Randomly selected client quote
I think what you have said so far has been absolutely spot on! So I'm more than happy just to let you get on with things.
, StreetWiseSales.co.uk, 26 Aug 2006
I'm a freelance web developer creating websites that work. Most of my clients are businesses who find they can grow using the techniques and capabilities I provide.
My websites are findable, usable, functional, persuasive and secure, and they contribute positively to you achieving your goals.
I'm much more than 'just' a web developer. I have a background in marketing (I started in PR, so I can write great copy), a first class degree in Internet computing*, and I'm a member of one of the most exciting Internet marketing mentoring schemes on the planet.
If you want more success online I'm a useful chap to have around, whether you're a Scarborough B&B or a multinational corporation.
Use me to:
I've distilled my years of experience and knowledge into 10 principles of web success, and I'm giving that report away free, right now. And guess what. I bet what you think is key isn't even in my top ten (maybe it gets into half of a principle). Go here to find out more.
On the web you compete in a world market. When potential customers type search queries into a search engine, they need to find you. When they reach your website, what they see should make clear you have what they want. Your website must be usable and attractive, persuasive and trustworthy, and when they enquire or purchase, your real-world response to your customer's purchase or request must be exemplary.
I have a rare mixture of skills that you'll find invaluable. I was a marketing consultant for fifteen years, then I got a first class degree in Internet Computing. So I can imagine what your clients want, then I can build it, no matter how complex. I'm your perfect partner to make a world-beating website. Contact me, tell me about your plans.
Some examples: The Tin Shop, myKitchen.uk.com.
I offer three big answers to the question "how do I get more website traffic"?
Don't forget your hits to sales ratios: what happens when someone arrives at your site? How many visitors turn to profitable sales? Are there paths of persuasion on your site? I can track and manage that and improve it and improve it and improve it. Let's turn your website into a selling machine, then turn it up to full power .. right now.
Try searching for oxo tins. Chances are, Tin Shop will be near the top of the results.
So many websites do so many things wrong it's amazing the web works at all. Most of the time it's as if the shop doors don't open, you can't find what you want, and there's a ten foot hole in front of the checkout. Usability is the key.
I've built a network of usability testers who will give you an independent view of your site, and every time I use them I'm blown away by their insight. You're too close to your website, and so am I, to see the obvious: simple, straightforward things you can do to improve your site. They see everything and they tell it straight.
Does this sound expensive? It's really not. Get a usability report on your website, get a prioritised plan for improvement. Find out about usability testing your website now.
I think functionality is the key. All of the big online successes are about what the site does, not how it looks. Sure, looks are important. But given the choice between a site that looks good and doesn't work, and one that works but is just text, the one that works is the only choice.
I've been a programmer since 1980. I've developed artificial intelligence to predict share prices. Imagine what your site could do if you used a good developer.
Functionality can give you a huge competitive advantage. Imagine being able to choose art to match the colour scheme of your walls, or find a way to simplify (personalise) sales in a complex world (eg. mobile phones), or create a way for musicians to collaborate. It's all yours if you contact me.
Examples could be a web cam, a way for artists to work together, or just a slideshow of rings and jewellery.
Linux is a free alternative operating system (ie. an alternative to Microsoft Windows). Open source software is usually free as in beer, and always free as in freedom.
The Internet is built on open source software. Every email you send is transported by it, by far the majority of the websites you visit use an open source server, open source language, and open source database. Many are based on open source applications such as osCommerce (an open source e-commerce package). Open source grew when the Internet enabled the co-operation of programmers across the world. So it makes sense that I'm an open source advocate and I use Linux on my main machine.
Open source is the soul of the Internet, and it's coming. Open source software is becoming best of breed. The Americans are 'getting' it, and soon enough, we will too. Do it now, and build your competitive advantage.
I get calls all the time from people whose Windows machine has become unusable through virus infection or other malware. That doesn't happen with Linux.
You may be able to save money in your business by using open source alternatives to commercial software. I can help you find and evaluate software, install it, and support you or your people in its use. If you'd like to know more, get in touch.
Everyone has to start somewhere (Branson, Roddick, Rowling) and some businesses are just small and intend to stay that way (a b&B for instance). The web can be a very affordable way of publicising yourself and I do try to do everything I can to meet my client's needs. If you really want to drive the cost down, if you keep yourself to a single page and you provide the text and photographs or illustrations, a colour scheme, even a simple layout, I can put together your website for a very small fee, and if you happen to find me not under a big deadline, in a matter of hours. If you can stretch to using my text and photography, though, it usually improves things no end.
I've developed innumerable small business and charity websites, so get in touch and let me know what you'd like.
I'm easy to work with, whether you want me as part of a project team or you just want to leave me to my own devices. If you want detail: here's my Belbin's team role scores, and my personality test results.
I'm an approved supplier of the local Business Link. They assessed my knowledge, my business processes, my customer care, and took up six references.
I'm a member of the British Computer Society because I like being bound by their code of professional conduct and ethics which, among other things, require that I make it clear if I lack any skills or experience required to complete a task (so if I say nothing along those lines, you can be assured I'm fully qualified and experienced to complete your project), and a wonderful rule that says I should not take advantage of the ignorance of my clients. Shocking, I know, but apparently bosses of IT companies are the second most likely to go to prison for fraud. I'm also a member of the Professional Contractors Group. Whatever your level of knowledge or experience, I can deliver.
Within a short time people generally feel they trust my judgment and are happy to leave their project more or less to me. I do everything possible to deliver what people want on time, in budget, and I'm always contactable.
If you've read this far and not made contact, I must have said something you like. It's time to get in touch and see what we can do for one another.
In the first paragraph I said I create the technical back-end that makes it all work. I know many of my clients struggle even with using a browser, so I didn't want to bamboozle them with detail. But for you (the person who clicked the asterisk): I most often write in the PHP programming language (with mySQL as the database) and create three-tier, object oriented code that saves on lifetime maintenance costs. There's JavaScript too, of course. I'm getting very familiar, too, with adapting open source projects such as osCommerce (which is also written using PHP/mySQL).
Three tier development means the software is divided into layers. There's the front end that talks to the user (it generates the pages you see), the middle layer which houses all your business logic (eg. is the user logged-in? Do they have credit? If they've bought the last in stock, order some more), and the back-end which handles the interface to the database, files, and so on. This makes the software easier to maintain, and that's important because software costs much more to maintain over its lifetime than it does to build. The trick to understanding that is to accept how long software lives for. Remember the millennium bug panic? That was because we were still using software written in the sixties.
Object oriented programming tries to save on maintenance tasks too. The idea is that you build software models of real-life objects and then query them. For instance: here's a ship modelled in software, so now we can query where it is, what speed it's going, and what it's carrying. That, again, makes software easier to understand and to maintain.