If you are using a screen reader to access this page and would like to offer feedback on how I could make it a better experience for you please email michael@siblify.com
June 2nd, 2010
Having experimented with several different content management systems, one feature I really value is the ability to dynamically create a navigation menu based on the content of the site. When I started using ExpressionEngine, I liked it’s user interface, flexibility and ease of implementation but I missed the automatic navigation builder’s that are included with some open source packages such as CMS Made Simple. (more…)
April 13th, 2010
Whilst developing siblify.com and msibley.com I was unsure how best to implement my blog which I wanted to be accessible from both sites. I considered having two blogs, one for art and one for web design, but I felt that the two should overlap and I wanted to find a middle ground where both topics could be discussed along with some more random thoughts when I felt like it. I was aware of the fact that duplicating content can cause problems with search engines and I felt that having two blogs with identical content may cause confusion amongst users so it was a bit of a conundrum.
February 19th, 2010
HTML emails are notoriously difficult beasts to tame thanks to patchy/non-existant support for web standards in most of the main email clients. One of the worst offenders and the most widely used of these is Microsoft Outlook and for those of us who try to spend as little time as possible in a Windows environment, it can be tricky to test. In this article I will give an outline of how I test HTML emails using my mac with both local applications and online test suites.
December 29th, 2009
Here are 10 Joomla extensions and hacks that I’ve found useful. Some of them are a bit obscure but I have found them all invaluable at different times for making Joomla the flexible content management system I need it to be. I generally wouldn’t use all of these hacks in one website but just knowing what is possible by changing a few lines of code or by installing a free plugin can broaden your scope when designing for Joomla or help you when deciding if Joomla is suitable for a specific project.
November 22nd, 2009
It was an article in smashing magazine entitled 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires that started me thinking about this. Whilst I think it is a great idea to keep website contact forms as simple as possible for users, I also wanted to offer the ability for potential clients to provide more in-depth information about themselves and the projects they represent.
October 15th, 2009
The various web hosts I am going to review here vary greatly and the right one for you depends on the requirements for your site. None of these hosts are disastrous choices (although Easily has had me close to tears at times). My personal recommendations would be Virtual names for smaller sites where you would benefit from a simple-to-use yet powerful control panel and great customer support and Easyspace for a larger business sites where the price, whilst certainly not the cheapest, is more acceptable and comes coupled with an efficient support system and a more corporate feel.
Here’s a breakdown of the different hosting provider’s basic and professional hosting packages. I have excluded any packages that don’t include php and mysql support as I regard these as essential for modern web development.
| Host name | Package | Storage limit | Bandwidth limit |
Mailboxes | Mysql databases |
Domain name included |
Price p.a. inc. VAT |
| Easily | Beginner | 1GB | Unlimited | Not stated | 1 | NO | £24.99 |
| Rating: 4/10 | Professional | 20GB | Unlimited | Not stated | 5 | NO | £89.99 |
| Names Co. | Starter + | 1GB | 10GB | 15 | 5 | YES | £89.99 |
| Rating: 6/10 | Business + | 4.5GB | 45GB | 10 | 10 | YES | £199.99 |
| Nethost | Student | 500MB | Ulimited | 20 | 3 | NO | £9.99 |
| Rating: 7/10 | Deluxe | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | NO | £129.99 |
| Easyspace | Starter | 3GB | Unlimited | 200 | 1 | YES | £55 |
| Rating: 8/10 | Business | 6GB | Unlimited | 200 | 7 | YES | £110 |
| Virtual Names | Basic | 50MB | 5GB | 10 | Unlimited | NO | £23 |
| Rating: 8/10 | Super Pro | 1GB | 60GB | 100 | Unlimited | NO | £184 |
In the course of my work as a freelance web designer I have been forced to use a multitude of different web hosts and have come to realise that all web hosts are not equal. Here is a list of 5 web hosts that I have used with a brief review of my experiences with them. I have had more experience with some than others so this is by no means a conclusive study but I hope it will help you if you are looking for a web host and don’t know where to begin.
