Recent Blog Posts
Blogs » Archive for April, 2004
Should You Focus on a Target Market (Redux)?
Cy writes:
In developing a small web design business, should I identify a target niche early or wait until my business has started growing? Also, is it advisable to target 2-3 niche markets, or just one versus targeting “small businesses”?
Here is the reply:
First, good luck with your venture.
Second, please read the article on Sitepoint entitled World Domination for Small Web Businesses (http://www.sitepoint.com/article/small-web-businesses), which explains the importance of identifying a target niche market and how to do it. Read it now, before you read the answer to your questions.
Now, to the questions you asked that were not addressed in the article:
I suggest that you identify a target niche as early as you can. A good target niche is one that is large enough to sustain your business, reachable, has money to spend (and will spend it), and in which you have a good story to tell. You don’t have to be the only web designer targeting that niche, and probably don’t want to be because it is expensive to blaze a trail. At the same time, you don’t want the target niche to be saturated with competitors.
If you look in your local yellow pages, you will find literally hundreds of target markets …
Jeff has a blog
Jeff (aka Selkirk), lead developer on WACT, has started his own blog: http://www.procata.com/blog/
Python __name__ == __main__ in PHP
One of those nice features of Python, that marks it as a language designed for developers (as opposed to one designed for tool vendors) is the ability to conditionally run some logic if you’re executing a script directly but ignore it if the script is being imported (”included”) by another script.
For example;
class User:
def setName(self, name):
self.name = name
def getName(self):
return self.name
# Only execute this we’re “main”…
if __name__ == “__main__”:
u = User()
u.setName(”Harry”)
print u.getName()
The code after the ‘if __name__ == “__main__”:’ is only executed is I run this script directly. If I import the User class from another script it is ignored.
Makes a very handy tool for testing (or better yet unit testing) a Python script. So much so I want it in PHP.
One trick to do so is like this;
This relies on the predefined constant __FILE__ which gets populated with the name of script where __FILE__ is accessed (i.e. it works irrespective of includes). The value of __FILE__ should be unique to the script, as far as …
Microsoft on Sourceforge
In early April Microsoft quietly released its first open source project, WIX, on Sourceforge. WIX, according to the project page, “The Windows Installer XML (WiX) is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. The toolset supports a command line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to build MSI and MSM setup packages.”
While this is not a huge release of source code, it is an interesting step as Microsoft perhaps begins to explore the open source community. There are some interesting blog entries on the project leader’s weblog, found here. The project was released under a non-modified Common Public License.
There is applicability to web developers using the .Net platform, as Microsoft’s own internal groups, including the msn.com division, are using the toolset to build installation packages for web applications.
More interesting is this foray into open source and especially the use of Sourceforge, considered the predominant open source development portal. Perhaps the new experience of working with a community of seasoned open source developers, especially those interested in seeing more open source solution built for or ported to Windows (and the opposite as well! Think .net …
ColdFusion Blogging Scripts
…posted by davidjmedlock:
I’ve had a few people come to me looking for blogging scripts and pre-built apps, so I thought it’d be useful to post a few of the resources I found for this. Keep in mind that, although I maintain the blog here on SitePoint, I’m not a big fan of blogging and thus have little experience with it and its terminology. So, I’m not going to be much help when it comes to interfacing with Moveable Type…
- For CF5/IIS/Fusebox 3 there is FuseBlog. It allows posting, editing, and deleting entries, RSS 0.92 feeds, categories, archives, multiple users, searching and more.
- CFXML_Blog is an open source project available in SourceForge. It is totally XML based, so no data source is required. It offers full UNICODE support, categories, calendar, visual themes editable via a CSS file, XHTML and CSS compliant and recently has added an XHTML compliant WYSIWYG editor.
- CF_Blogger is also freely available and has features for Archives, Categories, bookmarks, and the ability to add/edit/delete all of the above.
I’m also thinking that my June article will be something along the lines of how to create your own blogging system. I’m personally of the mentality that “if you …
Experimental Flashers: Development Environments
We’ve all seen the experimental websites that push the boundaries of what we all thought Flash could do; the most notable in my mind are levitated.net and Bit 101 both run by extremely talented individuals. There are of course many more experimental sites but these two always remind me of how versatile Flash is as a development playground for interesting and engaging effects.
Due to limitations in the Flash player in order to keep the download size of the plug-in to an acceptable level, there is the trade-off between download speed of the plug-in and the encapsulated functionality and speed of rendering. Don’t get me wrong, the Flash player is great for some of the experimental effects that we see and as a conduit to data exchange, but as you may have seen when effects get complex with many objects on the screen, things tend to slow down and can come to a grinding halt.
Some people have moved to Director to accomplish some effects, but others have used Java based environments as their digital playground such as a free offering called Processing due to its speed for intense mathematical calculations.
Processing is an interesting free programming language and …
SitePoint’s First ASP.NET Book!
If I was a politician, I’d have the opposition screaming “conflict of interest!” and I’d have to resign to spend more time with my family.
Luckily, I’m just a humble nerd, so if I speak about SitePoint’s Build Your Own ASP.NET Website Using C# & VB.NET I am but spreading an honest word about just how good this book is.
I’m not usually one for text books. I often find hacking away at Visual Studio, getting frustrated, but learning as I go is my preferred teaching method. I often read examples in books and instantly loose interest…oh great, another “Hello World” or “What is your name” script.
But, when I was given the opportunity to provide a review of SitePoint’s latest, I was struck by just how accessible the book was. I was interested in the examples, the analogies were refreshing, and even though I consider myself pretty well versed in .NET, I found myself learning some new tricks and approaches.
I often read books and ask “Yes, but why do that?” or “How can I use this in reality?”. I did the same with this book, yet it answered almost all my questions. C# Unleashed had a similiar effect on me, which I …
Disruptive Technology
Via Simon, Why MySQL grew so fast. Makes alot of interesting points while skirting round actually answering the question (which is very hard to answer).
Anyone who’s really thought about MySQL relative to other database engines, in particular PostgreSQL, knows it’s pretty much “The Thing that Should not Be”.
Personally think PHP is also a disruptive technology.
Anyone who knows PHP well can probably tell a thing or two about monsters in the closet, and that’s before you open up the debate to others.
But when it comes to ease of use, it’s extremely hard to beat PHP. Not only is it a great language for beginners, there’s a strong business case for a technology that’s focused on a solving small set of problems and is as easy to deploy as a PHP script (Java take note). PHP attracts developers who “should know better”.
In these days of J2EE and .NET, by all rights, PHP should be condemned to obscurity. Instead it continues to grow and, with PHP5 almost there, seems to be attracting ever more “Enterprise” attention.
Why? The best arguments I’ve seen came up in Is PHP Ugly? by Jeff and Markus: “worse is better”.
Novell and Web Development?
Sounds a bit odd to the ear…However, Novell is becoming a powerful force in the Linux and Open Source marketplace, and long before buying Ximian (Linux desktop developers) and SUSE (Linux OS) Novell entrenched themselves in business environments of all sizes.
While the Novell platform never quite had the sexy marketing of its Windows and Unix counterparts, administrators everywhere continue to rave about its stability and scalability.
Importantly, to web developers cultivating clients in the medium and large business markets, you can still find Novell systems as old as 4.11 deployed. More interesting is the fact that the following open source solutions are ported to Novell:
- Apache
- LDAP
- MySQL
- Perl
- PHP
- PostgreSQL
- RSync
- Tomcat
This provides just about the complete web development platform including support for running database-driven and Java-driven solutions.
There are two tracks working here, 1) Access to customers who may be hesitatant to utilize Linux but have Netware infrastructure, and 2) Opportunities to bring Linux into a customer’s environment because of their trust in the Novell name (namely SUSE Linux Standard or Enterprise).
To some it may seem Novell was a dusty name on a dusty shelf a year or so ago. The tables have definitely turned and anyone marketing web development to the medium size business …
Essential Business Reading
Thanks to Derrick, who suggested a blog about essential management books for web designers, especially those just starting out.
A list follows. It emphasizes old-fashioned approaches to management, the tried and true, as these have made all the difference to me. Please post your additions, with a brief reason why you recommend it. That way, this site can have one location with some great book suggestions.
Marketing and Sales:
The Web Design Business Kit, Brendon Sinclair. Where else can you get a marketing and sales book for web designers, written by a successful web designer?
The IT Business Acceleration Manual, yours truly. See the following Sitepoint link for a comparison with Brendon’s book: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157169&highlight=neitlich
Guerilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson. An absolutely essential resource for small business owners looking for low-cost, high-impact marketing strategies and tactics.
Rain Making: The Professional’s Guide to Attracting New Clients, Ford Harding (along with Creating Rain Makers, which I prefer). A great book about how professionals like lawyers, accountants, and web designers build a network and get clients.
SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham. Neil spent $1 million to follow salespeople around and determine the conversations that the successful salespeople have. His SPIN model is outstanding, and a must read for those interested in …
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