Technical Consulting

Like any highly technical discipline, the world of web design has its chieftains as well as its charlatans. The trick is deciphering who is what. I, for one, prefer the drab but well-tested to the experimental and flashy. I like technology I can rely on. I try every day to be a foe of obsolescence.

Naturally, my desire to keep things sane makes being a web worker in the 21st century all the more difficult, because I’m up against a daily sea change, from floods of new software updates to the detritus of new devices to a tentacled mess of new web services, the lifecycles of which change faster than I can define them. But that’s my life. It doesn’t have to be yours. Let me do the deciphering for you.

RFP Drafting & Analysis

If you’re an agency looking to win a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a prospective client looking to draft one that will land you the winning agency, you don’t have to do it alone.

Many agencies I work with don’t keep their technical expertise in house, so it takes a lot of effort for account managers to determine what’s technically feasible within a client’s budget, price out technical requirements, or assess timeline. I’ve done all this for numerous digital agencies for years, and it doesn’t cost them a cent to enlist me: if you win, I win, so we’re all invested in producing the best response possible.

On the flip side, I can help you draft an RFP that will not only cover all the bases, but protect your from ne’er-do-wells who won’t be able to deliver on what they promise.

Your Part-Time CTO

If your organization needs technical leadership but can’t afford to bring on a CTO or software architect in house, I can serve as a remote, fractional CTO on a part-time or retainer basis.

Time is everything these days, and resources are scarce. You can’t afford to make mistakes translating business needs into complex technical requirements when you’re just starting to get your project off the ground, and while ChatGPT will get you pretty far in the short term, what may get lost in translation can hurt your bottom line in the long run.

For firms with limited capacity for digital strategy, I can act as an embedded consultant, complementing your creative strengths with technical strategy and execution. My background in communications is my guiding light when it comes to bridging the gap between technical teams, clients, and stakeholders whose last priority is worrying about how it all will work.

UX & Content Strategy

Full disclosure: my graduate degree is in book and magazine publishing, and I studied English literature way back in my twenties. It’s surprisingly common for experienced developers to come from non-computer-science backgrounds—in fact, my academic concentration was in formal poetry, and I happen to write science fiction in my free time.

What does this have to do with you? It means I can speak your language as well as the language of developers. Unlike many of my colleagues, I ended up here accidentally on the way to a totally different career. Content and UX strategy is all about bridging the gap between the message you want to convey and the means of conveyance. Invest in a translator who understands both.

Content & Production Assistance

Often overlooked in the web design process is that crucial step of actually populating your brand-spanking-new website with all those words and images that will make it mean something. Who’s going to do the grunt work and wrestle with the CMS to enter all that content? Who’s going to size and export media into appropriate file formats, migrate 300 blog posts, and rework all the copy so that it makes sense in the context of a new block-based WordPress theme?

The good news is, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. In any redesign budget, we include time to design automated workflows that move content surgically into the new CMS. And for all the content that can’t be migrated on an automated basis, my production assistants are well versed in any CMS I throw at them, and their varied backgrounds in digital media make them both knowledgeable and resourceful.

Generative AI

Generative AI has taken the world by storm, and it’s only been a couple years since it’s entered the mainstream. I’m an evangelist for the incredible power AI puts into the hands of creatives like me, but I also understand the concerns you may have about intellectual property and ethics. That’s why I offer GenAI consulting to help you navigate the increasingly complex quagmire that is a post-GenAI Internet.

The tip of the iceberg are commercial platforms like Midjourney (image gen), RunwayML (video), but the real magic happens locally with open source tools like Stable Diffusion and custom LoRAs that allow creatives to fine-tune cutting-edge AI models like Flux on private datasets. Paired with AI-assisted content production, such as the use of large language models to accelerate copywriting, these tools don’t replace creative work but streamline it, expanding creative possibilities within tighter budgets.

Malware Remediation

While I’ve never had a site I created become infected with malware, I’ve performed my fair share of remediations on infected sites brought to my attention for a cure.

There are two main ways malware gets into websites: the first is out-of-date software, and the second is compromised or ineffective credentials. Although WordPress itself is a secure platform out-of-box, its sheer ubiquity (much like Windows computers!) makes it a continual target for bad actors all across the web.

Malware remediation is a meticulous process that requires a thorough, line-by-line review of a WordPress theme to identify and extirpate all malicious code. It involves reinstalling all plugins and the WordPress core, cleaning the database to remove infected entries, and migrating the site to a fresh environment equipped with automated plugin updates, security monitoring, and offsite backups. However, true security extends beyond technical fixes—it depends on human vigilance: using strong credentials, avoiding social engineering traps, and being selective about third-party tools you choose to integrate with the website. As the old adage goes: Prevention is always better than the cure.

Maintenance Retainers

Website maintenance isn’t a one-and-done process—it’s an ongoing lifecycle essential to a site’s performance and stability. Websites update themselves as frequently as Windows does nowadays, and that means an ever-increasing chance of conflicts arising between various third party plugins and the WordPress core. Moreover, out-of-date software on the web is a magnet for malicious actors who want to exploit vulnerabilities for nefarious purposes.

A maintenance retainer couples hosting powered by automated tools with my oversight to keep your site updated, secure, and worry-free. If you choose to host with me, your website resides on a dedicated server without noisy neighbors. As a business owner, your focus should be on your business, not software updates or troubleshooting. I serve as your first line of defense, ensuring your site runs smoothly, while WP Engine provides 24/7 phone support in the background. Together, we deliver peace of mind and reliable site performance.