I've been wanting to make a case study of this website for a while now.

It's, I believe, a good piece of proof that I can handle decently large production projects.

And when I say large I mean high six figures in revenue and about 1,400 people actively using the membership side of the website.

Short Recap of the project

Generally, I believe my client's words are worth more than mine regarding our work together, so here's a link to Stirling's video testimonial + my recap of the project.

That said, if you prefer reading, here's the cliffnotes:

• We started working in December 2020, launched the brochure + membership site successfuly in January 2021
• I was a bit under time pressure since Stirling pre-sold his course that needed the website's membership area to be delivered to users
• We kept on building on the website throughout the year (admin dashboard which allowed Stirling to add/remove users, functionality to host more than 1 course)
• I've built this with PHP on a Linode VPS, altough now I've transitioned to Typescript and Next.js as my favorite stack
• I was supposed to build Stirling's new site, but I quit freelancing since I'm transitioning to a new field

Why did I quit freelancing? Read here.

What have I learned from this website?

Over the 1 year I've worked on this website, I have learnt 2 major things.

1. Stick to a framework (welcome Next.js 🥰)
2. Whenever time allows, implement testing

It's unfortunate that we've had a few situations where I've deployed with bugs solely because I was inexperienced and didn't know anything about TDD.

Stirling was super understanding and I evidently worked overtime to fix it all.

I remember at one point, when we were adding functionality to host more than 1 course, I went to sleep only to wake up at midnight to a bug report and fix it, half asleep, in 1 hour 🤯😂.

Needless to say, that was very stressful for me.

That's why now, especially since I'm making the transition to the crypto world where bugs can result in BIG money losses, I want to focus more on testing.

About Stirling

He doesn't know I'm writing this & I'm not sure if he will ever read this, but I wanted to dedicate a section to him.

He is an amazing client. Super easy to work with, always has his copy & assets ready before I even need them, pays on time, knows what he wants and listens to expert advice.

I'll be honest, he's my best client yet. If I had 5 guys like him, I might not be quitting freelancing 😂.

To whomever works with him, if you do a good job and are serious about your work, I'm sure you'll find yourself very happy to have him as a client.

P.S.: He already has a new web developer so don't try that angle 😂

P.P.S.: While you're here, check out some of my other articles or, even, check out my YouTube channel.