Build a home on land you own.
Your website is your organisation's online identity, and it sets the tone for what working with you feels like.
What your website says about you
Your website is more than just the place people go to find your contact details. It’s where you get to share your achievements, where people can meet and join your team, and where the content you create can live without being filtered through an algorithm.
When someone searches for you, your website’s design and performance – how fast it loads and how enjoyable it is to use – form an important first impression.
That old line about “never getting a second chance to make a first impression” is a cliché for a reason. We often form snap judgements of people and organisations within the first few seconds.
A fast, user-first website gives you the best chance of making that first impression count.
WordPress
I built my first WordPress website in 2008, and have been working with the platform ever since.
I don’t use off-the-shelf drag-and-drop page builder themes, as these slow websites down, make them harder to maintain, and negatively impact their SEO.
Instead, I use a custom-built framework that gives you total control over content and layout, without compromising speed and ease-of-use.
With WordPress being the web’s most popular CMS, its sites are often targets for hackers. I host WordPress websites securely in a London data centre, and monitor installations to keep them up-to-date.
Ghost
I first encountered Ghost in 2014 and have built websites for podcasters, journalists, and bloggers who want a ismple way to communicate with their audience, and make money.
I build new Ghost themes and extend the functionality of existing ones, using two decades of frontend web design and development experience.
As an independent content creator myself, I have a solid grasp of the creator economy, and what it takes to build and maintain a community around your content.
Wagtail
I first discovered Django, the framework that powers the Wagtail CMS, in 2008, and it’s my goto platform for anything where ultimate flexibility is a necessity.
I’ve delivered talks at DjangoCon 2013, 2015, and 2017, and have extended the Wagtail CMS with a number of modules over the years.
With Wagtail growing in popularity, it’s becoming the sensible choice for organisations that need a faster and more robust platform than WordPress.
And that popularity means if you need to bring on a new developer at a later stage, you’ll have an easier time finding one than ever before.
Custom builds
My first web product in 2008 went somewhat viral, and was used by universities and by the Guardian. Since then, I’ve developed my own CMS for podcasters, which was sold to a podcast hosting company in 2021.
This website is itself a custom build – a static site generator written in Python, which means it can be hosted for free as there are no complicated databases or brittle moving parts.
All of this to say, if you need something built that doesn’t fall into the usual categories – maybe a tool to help you gather and interpret data, or something fun using AI – I would love to get involved.
What is a “user-first” website?
As teams grow, each department wants to see themselves and their hard work represented on the website. Just like every funder wants their logo at the bottom of every page… and as big as possible!
It’s completely understandable. People put their hard work and money behind worthwhile projects and want to it represented somewhere.
Before long, the website begins serving the people who made it, rather than the community who benefit from what you provide.
Hiya 👋 I’m Mark
I’ve spent 20 years in digital marketing, working on tiny projects and nationwide government initiatives.
I’ve spent the last decade helping independent content creators launch and grow their brands, and the biggest thing I’ve learned is that everything we do is in service of one question:
So what?
Everything we write, every podcast we record, every email we send out, invites someone to take action. That could be coming to an event, donating to keep the lights on, or just telling a friend about the work we’re doing.
The wording, fonts, colours… everything needs to be in-line to communicate a simple idea and to make your website visitor’s next action obvious and easy.
But this sounds anything but easy
I hear that. But the good news is, I’ve spent 25 years doing this, which means I’ve made a tonne of mistakes, and when I’ve been successful, I’ve tried to understand why.
I want to bring everything I’ve learned about digital marketing and website building to social enterprises. Let’s work together on building something simple, long-lasting, and most-importantly, effective.
Modular design
Drag-and-drop page builders slow your site down, hinder your SEO, and lock you into an ecosystem. I build pages in stackable blocks, giving you full control over the structure and content, without compromising on speed or usability.
Total control
No waiting for someone to get round to making a change to your site. Once it’s up, you have everything you need to make changes.
SEO & accessibility
SEO is mostly about presenting well-written, valuable content in a sensible structure. Accessibility is mostly about getting out of your users’ way.
I build websites that are easy for a screen reader to navigate, which makes them easy for search engines to crawl.
Hosting & maintenance
As the world’s most popular content management system, WordPress is a frequent target of bots. My managed hosting service keeps your site reliably responsive, and your data safe and secure.
Support
If something doesn’t look right or you need a structural change made to the website, you’ll talk directly with me, not a project manager.
If you can’t already tell, I love building websites. I’d love to work on yours, so whether you’re looking to start fresh or get some ongoing support, we should chat.