Don Loper » Web Development

Help Us Test California Drug Rehab Clinic Website, Win an iPod Shuffle

Joshua Steimle — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:12:26 +0000

We’re launching a network of directory websites targeting niche industries. The first is going to be one for drug rehab clinics in California. But when you spend a lot of time working on a website, you tend to lose an accurate picture of what the website looks like and how it works for a normal person who is seeing…

Niche Directories – My Four Hour Work Week Business

Joshua Steimle — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:37:20 +0000

I’ve been working on niche directories since 1999. Geez, you’d think I’d have more to show for it after almost 10 years, but I’m a bit slow. I guess if I were a politician or corrupt CEO of an ailing public company asking for bailout dollars I’d tell you that “I’ve been refining my business model for optimum success.” But…

What Are You Looking For?

Joshua Steimle — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:39:49 +0000

One of my new side businesses is creating niche directories. It’s a simple business model with ever-expanding opportunities for revenue growth. But I’ll get into that in another post. The thing is that I’ve got a few hundred domains, but I’m looking for more. I’ve got plenty of ideas, but I figured perhaps you could help me find even more.…

“You may think of it we can do it!” or The Problem With Overseas Outsourcing

Joshua Steimle — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:14:36 +0000

A few years ago a my father told me that he had been asked by an businessman friend of his how I was keep my business going in light of the competition from India that was going to be able to provide web development services for 1/20 the cost I was charging. That was several years ago and I wasn’t…

Help Me Test a Website, Win $200

Joshua Steimle — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:12:43 +0000

Alright folks, laundromatic.com is just about ready to launch. It just needs a little testing by some people who haven’t been looking at it for several hours each week, which means I’m disqualified. As an incentive, I’ll award two prizes:

1. Best list of bugs – Whoever finds the most bugs in the system (either parts of the system…

Web Development vs. SEO As Business Models

Joshua Steimle — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:44:19 +0000

As MWI does more and more search engine optimization work I’m starting to see distinct advantages to SEO over web dev.

1. Recurring revenue. With web development I work on projects. When the project is done, I need to find another project to maintain cash flow. With SEO it’s an ongoing service so I don’t have to…

MovableType vs WordPress

Joshua Steimle — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:44:12 +0000

I started my first blog, this one, with MovableType. To be honest it was kind of a pain to learn all the ins and outs of how to customize MT and get it to work the way I wanted, but once I learned, it was easy to set up other blogs on the same platform. Although techie people, as I…

Partnership vs. Pay

Joshua Steimle — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 04:15:27 +0000

My firm has been propositioned more times than I can count to “partner” with a client. That is, share in the risk, and share in the reward. At first, I was more than happy to engage in these partnerships, but over time I have become less and less enthusiastic and more and more selective. Why? Because out of the 10…

I want a million dollar website. I have $1,500.

Joshua Steimle — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 23:08:27 +0000

I began working in this industry at the end of 1999, and this is one of the slightly more interesting requests for proposal I have received during the past seven years. I don’t mean to post this to make fun of the guy, who I believe is serious (although I’m not 100% sure), but I hope it serves as a…

Linux vs Windows and Virtual Hosting

Joshua Steimle — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:03:57 +0000

This is not a post about how Linux is better than Windows for developing websites or vice versa. It is a post about how one of the most commonly used arguments against developing on a Windows based web server with IIS and a language like ASP or .NET is no longer valid. That is, that it’s too expensive because of…