Journal.
Practical notes on fixing, launching and scoping small development work. Plain English, no sales script.
Is your AI-built app safe to launch? Nine checks before real users
Built your app with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor or Replit? Nine checks to run before real users arrive: database rules, exposed keys, payments, backups and more.
Is your contact form actually delivering? How to check, and the usual fixes
Contact forms fail quietly. How to test yours properly, why enquiries land in spam or vanish, and the fixes that make delivery reliable.
What a small website fix costs in Australia, and what changes the price
Typical costs for small website fixes and changes in Australia, why quotes vary so much, and how to get a fixed price instead of an open-ended hourly bill.
How to report a website bug so it gets fixed the first time
A short template for reporting a website or app bug: what to include, how to capture it, and the details that turn a vague complaint into a quick, cheap fix.
Payment succeeded, nothing happened: fixing Stripe webhooks
The customer paid, Stripe shows the charge, but your app never upgraded the account or confirmed the order. Why Stripe webhooks fail and how to make them reliable.
How to update WordPress plugins without breaking your site
A safe routine for WordPress and WooCommerce updates: backups, staging, update order, what to test, and what to do if an update takes the site down.
How to give a developer access without sending your passwords
How to give a developer access to WordPress, Shopify, hosting, GitHub, Stripe and Google tools safely: invited accounts, the right roles, and removing access afterwards.
Who owns your website? Domains, hosting, code and logins to check now
Check who really controls your domain, hosting, code and logins. A practical ownership audit for Australian businesses, including .au registrant rules.
Your developer disappeared. How to recover the project
Your web developer has stopped replying. How to regain the domain, hosting and code through proper recovery processes, and get the project moving again.
How to brief a developer: the one-page document that saves weeks
How to write a one-page brief for a website or app job: goal, scope, examples, constraints and what done looks like. Get clearer quotes and fewer surprises.
Fix or rebuild? How to decide what your website actually needs
Should you fix your current website or start again? A practical way to decide, with the signs that point each way and the questions to ask before you spend.
The website launch checklist: what to verify before you switch the domain
What to check before pointing your domain at a new website: DNS TTL, email MX records, SSL, redirects, forms, analytics and the noindex setting people forget.
Core Web Vitals for business owners: what the three numbers mean
LCP, INP and CLS in plain English: what each Core Web Vital measures, Google’s “good” thresholds, where to find your real scores, and what usually fixes them.
Faster pages from smaller images: AVIF, WebP and lazy loading
How to make website images smaller without losing quality: the right sizes, AVIF and WebP, lazy loading done properly, and what Shopify and WordPress do.
Local SEO for Australian service businesses: the website side
The website side of local SEO for Australian tradies and clinics: Google Business Profile, consistent NAP details, LocalBusiness schema and honest suburb pages.
Moving to a new website without losing your Google traffic
How to move to a new website or platform without losing Google traffic: the redirect map, 301s, keeping URLs, Search Console, sitemaps and monitoring.
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers
Nobody controls what ChatGPT or Google’s AI answers recommend. What you can control: crawlable pages, clear facts, schema, consistent details and crawler rules.
Your vibe-coded MVP works. Should you fix it or rebuild it?
Built your MVP with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor or Replit and now have real users? How to decide whether to fix the code you have or rebuild, and what each costs.
Supabase Row Level Security, explained for founders
What Supabase Row Level Security does, how policies and auth.uid() work, why the anon and service_role keys matter, and how to test your rules with two users.
Adding AI to your business without the chatbot trap
The AI jobs that pay off for a small business are narrow: summarising, sorting enquiries, drafting replies for review, searching your own documents.
When a spreadsheet should become a small custom app
Spreadsheets run plenty of small businesses well, until they don’t. The signs it’s time for a small custom app, what to try first, and how to scope it.
Connecting your website forms to HubSpot or your CRM properly
Getting website enquiries into HubSpot, Salesforce or another CRM reliably: field mapping, duplicates, consent, failure alerts, and why email isn’t enough.
Shopify or WooCommerce for a small Australian store?
Shopify or WooCommerce for a small Australian online store? A plain comparison of running costs, upkeep, payments, shipping, GST and when to choose each.
Checkout fixes that stop customers abandoning their cart
Why shoppers abandon carts and the checkout fixes that help: upfront shipping costs, guest checkout, express payments, mobile forms, speed and clear errors.
Stripe, Square or Tyro? Choosing payments for an Australian website
Stripe, Square or Tyro for your Australian website? Compare them on fit: online vs in-person, subscriptions, your POS, payouts, integrations and surcharging.
GA4, Plausible or Fathom: what a small business should actually track
GA4, Plausible or Fathom for an Australian small business website? What each suits, privacy and consent basics, the events worth tracking and how to use UTMs.
Website accessibility in Australia: a practical WCAG 2.2 guide for small business
A practical WCAG 2.2 guide for Australian small business websites: the DDA, what level AA means, quick checks you can run yourself and why overlays fall short.
The Privacy Act and your website forms: what to check
Australian Privacy Act basics for website forms: collection notices, collecting less, keeping sensitive data out of email, spam, secure storage and retention.
Why your real estate listings aren’t updating, and how to fix the feed
Listings stuck on your agency website? The usual causes, from expired API credentials to failed imports, caching and sold status mapping, and how to fix them.
Quotes, bookings and deposits: the tradie website that pays for itself
How a tradie website can take better quote requests, offer bookings and collect deposits online, and connect to the job management tools you already use.
Clinic websites: online booking that works, and the rules to know
How to make online booking work on an Australian clinic website, plus the AHPRA advertising and Privacy Act rules to check. Practical, plain-English guide.
Your menu shouldn’t be a PDF: restaurant websites that get bookings
Why restaurant menus work better as web pages than PDFs, plus allergen info, booking widgets, Google Business Profile menus, speed and online ordering.