PHP & MySQL Website Programmer

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. Lately my most common jobs have mainly been creating custom CMS's (content management systems) for websites to allow the client the ability to manage their website from a secure location.

I have also been programming custom websites from scratch lately.

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. If you are interested in website work, I would love to talk to you! If possible, please have the following questions answered so that we can get down to details.

- Do you currently have a website, if so what is the URL?
- If you do not have a website yet, will you be needing website hosting and a domain name?
- What work do you need? A new website, updates, new features, troubleshooting, script install, etc
- Do you have a set timeframe for completion?
- What is your budget?

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. There are many ways to help improve your listings in search engines, such as Google. There are whitehat methods, and blackhat methods. Whitehat methods are "clean" or "legal" ways to get links and traffic to your site. Blackhat methods can be considered "dirty" and frowned upon. Sites using blackhat methods may also be removed or banned from search engines because of their methods.

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. Have a good idea of what it is you are wanting to have done with your website. If you need a new site, consider what type of site is it, what you want to accomplish, what pages you want, etc.

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. My attention to details, my communication, my understanding of what my clients want, and making everything as easy as possible for my clients to be able to use and manage their sites.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. I love being able to see visitors from all over the world using something that I created from scratch.

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. Most customers ask about price. I charge $25 an hour, or project based depending on the size of the project.

Q. Do you have a favorite story from your work?

A. Not really my work, but I do love getting feedback from people who use, and love the websites I make. One example is helpmemarch.org a personal site I run helping members of the Drum and Bugle Corps activity to raise donations for their summer tour fees.

Q. What do you wish customers knew about you or your profession?

A. Developing websites can be easy, and it can be hard. Everything takes time though, and to be done right, takes even longer. With programming and hosting, you really do get what you pay for.

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. I began working with websites in 1995 while in high school with a friend of mine and we would compete to see who could make the best sites. The internet and coding was very different back then! While I was in the US Navy, I began to program more and started to teach myself PHP. After getting out of the Navy I spent 2 months on "vacation" just enjoying being "free". During that time I mainly spent my time working on my website or doing websites for other friends. When it was time to look for a job, I thought.. why not do this for a living? So I did.

Q. Tell us about a recent job you did that you are particularly proud of.

A. I am extremely proud of my personal project www.helpmemarch.org it is a website that helps members of the Drum and Bugle Corps activity to help raise donations to pay for their fees. The site was beta launched October 2010, and in the first 6 months helped raise over $6,500 for it's members.

Q. Do you do any sort of continuing education to stay up on the latest developments in your field?

A. Every serious web developer needs to always stay up to date with the latest technologies available in order to stay competitive with the growing trends and services available. The internet is growing very fast and if you do not keep up with current trends, you will be stuck making very old and outdated websites.

Q. What are the latest developments in your field? Are there any exciting things coming in the next few years or decade that will change your line of business?

A. I think the number of people who are developing now will continue to grow and will make the field even more competitive. The technologies available are growing at a rapid pace as well, some of the newer things to look to include HTML 5, CSS3, and the newer versions of PHP and browsers.

Q. Describe your most recent project, what it involved, how much it cost, and how long it took.

A. My latest project (ask me for the site url) has taken roughly 4 months to complete, but this particular site has had several set backs so it is taking about twice as long to complete. I charged $3000 for the site.

This project is actually one of the more impressive projects I have done programming wise. Some of the features are as follows:
- completely database driven
- ability to run an unlimited number of websites from the same script and database, with each site having completely custom content
- custom admin cms to manage all sites and content and users
- login for users and managers
- users can add images, audio, blogs, and shouts based on permissions
- all content is moderated
- custom feedback system
- admin can copy database driven content of one site to other sites
- a lot more


My most recent project as part of a team was for Ferrari Challenge - https://secure.ferrarichallenge.com The site took roughly 6 months to complete, and was done by a team of roughly 20 programmers, designers and project managers. I don't remember the exact cost, but I believe Ferrari paid at least $60-$80,000 for it.

Q. If you have a complicated pricing system for your service, please give all the details here.

A. I charge $25 an hour, or project based depending on the size of the project. I also can do payments if needed depending on the size of the project.

Q. If you were advising someone who wanted to get into your profession, what would you suggest?

A. Make sure you love to sit on the computer for days on end. If you are going into freelancing, realize that you will probably work 24/7 and be on call the rest of the time.

Q. Write your own question and answer it.

A. Does it really take 53 minutes to make a website?

Not if you want a good one. "a 53 minute production" is the name of my freelance company, which is based off "53 minutes" which is an old inside joke from high school. The name just stuck.

Q. Write your own question and answer it.

A. Do you offer any guarantees on your work?

I do my best to give full working code upon site completion, however sometimes bugs to come up. If they do, I will fix them for free... free of charge, for as long as I am alive.

Q. Write your own question and answer it.

A. What do you use to make websites?

All you really need is Notepad. However I use an advanced text editing program called phpDesigner. I also use SmartFTP for FTP file transfers, Putty for SSH access, and Firefox for development and troubleshooting. I also do cross browser testing on Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. I use Windows 7 for my operating system.