September 2008 provided a new opportunity in the form of Brighton-based agency Active Parity. Shortly afterwards, and following a merger, we became known as GSBA. Exciting times!
I've been able to work with great people and on great projects. Recent projects include ModelZone, Zenith Holidays, FastNet and Outdoor Look.
In July of 2006 I moved back to in-house work using ASP.NET (VB) and SQL Server. I had enjoyed my work, but wanted to move into a move hands-on role. In-house work offers a different set of challenges to agency projects, and can be a great opportunity to really get your teeth into a project over a longer timescale than agency work sometimes allows.
Projects included development and marketing of a range of e-commerce sites including, but not limited to, Reebok (RBK have since been bought by Adidas and they have taken their online sales in-house) and Gold's Gym, as well as a CMS to manage the sites and integration with stock and order management systems.
From October 2004 to June 2006 I worked (following a start in the company as a developer before moving into the search marketing side of things) as an internet marketing consultant with Propellernet of Hove. Taking some time away from development has turned out to be very beneficial, helping me look at development from more of a marketing than a technical angle.
While at Propellernet, I was lucky enough to work with a great selection of challenging and motivated clients, including uSwitch, UpMyStreet, Berkeley Homes, Which? Online, CheapFlights.co.uk, Holiday Extras and Orion Books, among others.
I learned a lot during the 8 months I spent working at Juno Records as a solo web developer redeveloping their ecommerce website in PHP and MySQL, and integrating it with in-house product management and order fulfillment system.
The site went live in early 2005, and was a resounding success. Sales went up (in both numbers and value), and users of the site all seemed to like the new look and functionality. In the time since I left, they have (among other things) added an impressive digital downloads section to the site.
In July of 2003, following two years of freelance work, I moved to Fresh Egg, of Worthing, as a web developer. My background was in PHP and MySQL, and Fresh Egg built sites in ASP and SQL Server, however the transition between the two was smooth and relatively painless.
In my time with Fresh Egg, I worked on a large selection of different sites in different markets, from online ringtone shops to London spas.
AddedBytes.com started as a small personal site to air my thoughts, and save and share ideas and techniques.
When I can, I write about a variety of topics, including design, development and marketing, and post the occasional cheat sheet.
