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Established company integrates WebsiteSpark

Stephen Holford: I’ve been working in online services for the last 10 years, developing products and services for companies such as Tesco and NTL. I’ve been the Marketing Director at Fasthosts for 4 years now, working with the team here to grow the product and service portfolio to ensure that our customers have the best services and support available.

At Fasthosts, we provide business-class services for IT professionals, Web developers and designers from email and shared web hosting through to dedicated servers and DSL. We also have a very successful resellers service, providing businesses the opportunity to offer their own-brand hosting services. WebsiteSpark was therefore a natural fit with our offering and our customer base – the offer is very popular with the customers, and they can see great value in subscribing to the program. The support and training helps introduce new developers to this software, and provides them more opportunities to grow their business.

The WebsiteSpark program has enabled more developers to try this powerful range of software from Microsoft. This has encouraged some movement from developers who were more traditionally focused on Linux-based solutions to test the Microsoft server platform. It has really helped the positioning of the Microsoft server range we offer, enabling interest in the developer community that otherwise would have looked at other solutions. The ease of access to the program and excellent value provides the software community more choice & flexibility for their service platform.

The feedback we are getting at the moment is very positive. The developers are utilizing the software effectively and we’re seeing follow-up enquiries for more Microsoft services and software. Naturally this isn’t for everyone, but the program is certainly looking effective at raising the awareness of the power of the Microsoft Server platform and associated software, and we’re very keen to keep promoting this and helping our customers make the most of these hosted solutions. By removing the barriers of the cost of the software licenses for these small businesses, they’re able to benefit from the software and Server 2008 without risk.

I think it would be great to showcase some of the best websites created and deployed through the program – lets show developers and designers some of the great sites that have been made possible through the technology provided and get the community working together to share ideas on getting the most of the software – we know how powerful it is, we just need to let the internet professionals who haven’t tried it yet see what they’re missing out on.

Hosting company adds Web development to its services

Dirty Dog Web Design has found success as a company providing both Web development and hosting services. Aric Roy oversees the operations for both sides of the business.

Aric Roy: I am fairly new to the Web development industry with only 5 years’ experience under my belt. At 30 years old, I am the father of three kids and happily married. I founded Dirty Dog Hosting to develop quality websites at an extremely affordable price. Since its start, I have done well over a hundred websites and I have recently split the company in two. One side is Dirty Dog Hosting, a dedicated domain registrar/SSL/hosting sales site, and the other side is Dirty Dog Web Design, which is where I run my website development tasks and have a task management application and eCommerce shopping cart for billing. My customers come from all over the world but are mainly in Canada and the US. I use DotNetNuke as my CMS base platform and add modules where they are needed to meet the demands of each customer. I sometimes need to create custom modules and the WebsiteSpark software has made my life easier in accomplishing this task.

WebsiteSpark has influenced the way I design websites by giving me an edge on the technologies that have been recently released. The Microsoft Web Developer suite is a real bonus to have as it makes the execution of module development a snap. This in turn has sped up my time of delivery considerably and the more I get used to the software the faster I am getting. Without a doubt, SQL Server 2008 and the Expression Web Studio are my favorite software to use. They make the execution of what was once difficult tasks a snap!

The only bit of advice I can give to new developers is to not give up and be honest. I get more clients because another developer lied or promised something they couldn't deliver. If you are forthcoming with your abilities and time constraints, your clients will appreciate it, more then you sometimes expect. It took me a couple of years before I even started getting a regular flow of business and in this tough economy it has slowed tremendously. But if you keep at it and continue to make connections, the jobs will come.

Software suite gives Web consultancy an edge

Big Finger is a Web development company specializing in Microsoft.NET development, based out of Sweden and operated by Stephan Kvart.

I’m 30 years old, recent father of one, and currently living in Stockholm, Sweden. I founded my company, Big Finger, back in 2005, when I was still studying at the University of Gävle. However, it wasn’t until 2008, after an internship and a two-year employment at an agency, that I started working for myself. Today my main business is a Web development consultancy, using Microsoft .NET technologies and Web standards. Most of my clients’ needs are met by implementing a content management system. I most frequently use Umbraco or EPiServer, and I’ve earned my certification in both.

As a member of WebsiteSpark, I’ve been able to wield the same software that my much bigger competitors do, enabling me to deliver the same quality at a very competitive rate. It has also helped keep up to date with events, such as Scott Guthrie’s recent visit to Stockholm, where I got previews of Visual Studio 2010, Silverlight 4 and the long-awaited ASP.NET MVC 2.0. It’s good to see that the community of .NET developers is growing and becoming more open.

Adhering to standards has always been my approach to developing for the Web, since it ensures that the message is delivered as intended to as wide an audience as possible. WebsiteSpark introduced me to ASP.NET MVC, the testability of the pattern and how it integrates in Visual Studio, and it has influenced me to implement the pattern whenever the parameters of the project permit it.

Without Visual Studio and SQL Server, I wouldn’t get a thing done. For basic front-end prototyping, I tend to use a simple text editor, like Notepad, but once the initial markup is in place, Visual Studio is my main tool. Together with SQL Server, they form the workbench on which all my development is done. Most of the websites I develop are built on some form of CMS, and my favorite is by far Umbraco. Although not introduced to me through the Microsoft Web Platform, it is an excellent way to get and install it. Also, the recently released IIS SEO Toolkit has proven to be an invaluable help when trying to climb the ranking ladder.

The best way for me to learn has always been learning-by-doing, so my best advice would be to watch the videos, repeat the steps, and let your imagination fly. From development to testing and deployment, WebsiteSpark gives beginners and experts alike a great opportunity to try out, and thoroughly get to know all the necessary tools and software needed.

Microsoft® WebsiteSpark™

Microsoft® WebsiteSpark™ is designed to ignite the success of professional Web developers and designers. The program enables web developers and designers to get software, support and business opportunities from Microsoft at no upfront costs.

Get Visual Studio Professional
Get Expression Studio 3 (1 user) and Expression Web 3 (up to 2 users)
Get Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (using a total of up to four processors per Web design and development company and physical or virtual dedicated servers)
Get SQL Server 2008 Web Edition (using a total of up to four processors per Web design and development company and physical or virtual dedicated servers)
Get 2 professional support incidents & access to managed newsgroups on MSDN (a community of over six million developers)
Get free online training
Get access to broad community support through connections with Network Partners, Hosting Partners and peers with complementary services and technologies

Learn more about Microsoft WebsiteSpark

PHPSP: Promoting knowledge in the community

Rafael Dohms has become proactive in the Web pro community in São Paulo, using his company, PHPSP, as a vehicle to raise awareness of the latest available tools. He relates his experience operating as a Network Partner for WebsiteSpark.

PHPSP is a PHP user group based in the São Paulo region in Brazil. Our work is basically to promote knowledge and growth inside the community as a whole hoping to impact the market itself and give back to PHP in the process. We usually promote small events to get the developers in touch with other developers promoting interaction, hack-a-thons and other activities. We also try to promote articles written by the members and maintain an active Website.

One large part of our efforts is PHPSPCast, the first Portuguese podcast about PHP. We host informal chats, kind of like bar chats, with various guests to get everyone aware of various aspects of the language. Through all of this, we pair up with institutions, such as Microsoft, to reach even further and to show our members that so much more ins involved in our market, and what role these communities have in them

PHPSP Group was founded in São Paulo in 2008 by me and three other friends. I have been an active member of the PHP community for over 5 years now, having also founded the PHPDF group before moving here. I am a contributor to PHP and to various projects related to it, such as Zend Framework and Wordpress. In general, I try to keep busy and when possible, meet up with other UG leaders from outside Brazil to share experiences and help out as best i can.

After hearing about the WebsiteSpark program from Microsoft Brazil, through Rogerio Cordeiro and Galileu Vieira, we thought Microsoft's objective shared much of the values we have ourselves: to promote developers and their growth. From learning more about the program and all its benefits, it was a simple choice to enroll. We wanted to give our community a chance to get to these benefits and tie them into our current plans.

We can now give our public a chance to use top-notch tools and to break out of the regular LAMP stack, giving them more reach. This is an excellent contribution and Website Spark gives us the opportunity to show them that they can broaden their grasp. Their personal projects and dreams can receive an extra boost to become concrete.

Online training site embraces WebsiteSpark opportunity

The WebsiteSpark program is a tremendous opportunity for those in the Web development community to engage with peers and customers in new ways. We talked to José Manuel Alarcón, one of our Network Partners, about his experience so far in working with Web Professionals:

WebsiteSpark Team: Tell us a little about yourself, your company, and what you do.

José Manuel Alarcón: I finished MsC Mechanical Engineering, but soon I caught the computing bug. I’m a Microsoft MVP in ASP.NET and also a MCT. For the last 13 years I’ve been writing articles for leading magazines in Spain and also have authored more than a half dozen books on technology. Since 2000 I’ve been running Krasis , a small but highly specialized company based in Spain. We’re devoted to on-line training on Microsoft Technologies exclusively. We have a small publishing house too, focusing on the same topic, with books in Spanish and English (you can find them on Amazon.com). All our authors and trainers hold the MVP award from Microsoft and are very well known in the technical community. We’re a prime choice on-line training provider for Microsoft in Spain.

WS: Why did you decide to enroll as a network partner for WebsiteSpark?

JM: We love helping other companies to succeed in implementing Microsoft technologies. We’re especially interested in web development and the WebsiteSpark program has all the ingredients to be a big hit among Webpros. On top of that, Microsoft Spain decided to offer extra free on-line training to all the companies registered in WebsiteSpark and we’re the company in charge to deliver this training and tutorial support to all of them. So the decision was straight forward :-)

WS: How has WebsiteSpark influenced your local software community?

JM: I think that the main benefit of the program is going to be breaking down the barriers between some Webpros and Microsoft Technologies. A lot of Webpros have chosen LAMP as a platform just because it’s free, but they don’t realize the productivity, ease of development and power that VS, ASP.NET, Silverlight and related Microsoft technologies can give to them. And they get surprised too when they see that PHP runs even faster on IIS 7.0 than in Linux and that a license of Windows Server is cheaper than any Enterprise Linux distro. WebsiteSpark will contribute to breaking down these barriers giving direct access for free to all those technologies.

WS: What kind of response are you getting back from your local website developers?

JM: It’s already too soon to tell because we have started recently with the program, but based on the response Microsoft has had from other areas of Spain we think that this will get a really good response. We’ll try to focus on companies already using other technologies for web development which is going to be probably harder because of the afore-mentioned mental barriers. We’ll see.