Shortly after launching Practical eCommerce, back in 2005, we started receiving editorial requests. The requests came from web developers who wanted specialized articles related to the design and development of ecommerce sites. Advertising Director Todd Jennings then started receiving similar requests, but they came from companies who wanted to offer products and services to ecommerce developers.
Those combined requests hatched an idea that is now EcommerceDeveloper.com, the new companion site to Practical eCommerce.
We launched Ecommerce Developer roughly six weeks ago. But the process was long, too long, and it involved steps that many ecommerce merchants could identify with. We first had to secure the domain name, EcommerceDeveloper.com, which had long since been purchased by a domain-name broker.
We then had to locate an editor who could plan the content, develop the annual editorial calendar and otherwise communicate with the developer audience. That combination, a developer who’s a journalist and who, preferably, is also an ecommerce merchant, is roughly equivalent to an athlete who’s good at, say, weightlifting and distance running.
But such an editor exists, and he’s Armando Roggio. Armando is now the site director and managing editor for Ecommerce Developer, as well as contributing editor for Practical eCommerce. And, yes, he’s also a web developer and an ecommerce merchant.
The mission of Ecommerce Developer is to help developers and designers of ecommerce sites. The coverage is platform-neutral and language-neutral, meaning you’ll see articles there about developing with licensed carts, hosted carts and open-source carts. You’ll also see pieces on PHP, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript and Flash, for example. We’ll offer suggestions for growing professional development practices and retaining clients. We’ll offer showcase-type articles, where we highlight websites that are outstanding in a particular way. And we’ll publish easy-to-follow tutorials on topics that developers must know.
The site contains all of that, as well as live and archived webinars, an online directory for companies that offer relevant products and services, and a free job board, for companies looking to hire developers.
In short, we’re excited about Ecommerce Developer and we know that it will fill a niche in the ecommerce community. We invite you to download the 2010 Editorial Calendar to see the topics we’ll be covering. And, most importantly, we hope you’ll stop by the site.
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This article is filed under Design & Development and has the following keyword tags: website development, website design, ecommerce developer.
