

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The Email Notification Rabbit Hole

By September 28th, I realized we had multiple forms—discovery, testimonials, contact—and no way to know when submissions came in.

Option one: trigger an n8n webhook and send myself an email. Doable, but tedious.

Option two: use Resend.

So I connected Resend, told my Cursor agent to add notifications and build branded templates, and five minutes later everything was working perfectly.

Now:

• Each form sends instant notifications
• Clients get polished follow-ups
• Templates are reusable and consistent

This used to take days of wiring and testing. Instead, it was an afternoon project.

Lesson learned: sometimes the fastest way is also the best way.

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The Referral Tracking System

September 30th. This is when it really went off the rails.

I thought: "We should know where leads come from."

Add a URL param. Done. Right?

Nope.

Built a full referral tracking platform with:

• Hybrid tracking (URL + cookies + localStorage)
• Auto-generated referral codes
• Conversion tracking
• Analytics dashboard
• 30-day attribution

And again, it was up and running the same day. This would've been a project proposal on its own not long ago. Now it's just another feature.

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The Content Studio

October 1st.

I was writing posts to share all the new features and thought: "Why not automate this?"

So I built a content generator.

Day 1: Pulls GitHub activity → AI generates posts for Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, and blog. Day 2: AI refinement and version tracking. Day 3: AI-suggested scheduling. Day 4: Blog publishing integration. Day 5: I rebuilt the whole UI into a professional content studio with:

• Command palette (Cmd+K)
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Platform tabs
• Metadata panel
• Draft previews

What amazed me is that each of these steps only took a few focused hours. Instead of being a quarter-long project, it was done in a week.

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The Admin Portal

Somewhere in there, I rebuilt the admin portal.

What started as a few forms became a full CMS:

• Portfolio, blog, testimonials
• Leads and referrals
• Chatbot conversations
• Content Studio

Basically, I built myself a custom CRM in a couple of days. What used to be a six-figure project is now just another item on a weekend checklist.

The opportunity this represents for small businesses is massive. Custom tools aren't reserved for big companies anymore. They're available to everyone.

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The Documentation Spiral

October 1st, evening.

I realized if I got hit by a bus, nobody would know how any of this worked.

So I documented everything.

Created a /docs directory with feature guides, infrastructure docs, and PRDs.

Over 5,000 lines of documentation.

The docs had docs.

And it only took a night to set it up properly.

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The Stats

In 14 days:

• ~30,000 lines of code
• 200+ files changed
• 8 major features shipped
• 5 new tables
• 20+ endpoints
• 40+ components

Features:

1. Testimonials system
2. Discovery form
3. About page
4. AutomaticGPT showcase
5. Email notifications
6. Referral tracking
7. Content studio
8. Admin portal
9. Documentation system

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Lessons Learned

1. Scope creep is undefeated. "Fix the nav" → "Build a content empire."

5. AI makes this pace possible. What used to take months, now takes hours.

6. Good infrastructure compounds speed. Drizzle ORM, shadcn/ui, Next.js, and Vercel made it all effortless.

7. Features attract features. Each one makes the next more valuable.

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The Irony

I started by fixing the nav.

Ended with:

• AI-powered content studio
• Referral tracking
• Testimonials system
• Email infrastructure
• Admin CMS
• 5,000+ lines of documentation

The website isn't a marketing site anymore. It's a machine.

A self-aware one.

And the real story here isn't just that I overbuilt. It's how fast this is now possible. With tools like Cursor, Claude, and a solid modern stack, every idea feels within reach. Morning thought → evening feature.

This isn't just exciting for me—it's an incredible opportunity for every business. The barrier to building custom, AI-powered tools has never been lower.

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The Real Lesson

Sometimes the best way to improve your marketing site is to stop treating it like one.

Think of it as a platform. Build tools that make it better. Then document them.

Is it over-engineering? Sure. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Because the bigger lesson is this: AI has changed the speed of building forever. What used to take six months can now happen in a week. The same opportunity is sitting in front of every business right now.

And honestly—that's worth getting carried away about.

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The End (Generated by the content studio itself. The irony is strong.)