Development Articles

A Personal Welcome from the Webmaster

Hello World, and thanks for stumbling upon my current drastically plain website. Yes it's true, I do web "design" for a living, but technically I'm to be better identified as a "website developer" - a person skilled in maintaining websites and implementing those little aesthetic effects that are subconsciously appealing to the eye.

Well, the truth is, lately I've been so busy handling responses to my web ads for website development and maintenance that I've barely even had a chance to post up my own site. Besides that, I have actually tried to perfect a website before releasing it for public viewing, but having a developer's eye can be a curse since aesthetics can never be perfect enough, if you know what I mean. So I figured, what the heck - just post what I have so far and let everyone see the progress - even if it's from scratch. Luckily for you, I refuse to follow those tacky conventions of professionalism and won't pose as a superfancy professional website development company (which I had thoughts on) but would rather simply and honestly just present myself as I am... a down-to-earth freelance website developer who is willing to work with clients on a more personable level.

Also luckily for you, (if you like to read), I enjoy writing. If you ever want to know more about me, you can read all about me here. In the distant future, you may come across some overwhelmingly long articles that chronicle my professional progress, namely my own current website development projects.

I know my home page isn't the most fabulous on the Internet (sure, it does look a bit on the aqua-marine side) yes, but it's in the process. Since I've been so busy dealing with all of my clients, I've barely had a moment to even type up a measly, yet warm intro to my own business website! Never fear though, soon, it will be "the most beautiful website in the world." If you stay tuned, you'll get to see my site grow into a real one as I refine it. It'll be fun!

I also want to thank my clients for their business, patience, and support. Stay tuned for more jDT Creative articles, and of course - site updates.

- jesse christian
Webmaster

"Sometimes beauty lies dormant in the plainest of objects."

The Art of WebMastery: Being Opinionated Counts

I believe that in order to be a well-seasoned web consultant, it's important to have opinions. I'd like to share a few of my opinions on the field of website development and consulting:

Colloborative development. The way it works in the field usually is that you can't just go with the flow when it comes to collaborative website development. Putting in your honest perspective on how a certain website development appears is important even though opinions may collide. In the end, it's a matter of respect if a client sees that a website must look a certain way, especially since it's their website and although their theme may seem a bit - tacky (for lack of better words), it's their word that wins in the end. Nevertheless, a good developer should always have a certain base to work around, as well as a well-defined design influence.

Originality vs. Using Available Resources. I've had a client come up to me and tell me they want their website to be purely original - including the programming behind it. While this is a valid request, I find it wishful thinking. Sometimes, clients simply are unaware that to program even the simplest seeming thing - like an animated logo can actually take forever to build from scratch. It's also not very time-effective and efficient for any webmaster to build their sites from scratch, including all the programming.

As far as actual design and originality, you have to ask yourself, what really is original out there? Master professional designers steal from each other all the time, how much more for the designers on the less top-notch level? Yes, there may be creativity, but it all depends on how much time and money you're willing to spend on getting your site to look as original as possible.

In web applications and programming, there are many free resources and web tools out there, such as shopping carts that are already programmed - rich with built-in functions. Not to mention there are many web templates - although they do shy a tad more away from originality, they still do save the website developer a lot of time that doesn't need to be wasted on building from scratch. It's kind of like inventing the wheel. In my opinion, building a site from absolute scratch is like trying to build your own car from scratch. Unless you love building cars as a hobby, you'll have need a lot of wheels to invent and a lot of time to build if you're not using the available tools that are already out there!

The Webmaster Community and Competition. I'm not afraid to say it, I know that the website development field is a pretty competitive environment, but I happen to enjoy the webmaster community and I don't necessary like to see my fellow webmasters as "competition." We're all in the field together, and from most of my experiences, webmasters have been lenient and helpful to each other in times of certain needs. The development community can be prety cool, which is why I wouldn't be afraid to even advertise other webmaster's tools and resources that I don't have. It's just being part of a network which in the end, helps. Now, if only the rest of the world could be like that...

"I Want a Website!"

Let's talk about technique for a moment.  Let me backtrack a bit by saying that I'd like to further elaborate upon my Welcome article on the home page.  I've re-realized how important it is to have a website ever since I aspired to become a webmaster in late 2006.  Even if you really have nothing to say, just put it out there.  It's the of wave the future, especially.... but enough of encouraging words, this is a subjective article, so don't mind me if I do lose my objective.  What I'm trying to say is this: I've been wanting to put a website up ever since I was 17 - but for no good reasons, never could put one up. I had designed my first site 7 lucky years later, but just now am I barely posting my very own website.

Why, oh why did I wait so long?  I've owned a computer business since I was a junior in college, and never had it occurred to me to build a website for marketing any of our services. And just now, even after being a webmaster for more than almost two years am I finally putting pen to paper and getting my own business website started.  Why am I writing about this?  Well, it's a common problem with most of my clients, that even I experienced myself in the past.  They've heard of getting a website, what potential it has - but they don't quite know just where to begin.

In all honesty, I have attempted to publish my own website 3 or 4 different times, but could not find myself to finish the project.   Why? For the same reason a lot of my clients seem to have: they're either too busy, they don't know what looks good, and most of all - they don't know what to put on their website.  To address some of these issues, I'd like to say from my own experience that 1) no matter how busy you are, you probably do have enough tim int here somewhere to get material prepared for a website 2)  In the beginning who cares what looks good?  What matters is that you've got something out there for people to look at.  You want to build a presence online.  And if it looks like absolute garbage in the beginning, who cares?  Chances are the site will not have too many visitors in the beginning anyway since the site is so new. But you have to get started somewhere.  Without a foot in the ground, you'd be flying around in outer space indefinitely, which is a feeling I know pretty well and is definitely not the best feeling, unless you're a fan of uncertainty. 

Then there's 3, which I consider the biggest issue for most of my clients as well as for myself in the past several years.  As a developer, I must say that putting something out there is better than having nothing at all.  Put a little article up there about yourself. Sprinkle a little contact info here and service info there. You know it's not fabulous just yet, but then again that's the beauty of being able to updating, developing, and refining the site over time. That's web maintenance.

In conclusion, and yes - I am talking to my clients as well - we have something in common with these 3 little obstacles. To me, they're simply excuses.  Just gather whatever material you have.  Post whatever you can about your site. Get it out there, beautify it later.  After all, we have arrived to the Google age where search engine optimization is so crucial for a website to have any meaning.  There's a lot of content that can be written, lots of copy, graphics that can be developed, and beautifying to do.  I know my current webiste (you're looking at) is in need of a drastic makeover, but that's okay, because things are just getting started.

So personally, I'm excited about my new website coming into gear as I write this.  It has a lot of adventures to go through.  I've made it my goal to keep developing this site - to keep writing articles, posting things up, and changing things around until I have what I consider to a be a useful, informative, sophisticated, and highly presentable website.

I hope that if you're in the same shoes I'm in, you're excited too, but let's get this website done! Let's stop saying "I want a website" but expect for it to just come into being all on its own.  Come on, stop reading this article - send me material already - let's get that website posted! = )

As for me and as for now, I'll keep writing the articles, even if no one reads - surely enough people will one day. It may not be much at the moment, but all that matters is that I have something out there to show for, and at least I'm happy with that.