WordPress is so popular that it is taking over — it’s behind 22% of all new sites on the internet, but this sets a dangerously poor coding standard. Our infrastructure is crumbling!
Yes, this is a rant. My beef today is this: the WordPress manager might be easy to use, but under the hood, it sucks. There, I said it. It’s awful architecture and it has taught thousands of web developers that it’s Ok to write piss-poor code. This has single-handedly dumbed-down a whole generation of developers by setting a bad example. WordPress is the junk food of coding standards: ubiquitous, tastes good, but lacking any nutritional value.
I’ve ranted about WordPress before but what put me over the top today was the Suffusion Theme. It looks like a clean layout, so I thought I’d give it a try. Holy flaming monkey balls, was I in for a shock! Read more
Following up on an article I wrote a couple years ago on Free Online Invoice Software, I wanted to write a blurb about paid online billing software. My business has grown, and I was spending more and more time dealing with invoices. So it was time for me to actually pay for the software that pays me. Seems kinda silly doesn’t it? I was so uptight about spending money on software that actually pays me. So I spent a few hours with each of the programs below, and well… you can read about what I found.
| $$$/mo | Users | Clients | Projects | Invoices | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreshBooks | $19.95/mo | 1 (you), additional logins (e.g. for accountant) @ $10/mo (clients can optinally be granted viewing privileges) | 25 | ??? | Unlimited |
| Harvest | $12/mo | 1 (you), additional logins (e.g. for accountant) @ $10/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Invoicera | $9.95/mo | 1 (you), plus 2 additional logins | 25 | 25 | Unlimited |
| QuickBooks | $12.95/mo | 1 (you) + your accountant | Unlimited (?) | Unlimited (?) | Unlimited (?) |
If you work on commercial web-sites, eventually you find the need to add email marketing services such as newsletters and special advertisements. The article compares 4 services: Campaign Monitor vs. Constant Contact vs. Mail Chimp vs. Topica in several categories, primarily templating abilities, the usability, and the documentation. This review does not cover the reporting capabilities of these products, but all of them offer the standard set of success metrics.
DISCLAIMER: The review only reflects my own experience using each product for about an hour each; I’m not affiliated with any of these companies.
Price: Pay as you go: a flat delivery fee of $5, plus 1 cent for each recipient. Read more