My first blog! What to say?
I guess, Welcome! This site has been nearly 20 years in the making….obviously it’s not taken me 20 years to build it. But that is how long I’ve been involved in web development. Back in what was still really the infancy of the web I worked for a company called IBM as what was then called a ‘producer’; similar, I guess, to what I imagine a TV Producer does.
I worked with major blue chip clients such as Virgin Atlantic, Shell, Severn Trent, Liverpool Victoria, British Airways and many others translating their business requirements into developer speak and then making sure that those requirements were delivered to them as they imagined…doing some negotiation in the process. The projects I worked on were all content management based, something that was brand new and state of the art then.
What is content management?
Back in the day it was all about separating the content from how the information was presented. Up until that point web development was all about creating a number of single pages each containing different information that had a similar look and feel. These pages were all then linked together, you needed a web developer to create each page for you. The dawn of content management meant that the content was stored separately from how it was displayed. This meant that the web developer created the look and feel and then that look and feel was applied consistently to the content created by the business. This is pretty much how WordPress works now although it’s far more flexible now than the early content management systems were.
When I set up my own business in 2009, I needed a website and I didn’t have the £3000 required to pay a developer to make one for me, so I decided to create my own.
It took me countless hours to create that site as I was new to WordPress and I had to learn its ways. However, eventually I got there and the site is still going. I don’t mind admitting that it’s far more pretty today than it was originally, it’s also far more functional. I’m able to capture email addresses from visitors who want to be kept informed of what I’m up to, I can also sell products and take credit card payments from the site. I know WordPress really well and can make it do just about anything a website can do now.
I love helping people with technology, and about a year ago, I was delighted when I started to get asked by friends for help with their websites and so My WordPress VA (Virtual Assistant) was born. My WordPress VA gives small businesses remote assistance for their website. Whether it’s ‘just’ the incredibly important job of keeping the core files and plugins up to date, adapting and improving their existing site or simply helping them to add content I love seeing the results and how their on-line confidence increases.