Over and over again I hear people say, "Oh, you can just outsource that." They make it sound easy, like all you have to do is search Google for outsourced development, click on a button or two, and all your problems are solved. I'm here to tell you that it's not that easy, and in some cases, not even appropriate to outsource. I am going to talk about when it's a good idea to outsource something, and things to watch out for if you decide to go the ...continue

I probably don’t need to tell you how important it can be to have a successful product launch. The launch of a new product can set the tone for how that product will be received down the road. It is important to hit the ground running on product launch day so that you can capitalize on that momentum and keep it going. In this article, I will be looking at a product launch from a technical perspective. Server crashes, payment processing snafus, ...continue

I have been doing contract development since 2003, and I have learned a lot of lessons in that time. Some lessons are from success stories, and some are from disasters. By putting them all together I hope to give you some insight on hiring a developer and ultimately becoming successful on the Internet. 1. Develop (no pun intended) a good relationship. This is absolutely critical. If you don’t have a good relationship with your developer, ...continue

A well-planned project is the essence of efficiency and cost effectiveness. I am assuming with this article that you have already done the first phase of planning a project, which is a laundry list of things that you want your project to contain. I will be using the example of setting up a personal website. In phase one, I determined that I wanted a blog, a photo gallery, and a contact form. Phase two is about researching all available solutions ...continue

In my years as a web developer, I have had the chance to build many websites and interact with countless websites built by others. I have witnessed very successful websites, and I have witnessed catastrophic failures. I wish to share with you some simple guidelines to follow when building a website. If followed properly, they will help your website be successful for years to come. Have a Clear Objective It’s no secret that the most success ...continue

Every single day more and more people are using cell phones, PDAs, and a variety of handheld devices to surf the Web. In fact, MMetrics.com recently reported that 85% of iPhone users accessed news and information on the Web in the month of January 2009. Of course, the iPhone makes it easy to do so, and that's why their competitors are scrambling to make their devices more email and web-friendly. By the way, if you're considering getting an iP ...continue

In the age of broadband Internet speeds, it is often easy to let optimization get shoved to the back burner. But the fact is that a large portion of people surfing the Internet are still using dial-up. More and more people are also browsing the Web on mobile networks, which should be taken into account. If you can speed up the load times of your website, you’ll have much happier guests, and they will be much more likely to stay on your site an ...continue

iPhone apps are all the rage right now, but having a great idea and developing a successful iPhone application are completely different things altogether. The mobile application development process is quite a bit different from a normal software development process and many of these differing factors must be considered as early as the conceptual phases of development. The objective of this article is to provide the reader a process for taking an ...continue

This article is for three primary audiences. It’s for the business owner who does his own programming and development. It’s for the business owner who has hired or contracted a developer to work for him. It’s for the developer doing the work. I will be discussing the single piece of software that can increase your efficiency more than any other investment. Yes, it is an investment in your business, and it will increase your revenue. I†...continue