WHAT I DO

The modern face of your business is your application or website, not a sales person.

What does your web presence looks like? How do your customers interact with it and, especially, how quickly can your customers find what they are looking for? Your answers can literally mean the difference between a full cart and an empty one, a one-off purchase and a returning customer.

• Custom site and app interface designs and logic.
• Browser and mobile responsiveness.
• Mobile speed and download optimisation.
• Security of data submissions and anti-hacking / phishing.
• Custom WordPress templates and template alterations.
• Questions or you just want to run it by me: UI/UX consulting.

Good database design is the cornerstone of application design. Build your database correctly, from the beginning, and the possibilities are endless.

The more data you can record, the more features you will be able to offer to your customers. The more of that data you can cross-correlate, the more you will be able to know exactly which parts of your app work, which don’t, and where your application needs to go next.

Getting it right requires logic, forethought, and yup, experience. What it doesn’t necessarily take is a lot of money.

• Application data requirements to database tables and permission sets.
• Data optimisation and expandability.
• Cross-table data correlation options.
• Indexing and search algorithms.
• Questions or you just want to run it by me: Database design consulting.

Server-side coding (the back-end,) is the logic that controls where and how your raw data is being stored, pulled, and manipulated. The more isolated your data pieces are from one another, the more secure your data is. The more modular your data pulls are, the easier it is to correlate information into the compelling and accurate content you want to deliver to your users.

This looks like a small section, but it’s the bulk of the development process for applications.

• MVC (Model-View-Controller) integrations and conversions.
• Logical functionality.
• Server and client isolation via AJAX.

Content may be The King but having the right CMS, properly integrated, is a ‘hunka-hunka burning’, uum, nevermind.

Creating, editing, or altering content is a creative process–even if the content is dry. The last thing that you need is to be fighting with the code while you try to deliver a Pulitzer of a call-to-action or product description.

Choosing the pre-built CMS that is right for you can be a task, but getting it to work in your pre-existing app or site is quite another. Building a custom CMS may be the answer, for now. But what if you want to completely change your layout down the road? Will a custom CMS allow you to expand without re-building from the ground up?

I’ve built them, i’ve worked with them, i’ve integrated them, i’ve tweaked them, and I think I can help.

• Existing CMS’ like WordPress, Expression Engine, etc.
• Custom CMS utilities like PERCH or completely custom, hand-coded CMS’.
• CMS instruction.
• Questions or you just want to run it by me: CMS consulting.

There are all kinds of people selling you SEO services.

Generally, they can’t even tell you exactly what SEO is and certainly don’t tell you what it is that they do to maximise it. Then there are the others who that explain SEO to you using magical tech jargon that, when looked at retrospectivly, says a whole lot of nothing.

There’s one thing in common to both sales pitches: you need SEO, you need them to do it, and you need it, NOW!

The real fact is that how you get onto the Google front-page is a company secret. Of course it is, the algorithms are kept confidential. If all search engines worked in the same way, there wouldn’t be competition in the market; it is the crux of why you use one search engine over another. The algorithms are also changing constantly to improve or remain competitive.

So, anyone saying that they know exactly how Google does it (other than a Google developer,) is bald-face lying.

So, what the H.E.double-toothpicks am I selling if it’s all a big secret? Google specs, common sense, guidelines, and industry standard practices, that’s what. Look: Google wants you to rank. If you have awesome content that matches what people are searching for, it’s in Google’s best interest to fork it over — on the first page. Because of this, Google (and the other search engines,) have released guidelines that your application or site should follow and adhere to.

• Topic relevancy, keyword mining, and niches.
• Page content optimisation and anti-duplication.
• Meta tag optimisation, titles, snippets, descriptions.
• Questions or you just want to run it by me: SEO consulting.

Back in the day I was in the music industry. I’ve recorded everything from the New York and Prague Philharmonics to Bruce Hornsby and The Corrs. I started cutting analogue tape with a razor blade and ended chopping tracks on digital. But after 80+ records, and some huge changes in the industry, it was time to move on.

But leaving the industry didn’t quell my love for recording, mixing, or producing — far from it.

If you’ve got audio, or, more importantly, if you don’t, I can help.

• Audio for video.
• Podcast audio, recording rigs, and set-ups.
• Engineering, mixing, and mastering.
• Questions or you just want to run it by me: yup, consulting.

I’ll be frank: This is not my strongest suit but I’ve done my share of editing.

But hardcore video production is generally not what people need. Most people already have footage and simply need some editing, tweaking, and rendering. Or, they have a completed video and need to convert and maximise it for web delivery.

THAT I can do with the best of them.

• Editing.
• Basic post-production.
• Codec Conversions and web-optimisations.