A growing collection of articles, ideas, comparisons and useful resources about PHP development, UX design, SEO, websites and digital products.
Thoughts, experiments and observations from developing PHP applications, improving websites, creating content and building self-hosted software.
I expected products and blog articles to need completely separate systems. Building the custom CMS behind Cordinant showed me something different: beneath their specialised fields and layouts, they shared much of the same structure. Recognising that pattern changed how I thought about the CMS, and about software architecture more generally.
Building a digital product costs far more than writing code. Planning, UX, documentation, screenshots, SEO, launch work, maintenance and constant revision all consume time. This article looks at the less visible work that turns functioning software into something another person can actually discover, understand and use.
Where does a website end and a web application begin? After building Cordinant beyond simple public pages into databases, admin tools and structured content systems, the distinction became much less obvious. This article explores the difference between websites and web applications - and the large grey area between them.
I built My Budget because I wanted a clearer picture of where my money was going and how close I was to my savings goals. What started as a personal need gradually became a self-hosted PHP and MySQL application — and eventually a finished source-code product.
An MVP can help you test an idea quickly, but releasing the smallest possible product is not always the best approach. This article explores MVPs, full products, prototypes, hidden development work, early launches and the difficult question of how much really needs to exist before version one is ready.
Building software alone involves far more than writing code. It means moving between development, design, documentation, SEO, content and product decisions -often within the same day. This article explores the reality of solo product development, including its freedom, invisible work, limitations and constant trade-offs.
A collection of practical articles, product ideas, and resources on technical research, development, SEO and content for anyone interested in creating websites, apps and digital products.
PHP architecture, project structure, deployment and reusable solutions.
Explore articlesIdeas, planning, validation and product strategy.
Explore articlesDesign decisions, usability and user experience.
Explore articlesSearch visibility, content structure and growth.
Explore articlesUseful services, libraries and development tools.
Explore articlesThoughts, comparisons and new approaches.
Explore articlesThe principles discussed in these articles are applied in real self-hosted products, not only described in theory.
A self-hosted PHP and MySQL personal finance application with transactions, reports, goals, exports and an installer.
View My Budget →An offline-first marine operations PWA with voyages, fuel, maintenance, crew records, checklists and optional PHP backup tools.
View Captain's Toolkit →Browse installable PHP applications, self-hosted starter kits and practical developer tools created with the same principles discussed in the blog.