4 Reasons Web Developers Hate Thier Jobs!

I once read an article on most hated jobs in America. To my surprise "Web Developer" was on the list (something like 3rd place). Honestly, when I thought about it a bit more I understood why. Let me help you explain the disconnect between web developer and customer.


First problem.
Most businesses are like the majority of high school students entering college for the first time. They don't what they want, still trying to figure out who they are, and they waste time and money doing it. Start-Ups are notorious for this, but I have worked in multi-billion dollar businesses that have the same problem just with the extra red tape. If you can't explain to me in 60 seconds over the phone your mission statement (Why your business exists), and vision statement (Your businesses eventual goal). I cannot create a proper website explaining to your customers why they need your product, or build a system that allows your business to achieve it's goals. I can make it pretty and functional, but guess what.... If you lack purpose, so will your website.

Second problem
Most of the businesses I help, suffer due to organization. They usually have information coming in from multiple sources with repeated data, or fluff (useless data). They are overwhelmed. A websites first job is to organize data. You know your company, you know your target audience, you know your product, I don't. Do no ask me to write up something for you, present me with data and I will turn it into information. I simply edit it for spelling errors, then organize the information, and rearrange it in a meaningful way for your customers understand and take action.

Third Problem
Technology. Listen, you should know how to operate your email, read a PDF document, and know how to use Microsoft Office Suite by now. The information age has been here at least a decade. Instead I have to walk my clients through "how to open an attachment on their email". This waste my time and other parties involved. To compound this frustration I get outdated practices offered to me as great solutions, that will drive a logical efficient person insane. Technology and practices have changed quite a bit year to year, so I an empathize there. However, if you fell behind the curve because you decided not to better yourself to a changing and adaptive market it is on you. YouTube tutorials are everywhere, information and self education is not only available to the elite, there is no excuse. You don't need to be a computer wiz, but don't call me to fix your computer.

Forth Problem
A main problem with web developers is ourselves. Many of us are introverts by nature, and choose a career in computers as to not have to deal with people. Problem is, not many of us didn't actually know the level of involvement and interaction that many of us would have with our clients on a day to day basis.

All in all, I hate having to do websites for people who don't know what they want. Honestly, it is almost never worth the money to deal with the headaches. There is no need. Why work for a difficult customer when you could just sell your templates, and make recurring passive income. The smart web developers, have figured out that it doesn't pay to work with direct customers when you can create systems of money online for your self. After all we do it all the time for businesses why not just do it for ourselves. Businesses need web developers a lot more than web developers need businesses, just some of us coders haven't figured that out.

A Story of 90% of my customers and why I no longer do websites

Go to The Oatmeal to view more awesome Web Developer comics.

Link building in 2014

As Google continues to change the algorithms for how their search engine works, one might ask our old strategies still worth it? Link building is one of those strategies that has been kind of pushed back because of how poorly it has been used in the past.

Link building is often referred as back linking. They are essentially the same thing and that and goal is to bring a user back to your website from a link on another website. 

 It used to be that a website company would hire a SEO company ,who had networks with other affiliate companies for cross-linking. Simply meaning, the SEO company would ask all of its companies to host your link and vice a versa. Google would then rank your site higher than other sites because you had more back links pointing to your website. Google eventually caught on to this practice and subsequently lowered the rankings of many websites due to poor quality back links. 

Another common tactic would be, going on to social media networks and posting a link back to your website. There are entire companies that do nothing more then post links back to your website and comment boxes of social media networks, and blogs. This is what's called a "Black hat practice." A black hat practice means that that particular strategy is either unethical, or damaging to your Google ranking. 

Of course two people who have no idea how the web community works think that posting their website on a bunch of different random post somehow helps their website. They are literally destroying their website ranking and ultimately Google will recognize them as a spammer rather than contributor of original content. 

So how do you get to the top using a link building strategy?

The answer, go for quality over quantity. One good quality link is better than 10 suspect links. Any website that has been around for a decent amount of time with original content is considered a quality link. Anything with the domain name ending in .edu, or .gov is pretty much a safe bet. While many back links may happen by chance, the best ones are actually well strategized. Reaching out to known websites in the chance that your website maybe mentioned is key. 

Sorry to tell you SEO still takes hard work and intelligent strategy. If a SEO company tell you otherwise they are probably using black hat practices.

Blog Content Planner to help keep you organized (Printable)

Some of you blog professionally, while others of you blog for more for a hobby. Either way blogging is a commitment of your time, and you may not always be at a computer. A lot of us bloggers actually plan ahead during the month about what content we are going to write about, or at least it is always on our mind. The PDF printable template below is built to answer those needs, and help you stay productive, organized, and one step ahead of the competition. Buy it once, print it thousands of times. At this low price of $2.00, this template is cheaper than a cup of Starbucks coffee, so what are you waiting for.

Go To Blog Content Planner Printable PDF

Once you purchase this template through Paypal, you will be redirected to a download link page where you can simply click, download, and get yourself on the way to a better organized blogging experience. 

Is ipage good for you? A web developer view into web hosting

This is my personal opinion, I am not paid to talk about ipage unless you click an affiliate link.

So I have been around the block a little bit as far as web host go. Honestly, I don't really like any of them. If I had it my way I would host everything on my own personal server. However, this is not a viable option for many people, and due to my internet connection I too fall into that category. So what are we to do? Pick a web host and hope for the best.

I have operated within more web host panels than I can remember. Every web host is different but not by much. Most have a cPanel or vPanel. That is just the ugly setup for navigation between different applications that a web host offers you. I usually only use my cPanel to set up databases, buy domains, set up Wordpress engines, and change around pointers to directories. Everything else I do can be done with either FileZilla or Notepad++. A lot of web host will give you free yellow page listings, a toll free number for 100 minutes, Facebook credits for advertising, etc. In this respect ipage is no different either. Their uptime isn't bad, but I am not sure if it is exactly accurate. 

The main reason I choose them over Godaddy, Gatorhosting, 1and1, Gate, etc, is because of their customer service. What is strange is that ipage actually falls under a parent company that hold some of these other web host companies....yet their service is somehow worse. For me to go to technical support, something has to go very wrong in a big way. Most of the time I am offering technical support to other people. Which means that the guy on the other side of the phone better know what he is talking about. I would say 9 out of 10 times this was not a problem. Ipage has a decent response time, and unlike some of its sister companies, is a bit easier to get out of a contract. 

What I like about ipage is that they offer unlimited data, bandwidth, databases, and other things. Let's quickly talk about the term unlimited. The term means "unlimited for normal users". If you actually start using up a ton of their resources they will drop you just like any other web host. The big difference is the price. I just feel that ipage gives me more bang for my buck. Most other companies charge me extra for the unlimited packages, and they would still drop me if I became a mega user. I think I run something like 25 websites off of ipage with no problem, and for now I have no reason to switch. They have even worked with me on different things over the years as far as pricing plans and have done a great job at keeping my business. 

My suggestion is to research as much as possible before choosing a web host. Unlimited databases, PHP versions, and outgoing email rules are important to me when choose a web host but it may not be for you. If you have any questions regarding my experience just comment below and I will answer you. 

I am part of the ipage affiliate program which brings me money from time to time. If you sign up through this ipage link, I make money. This article is not for making money, just giving you an opinion on why I chose my current web host. I am also on 50webs until the end of the year.... I do not put their affiliate link on here as well, because I don't think they are a good buy for myself or my web clients. 

Web Hosting from iPage

Switching from Blogger to Wordpress and then back to Blogger... and Why

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Really the question is "Do you plan on commercial blogging (selling products) or just plan on writing?"

As a web developer, I am always tying out new technologies and figuring out which is best for my needs so I may help my customers later on. When I first came to Blogger, it was quick and easy to setup a blog. I was able to hit the ground running within minutes. The built in analytic software was nice, integration with Adsense was definitely a plus, and the fact that it was not covered in Ads was a big win for me. So why did I switch?

I switched because there was little room for editing the HTML. Meaning their were few customizing options available at that time. I was stuck into a series of ugly templates that just didn't present what I wanted to display to my audience. So I hosted my own Wordpress site through my own web host (ipage). Remember there is a big difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org as hosting options. One forces you to have adds with limited customization. The other is an open source engine that you install onto your own webhost free of Ads unless you want them.

Since that time, I have used a ton of Wordpress sites for their amazing plugins. I love Wordpress for many things. I was able to setup powerful scripts in minutes that would have taken hours to program by hand. The themes were amazing. Wordpress is very SEO oriented much like it's rival competition Blogger. The analytics is arguably a bit better on Wordpress than it is on Blogger. Yet I was not not happy.

I prefer to build Wordpress sites for my clients, and own many myself, but it was overkill for just a blog. The load time was killing me, I did not need the extra bells and whistles for my personal blog. The biggest issue was the iphone/ipad app that allowed me to post onto Wordpress. Granted it has gotten better over the years, but I just preferred the Blogger App more. To me now, a simple navigation, quick load time, and the ability to publish post using mobile technology made more since for my needs.

Conclusion
Honestly, neither blog software is truly better than the other, they just serve different purposes.

Note to Readers* If you have specific questions on which blogging software might be best for you, leave a comment and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.