Yesterday Zeldman wrote, The first thing I got about the web was its ability to empower the maker. The year was 1995, and I was tinkering at my first website. The medium was raw and ugly, like a forceps baby; yet even in its blind, howling state, it made me a writer, a designer, and … On lucky breaks and saying yes
Something I have always loved about the web industry is the kindness and openness in the profession. We have all learned from each other, we all build on each other’s work. Throughout the history of this industry we’ve been creating things, sharing them and someone else has come along and built on the technique. Or … Be kind to one another
Earlier this week I was privileged to be invited to speak to a group of young people who are on a programme with The Prince’s Trust. I had been asked to do a short talk about my own experiences as a business owner – this being particularly relevant to them as I was helped to … Startups, lack of sleep, and finding better ways to do business
Today I was reading a couple of interesting articles on Sitepoint. More accurately I was trying to read a couple of interesting articles on Sitepoint but struggling due to the fact that banner ads on the top and to the right of the content area were constantly flashing and animating. Sitepoint of course aren’t alone … Include your advertising policy when considering website accessibility
Having set up my own business, edgeofmyseat.com, in 2001, in the wake of the dot com meltdown, I am feeling slightly unsettled at the current technology startup landscape. Not unsettled for my own company but for for those who are thinking about starting a business right now. They will be hearing the loud voices talking … Setting people up to fail – why I am afraid of the “bubble”
This is part two of a post about moving away from PayPal to your own merchant account and hosted payment page solution – read part one here. The advice below is for those who are using hosted payment pages on a compliant Payment Service Provider (PSP) and is based on my experiences, please always check … Complying with PCI DSS when using a hosted payment page
For one reason or another you might be thinking of moving away from PayPal to your own merchant account and payment gateway. We did just that for our CMS product, Perch. However the process of getting set up with such a system is often fairly opaque to a person who hasn’t dealt with it before … How to move your online sales away from PayPal
Recently I spoke at the Highland Fling Conference in Edinburgh and, as part of my presentation on Choosing the right Content Management System, I had a bit of a rant about the use of WYSIWYG editors in Content Management Systems. I think these things are responsible for not only a lot of badly formatted content, … Your WYSIWYG Editor sucks
Today I spoke at the Highland Fling Conference, on the subject of Choosing the Right Content Management System (slides are here on Slideshare). I was really thrilled to be asked to speak on this subject as essentially developing and deploying content managed websites is what I’ve been doing for the last 10 years at edgeofmyseat.com. … Your CMS as curator of your design and content
I keep answering questions on Forrst from people who are taking on some freelance work for the first time, or starting a business, so rather than keep writing the same responses there I thought I’d write up my suggestions here. This is obviously UK specific advice and I am not an accountant, I’m just someone … Financial things to know when starting a business or taking on your first freelance job in the UK