How I’d Get My First Sale Over 50 (If I Had to Start Again Today)
I have been online since 2009 and although I have been blessed with what I …
Articles & Insights
I learn and document as I go. This blog documents what I build, what I break, and what I learn along the way - from backend logic to AI experiments.
How I’m Building Traffic to My Digital Product Stores (Step-by-Step System)
How do you actually get traffic to a brand new digital product store when no one knows it exists yet? That’s the question I’m working on right now. I’ve started building my own digital download stores. They are sites selling things like workbooks, planners, and guides. The first one only …
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The Welcome Window: Live Customer Support
I built The Welcome Window to solve a simple problem: how do you make customer …
New Feature: Monthly Review Dashboard for MTDify
I'm excited to share a new feature I've just added to MTDify - a Monthly …
Introducing Invoice Generator: An Open-Source Invoicing Tool
One of the first thing I did when I became a Django developer was to …
Introducing MTDify
Simple Digital Bookkeeping for UK Self-Employed What is MTDify? Manage Transations Daily (MTD)ify is a …
What Is Software-for-One?
What does “software-for-one” actually mean, and how is it different from building software for a …
Understanding Local-First Sync
When software stores data on your device first and treats remote servers as optional, something …
Building Offline Apps with Python and Django
Can Python and Django be used to build genuinely offline-first applications, and what does that …
Why Spreadsheets Aren’t Enough for Modern Digital Bookkeeping
Spreadsheets are still the default bookkeeping tool for many self-employed small businesses. They feel familiar, …
The Journey from Offline-First to Local-First
Many developers arrive at local-first through a familiar path. They build an application that works …
Six Weeks of Rebuilding the Foundations
Over the last six weeks I have been quietly rebuilding the foundations of how I …
The Benefits of Self-Hosting for Small Businesses
Self-hosting has a reputation problem. It sounds technical, expensive, and risky. For most small business …
Paper Records to Digital: Your Transition Checklist
Are you one of the many self-employed traders that still rely on paper files, notebooks, …
When Offline-First Is the Right Choice
How do you know whether offline-first software is actually the right approach for a project …
Why Offline-First Matters for Privacy and Control
Why does offline-first software offer more privacy and control than cloud-based tools—and does that really …
What Is Offline-First Software?
What does “offline-first” actually mean, and why would anyone choose software that doesn’t rely on …
Free Stock Images of Diverse Women Available to Download
If you have ever searched for stock images of women and felt frustrated by what …
The Freedom of Building Without Feature Requests
What actually happens when you stop accepting feature requests—and why does it change the way …
Why Building for Yourself Creates Better Software
Is building software “just for yourself” really a serious approach—or is it a shortcut that …
Why I am adding local-first development to my work
For years, my work has centred on helping creators and small businesses build a home …
From Personal Tool to Product: When to Share Your Software
How do you know when a personal tool should be shared—and what actually changes when …
Getting Started with Self-Hosting: A Practical Guide
Self-hosting does not require a computer science degree. It does not require expensive hardware. It …
Tools You Can Run Yourself
Today I wanted to focus on writing about tools you can run yourself. I want …
Local-First vs Cloud-First - Key Differences
The software industry has spent the last decade shifting toward cloud-first design. Everything moved online: …