FM · June 9, 2026
The handoff checklist: leaving a developer well (in either direction)
The complete transfer list when a website changes hands — what the departing developer delivers, what the owner verifies, and how both sides walk away clean.
FM · June 2, 2026
Should you leave Drupal? An honest decision guide
Sometimes the right upgrade is a different platform. The factors that actually decide it — team, content model, budget-over-time — from someone with no horse in the race.
FM · May 29, 2026
Drupal 10 to 11: the gentle jump, and the December deadline
Drupal 10 reaches end of life in December 2026. The move to 11 is the easiest major upgrade in Drupal's history for a healthy site — here's the checklist and the catch.
FM · April 13, 2026
Avoiding the website hostage situation
How organizations end up unable to leave their web vendor, what the lock-in patterns look like from inside, and the contract lines that prevent all of it.
FN · March 18, 2026
Promotion math: why 20% plus 10% is 28%
Discount stacking runs on sequential math and evaluation order — why combined promotions come out smaller than expected, and the one setting that turns them off entirely.
FM · March 2, 2026
When a React app won't compile anymore
JavaScript projects rot faster than any CMS: why a two-year-old untouched React build fails, the triage order that gets it building again, and when to stop resuscitating.
FM · February 16, 2026
Choosing your next developer after a bad experience
The seven questions that separate a real professional from the next bad chapter — and the answers that should end the interview early.
FM · January 27, 2026
Migrating a store without losing orders
What must survive a commerce migration — order history, customer accounts, SKUs, URLs — what can't come along (saved cards), and the cutover pattern that protects revenue.
FM · November 3, 2025
Your site got hacked: the first five moves
The calm sequence for a compromised website — what to do in the first hour, what evidence to preserve, and the mistakes panicked owners make that deepen the damage.
FM · October 31, 2025
Still running Magento 1? What that means in plain terms
Magento 1 support ended June 30, 2020. What running a store six-plus years past end-of-life actually exposes, why patches only stretch so far, and the realistic paths off.
FM · September 30, 2025
How Drupal versions work (and which ones are safe in 2026)
The Drupal 5-through-11 map in plain language: what a major version is, what end-of-life actually means, and where every branch stands right now.
FM · August 13, 2025
Keeping an online store alive: why commerce maintenance is different
A store is a website plus money in motion — payment APIs, tax rules, shipping rates, and PCI obligations that keep changing whether or not anyone maintains the site.
FN · July 28, 2025
The canoe plan: what a real project plan contains
Plan a web project like a Boundary Waters route: a real map, honest distances, layover days, a float plan someone else holds, and a trip sized to the paddlers you have.
FM · July 15, 2025
What happens when you stop maintaining a website
The decay curve of an unmaintained site: nothing for months, then forms and integrations quietly fail, then security exposure — slow at first, sudden at the end.
FN · July 2, 2025
The portage method: how we carry heavy projects
Migrations and rescues are portages — you can't carry everything at once, so the craft is in the staging: inventory the loads, carry in passes, count everything at the far end.
FM · June 30, 2025
The .NET sites time forgot
ASP.NET Web Forms sites from the 2000s and 2010s still run half the Midwest's back offices. What 'the framework is done evolving' means, and the realistic paths forward.
FM · June 20, 2025
What a website maintenance plan actually includes
The five jobs a real maintenance plan covers — updates, backups, monitoring, small fixes, and a human who answers — and the questions that reveal a hollow one.
FM · June 19, 2025
Do you need a staging site?
If your website takes payments, runs on a CMS, or has ever broken during an update — yes. What staging actually is, and the low-cost ways to get one.
FM · June 13, 2025
Choosing an ecommerce platform, honestly
Hosted vs self-hosted is really one question: is your selling ordinary or unusual? Where Shopify-class platforms win, where Drupal Commerce and WooCommerce earn their keep.
FM · June 12, 2025
What breaks first on an abandoned online store
The failure order of an unmaintained store: shipping rates drift, tax falls behind, then a payment API retirement stops revenue outright. Where to look first.
FM · June 2, 2025
How long does a Drupal migration actually take?
Honest duration math for D7-to-modern migrations: what makes one site a few weeks and another a few months, and the one thing that predicts the timeline better than size.
FM · May 23, 2025
PCI compliance in plain language
What PCI DSS actually asks of a small store, why how you collect cards decides how heavy it is, and the one architecture choice that keeps the burden light.
FM · May 19, 2025
Five signs your website is quietly abandoned
The checks anyone can run in ten minutes — no developer required — to find out whether anyone is actually watching your site, before an emergency answers the question for you.
FM · May 6, 2025
WordPress major updates: why they feel easy and when they aren't
WordPress ships updates continuously rather than in decade-scale majors — which is why WP sites break in small pieces instead of big bangs, and what actually needs watching.
FM · April 2, 2025
Website backups that actually restore
A backup is only real once it's been restored. The 3-2-1 rule for websites, what a complete backup must contain, and the one test that separates hope from coverage.
FN · March 27, 2025
Three lookups that tell you what you actually own
Ten minutes, no passwords, no developer: WHOIS your domain, check your DNS, read your site's generator tag — and know your registrar, host, platform, and two expiry dates.
FM · March 10, 2025
What is a headless website, and do you need one?
Headless splits your CMS from your front end — powerful when multiple things consume your content, double the maintenance when only a website does. How to tell which you are.
FM · January 31, 2025
Do you even need a CMS?
If nobody has edited your site in a year, the CMS is all cost and no benefit. When a static site is the honest answer, and the questions that tell you which side you're on.
FM · December 19, 2024
What a rescue assessment actually covers
The $2,500 flat assessment, itemized: what gets examined, what the written findings contain, and what you can do with the report whether or not you hire us.
FM · November 21, 2024
Who actually owns your website? The four keys
Domain, hosting, code, content — the four things that constitute owning a website, who holds each one right now, and how to take them back without drama.
FM · November 19, 2024
What to do when your website goes down
A calm order of operations for an outage: confirm it's really down, check the boring causes first — domain, SSL, hosting bill — and know when it's time to call someone.
FM · November 18, 2024
The case for boring technology
Boring means known failure modes, deep help pools, and a future rescuer who can find the light switch. Why proven-and-common beats new-and-clever for most organizations.
FM · October 7, 2024
Rebuild or rescue? How to actually decide
The honest decision framework for a struggling site: when a rescue-and-stabilize saves real money, when a rebuild is genuinely right, and how to spot a rebuild quote that's really a ransom.
FM · September 26, 2024
Drupal vs WordPress: the honest version
The real dividing line isn't quality, it's structure: WordPress for sites that are mostly pages and posts, Drupal for sites that are really databases wearing a website.
FM · September 24, 2024
Where should your website live? Hosting, in plain terms
Managed platforms, cloud servers, and budget shared hosting — what each actually buys you, and why the answer follows from who maintains the site, not from the price.
FM · September 6, 2024
How website security updates work — and why 'it still works fine' isn't safe
Security releases are public disclosures: every fix tells attackers exactly where to look on unpatched sites. Why patch speed matters more than site size.
FM · August 19, 2024
What a migration can't lose (and how to prove it didn't)
Counts as the contract: the discipline that separates a migration you can trust from one that merely looks finished — from an engineer who has moved millions of nodes.