I began studying computers seriously around the year 2000 when I began my diploma of IT specializing in Network Engineering. I managed to cram a couple of semesters in one and completed my  degree at the end of 2002. In 2003, we moved to Gloucester and I started a computer repair business as well as running an Internet café that I set up from scratch.

A couple of years passed, and a client of mine asked if I could build a website. How hard could it be to build, host and maintain a website? This was the start of a long journey that has led me to where I am at right now. Initially, I started with a web software that allowed me to create web pages in a visually and then you had to generate the HTML from the page design. It didn’t take me long to figure out that while it was easy enough to create the pages, it was impossible to go back to the page design after the HTML had been generated. The developer of the software said it was like making a cake and once the ingredients had been mixed, it was impossible to “un mix” the ingredients. This was not good and was impossible to scale. Changes to the site virtually required a site rebuild. This was not a good model as it was primarily aimed at a single site that once built, would be a set and forget scenario. This was not how the software was pitched. I had built and was hosting a couple of clients websites at this point and they were starting to ask about things like, being able to log in as a user and being able to do things in the back end like editing, manage users etc. I began to look for a better solution, it was clear that this software was not up to the task.

Researching the Internet, a better solution was found in the CMS called Joomla. Joomla had just about everything that I was looking for. It was easy to set up and configure once you knew your way around it. You could set up logins and you could grant or restrict access to everything. It was well supported by developers which meant that it was relatively easy to extend functionality to whatever the client needed. At that time there were more than 5 million websites built on the Joomla platform, so there were lots of places where you could find out information when you needed it. A few years later, a number of clients that I built using the Joomla platform, wanted an E-Commerce solution to their websites. This was a problem because Joomla does have a couple of E-Commerce extensions, however, they aren’t widely supported in the business world. So again, I was looking for a better system. One that incorporates E-Commerce and is also supported by business and industry.

I did More research, and what I found was WordPress. WordPress incorporates Woocommerce as its E-Commerce solution and Woocommerce integrates virtually every business solution that you could think of. Hundreds of payment gateways, shipping solutions, invoicing etc. Looking back over the years, I couldn’t tell you how many hours I have spent researching, testing and evaluating so many different systems, but it would be many hundreds, if not thousands of hours. So now, I build WordPress web sites or Joomla web sites for clients depending on what they want their websites to do now or in the future.

Avon River Computer Service is a registered Australian business. My ABN is 30 713 549 091