Our story
In 2005, after a 25 year career as a software developer, project manager, and entrepreneur, Marc started a web design and development business “from his basement”. We hired a bunch of offshore web designers, sent out a few emails (Marc was always a big networker and community-builder), and we were in business. The business ran for 3 years and during this time we produced over 150 attractive, affordable web sites for small business and self-employed professionals. We particularly specialized in business- and life-coaches, which fit in well with Marc’s interest in human development and spirituality.
The way websites were designed in those days (not so long ago!) — and is still the way that higher-end websites are designed today — is that the web designer produces what’s called a “mock-up” in Photoshop, which is a snapshot of a website. The customer suggests changes and the design goes back and forth until it’s finalized. Then the customer sends in all their content, the mock-up is “sliced” (converted to HTML), and the designer applies the content. The site then goes live. But unless the customer has HTML skills, it’s difficult for them to maintain the site themselves. The entire process is really quite cumbersome and fraught with possibility of errors and miscommunication.
Well aware of these difficulties, Marc started exploring early on the possibility of coding the design into a Content Management System (CMS). However, in those days CMS’s were not well-developed. Coding an arbitrary design into a CMS was expensive. Eventually Marc gave up the investigation. After 3 years, tired of managing the communication flow between designers and customers, he sold the web business and moved on.
Fast forward to 2009…
In early 2009, Marc started blogging and got re-acquainted with WordPress. WordPress had gone through dramatic development during the intervening years, with an estimated 200 million websites being hosted on WordPress by 2009, thousands of themes and plugins (many of them free), and a very active community. Marc had the kind of “aha” experience that many other users and developers felt when first meeting WordPress — this was the “shangri-la” of website development. This was “power to the people” in terms of developing websites and marketing products or services online. While web designers were often still needed, they no longer held a monopoly over the content.
We immediately got to work and put together our first webinar series. Within two months, we were in business. The first webinar was very successful, and we continue to develop more accurate, targeted and valuable content with each course iteration.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable information on website development and internet marketing to entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals. Website development and internet marketing is no longer a rare, highly technical and expensive skill. We believe that anyone can learn the fundamentals in a month or two. Our courses will teach you everything that you need to know, and tell you where to look for everything else that you would like to know. We also believe that while books and training videos are valuable, there is no substitute for having an expert tell you exactly what to do to accomplish what you need. All businesses and websites are different and so there is no “template” that fits all.
Please review our affordable training packages and coaching packages. If you have a custom need that you want a quote on, use our Contact form.
