Ehlo mates! Sorry about the lack of updates but boy have I been busy. Lately I have been updating and adding on upgrades to my current scripts to make business go smoother. I have learned in my short time of doing e-commerce (since 2006) that efficiency is what makes you the money, the more efficient you can create sales and ship off orders, the more money you will make. Since last August I have been focuses on creating a system were I can manage all of web projects accurately so I can use those statistics for something useful.
I didn’t know php that well back then so I had to start from scratch basically, I first worked on developerhut.com making managing orders very easy for the customers, writers, and me. During that time I have added a TON of add-on’s which include a very detailed statistics page, a integrated support ticket and support note system, added Google Checkout and Credit Cards, and even have about 20 crons running every night that manage all of the orders and accounting. That website is just now starting to look like it will be getting done soon, but I still have a lot more work to do on it.
Since I leaned most of the basics of php from coding developerhut.com backend I have working my way up by making a whole e-commerce website in my own code. That includes the order system and order managing system, automated customer notifications, and even some automated marketing scripts. I want to use this set up for all of my other e-commerce websites and all of my future e-commerce websites, since I would only need to make one backend system and make it link into one main website (which I will get to later) and then I can easily make more niche e-commerce websites decently easy. Right now I am still finishing off the code so I can start the backend system on another website soon (like in the next day or two), the only big thing I am working on now is the PCI compliant tests (surprise surprise I didnt pass, need to fix my code).
Now on to my favourite project… the last 2-3 month I have been working on a main website that links all of web projects together. I made the site so that all of my drop shippers and private lead offer people can easily login and do there shit. I then added a system that shows me all of my stats for all of my web projects. This website has already been extremely valuable because of the information it has given me so I can tweak marketing campaigns. At this time I only have 3 of my projects linked on that website, but someday I will have them all linked up and that will make things very easy to manage, but there is a lot of work ahead of my to get there.
Lately I have been finishing up the e-commerce backend along with updating a lot of bad code on developerhut.com. I have also just barley started a private lead offer, and I am using my own affiliate backend for that, I created a backend that tracks all of the basic info you need for adwords campaigns, it tracks the keywords, ip, and refer page. I can view all of that info on the main website thingy I was talking about. Lately I can add on more shit as I get better at php, but this new system gives me a good platform to work on and improve for later projects. In about a week I hope to have this system on the only 2 lead offers I am running, and then after that move it on to my e-commerce websites. Since I dont make my money from my lead offers I can test it out on them haha.
For some reason I love building systems to make things easier, too much Civilization 3 maybe? But anyways, here is another small blog update with horrible grammar, thanks for reading 
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Hey Jon,
I’ve been wanting to get started in making things more automated with php (the backend of the site). Where would you recommend me to start at?
Look into object oriented programming. Keeping the code for each class saved in one single php document makes it loads easier to use code from one project into another.
I’d suggest buying a copy of Professional PHP 5 – a lot of the code in that book has errors in, or doesn’t work quite how you’d expect, but fixing that is all part of learning.
Thanks for the help, synchronium. I just purchased the book from amazon.
Jon, those are surely smart moves. Making automatic jobs will save you a lot of time and money in long term. And i know systems like yours can be really a pain in ass to make, so congrats on taking them near the finish.
we miss your post . i will be wait for your new site
Glad to see you have been busy, just wish I had time to spend a bit more time doing PHP.
Jon – why don’t you outsource this coding? You’d have finished it months ago, freeing yourself up to work on the bigger picture. Coding is basically just grunt work…
Coding is both fun and rewarding. The above commenter obviously has never even tried to learn to do anything himself.
@Synchronium I’ve done far too much! Seriously, I love coding but outsourcing is the way forward longterm at least in terms of $$$. Of course, being an experienced coder helps you to be able to outsource effectively, and also to make small changes without the need for a development team, but at some point you have to give up handling everything yourself. Each to their own though.
Just recieved my book, Professional PHP 5, I’m excited to get started in developing programs to help make task simpler.
yeah I am actually going to get “php 5 for dummies”. I bought it once but it was out of stock on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/PHP-5-Dummies-Janet-Valade/dp/0764541668/ref=pd_sim_b_3
I will prob leave it out on the desk and go to it every once in a while tho.