Mike Hayes

Yes, where possible I'll provide a fixed quote for a fixed scope of work. Any additional work can then be quoted for separately.

However, if the scope of work is too broad then I'll provide an estimate, record time and bill on an hourly or daily basis depending on the size of the project.

Whichever system is used, this will be agreed before work commences and specified in our contract.

Almost for as long as I can remember!

Having a keen interest in computers (or breaking computers if you ask my parents), I first started creating websites at around the age of 10 using Yahoo! GeoCities. The next stage was using software such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage. From there I began to learn how to do things properly and picked up books on HTML, PHP and MySQL to create my own websites by just writing code. By age 14 I began generating an income from my work and the rest is history.

I'm now in my thirties and have been working in web development professionally for over 15 years and as a freelancer since 2018.

You'll need to contact me to check my current availability.

At the time of updating this – June 2022 – I have availability from August 2022 for new projects.

I have professional indemnity insurance in place (thankfully have not yet had to make a claim!)

I develop new projects and help maintain existing ones, so you can always instruct me to update your website in future subject to availability. We can arrange retainer billing if you want to reserve my time for your project on a month-to-month basis.

I'd recommend keeping your website backend and plugins updated on, at minimum, a quarterly basis. This ensures the latest security patches are being applied and your website doesn't fall behind on updates which could make maintenance more difficult and costly further down the line. This can be done on an ad-hoc basis or as part of a monthly maintenance package including tasks such as taking regular backups.

I don't have expertise in SEO, you will need to hire a separate consultant for your SEO needs.

That said, I cover some of the technical aspects of SEO as part of a standard development including:

• Writing well-structured HTML with the correct use of semantic elements
• Optimising for performance on both the back-end and front-end
• Making available page title and meta description overrides in the content management system, as well as other fields if necessary

I'm not a designer, so for most websites we'll need a professional designer on-board. Don't worry if you don't know one, I have trusted contacts we can work with.

For web applications, a user interface framework can be used.

No, due to the bus factor (in short: the risk of my death taking your website with me), it would be irresponsible for me to provide web hosting services as a solo freelancer.

However I'm here to handle the technical parts of your web project. I can set you up with a trusted fully-managed web hosting provider suitable for your requirements, taking care of tasks such as making your website live or deploying code changes. You then retain full ownership over your website and have the freedom to hire a different developer for the site if needed in future, just how it should be!

Yes, providing there's an API available. I have created custom integrations with software such as Xero, FreeAgent, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor and Twitter previously.

I'm careful to ensure you're not locked-in with me in any way, such measures include:

• When completing a new project, I'll send you a zipped copy of your website source code.
• I don't provide web hosting, instead I'll set you up with a trusted fully-managed web hosting provider and ensure you're the primary contact.
• Where possible, I set up a source code repository at your web hosting provider and push every change into this repository.

I'm primarily focused on Craft CMS but will sometimes help established clients with other web projects.

I can't work from your office as I work with multiple clients simultaneously.