The PHP developer or development firm should have at least four years experience in creating applications, and similar expertise crafting the applications that your company requires. Experience, education and training are the three aspects that create successful developers.

The PHP developer should have experience with the following languages: PHP (of course), SEO-aware Semantic HTML Coding, MySQL, XML and preferably Javascript and AJAX. Experience should be listed on the job proposal and should be verified prior to employment with samples, a portfolio and at least one reference.

Communication Skills are a must. During the initial meeting, communication skills can be assessed through the question and answer process of the interview. Whomever is managing the project must be able to communicate effectively. Effective communication is necessary to complete adequate systems design that reach the company’s expectations.  This is one of the major reasons companies are turning away from offshore outsourcing and looking towards local development firms with a proven track record.

How long has the developer or development firm been in business? Just as important as experience is dependability and marketability; if the development firm has been in business for a long time you know you can trust them to be around for a while.  You also need to know there is someone here who can answer your support calls and fix any problems which may arise with the code.

Are you considering hiring a freelance PHP developer? Freelance developers may come at lower costs, but cannot be held accountable through an organization. Finding a trustworthy freelance PHP developer with a high work ethic is almost impossible, and that is just another reason to consider a dependable NJ web design firm with a strong client base.

It is important to develop ongoing relationships with any programmers or designers you work with, as they will be more familiar with the role and expectations of the company.  Should you need to expand current systems or integrate new ones, you know you’ll have someone you can depend on to get the job done right the first time.

About the Author:
Barry Wise is a professional Web Design, SEO and Programming guru with over 10 years experience working in PHP and database systems.  As the President of ITCN NJ Web Design, he has worked on PHP programming projects for companies of every size in New Jersey, from local business e-commerce sites to large corporate data systems.

“Our online storefront at Engraved Well Gifts was performing well,” says Francis Gilliland, owner and CEO of Engraved Well Gifts. “But we knew we had to capture more of the organic search market. Naturally, since we are based in North Bergen, New Jersey, we turned to a recognized leader in the New Jersey Online Marketing and SEO business, ITCN, for search engine and web strategies.”

Engraved Well Gifts has been operating in New Jersey since 2006, and have steadily increased their revenue and sales each month since their inception. Gilliland attributes much of this success to offering the lowest prices in the high end gift product market, and to an obsessive commitment to customer service. “But in order to continue to grow, we recognized the need to expand our business and seek professional help for our online marketing resources,” says Gilliland.

“Engraved Well Gifts is in a highly competitive niche market - personalized gifts,” says Barry Wise, President of ITCN NJ Web Design and Marketing. “But we are confident we can boost their rankings in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, and as a result that we can increase their sales. After all, we can only judge our clients ROI by their sales - traffic via SEO techniques is useless without actual sales conversion.”

Engraved Well Gifts (http://www.engravedwell.com/) is an online e-commerce store based in North Bergen, New Jersey. They offer one of the fastest turnarounds for personalized orders as it takes less than 5 days to personalize and engrave most products. Engraved Well Gifts offers several shipping options, from UPS 1 Day to UPS Ground. Most orders will be delivered within 5 business days from the day the order ships.

ITCN (http://www.itcn.com) has been providing online marketing, SEO, web design, and application programming services for New Jersey since 1998. Working with Fortune 500 clients such as Lucent, Avaya, IBM and AT&T, ITCN has become positioned as the local leader in web design and marketing services. For other examples of their work, please view their Web Design Portfolio.

“We are proud and extremely pleased today to announce our acceptance into the Better Business Bureau, ” says Barry Wise, founder and President of ITCN NJ Web Design and Marketing.  “I think there is no better way to highlight our complete commitment to customer satisfaction.  Our 100% client satisfaction rate spanning a decade in the industry is no better proof of this.”

The Better Business Bureau’s vision is to create “an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers can trust each other,” according to their website.  It accomplishes this by publishing any customer grievances which might be lodged against a business.  More importantly, though, is that it gives businesses the chance to respond to and correct any customer satisfaction issues.  The BBB often acts as a mediator for customer grievances. If a complaint is ever reported, the business has a chance to rectify the situation by answering the complaint and taking steps to correct it.

“Of course I’m proud that not one customer complaint or grievance has been filed against ITCN in 10 years, ” says Wise.  “And I doubt one ever will be.  But if the need ever does arise we look forward to the opportunity to publicly demonstrate our commitment to customer satisfaction.  Since the majority of our projects are repeat business from satisfied customers, you can rest assured that we go above and beyond the call for complete and total customer satisfaction.”

ITCN provides four primary Internet services: Web Design, Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), Application Programming, and Online Marketing.  “If you’ve got a website you want to build, promote and make successful, we’re pretty much your one-stop shop, ” says Wise.  ITCN has been operating out of Morristown, New Jersey since 1998, and has since completed hundreds of projects for businesses of all sizes, ranging from local restaurants to Lucent, IBM and AT&T.

ITCN NJ Web Design and Marketing publishes its services and portfolio online at http://www.itcn.com or you can call them directly at 973.538.9066.

You know how important first impressions are in personal relationships; well, they’re even more important on the web. If your website does not exude professionalism most people will assume that your products and services won’t be professional either. It only takes a quick Google search to lose a potential customer to a competitor’s more attractive website.

Now that you understand how important the hiring of a web company is to the future of your business you need to know what factors to look for when deciding whom to hire. Regardless of your location, in New Jersey or not, these same five factors should be considered before you shell out any money for web design.

NJ Web Design Portfolio

Always request to see previous projects the web design company has done in their Web Design Portfolio. You should be able to pick up on a certain style or pattern that is common to all their work. See if their style fits what you are looking for because your finished product will share many of those same features.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Skills

There’s really no sense in paying thousands of dollars on a site nobody will ever see. The main source of web traffic these days is the major search engines such as Google. It is critical that you find a local web design company that is familiar with NJ SEO (regional advertising) and can optimize your site for the search engines.

Web Design Proposal

A professional web design company should always provide you with a detailed report on exactly what they will do for you, how long it will take and how much it will cost. If you are given a proposal that is too general or lacks a specific timeline, you might be in for a world of trouble.

Pricing

In this business, like any other, you get what you pay for. Do your research and see what other similar companies are charging. If the prices of the company you are considering are significantly lower than the rest, be skeptical. You need to consider why they are able to charge so little – are you sacrificing the quality of design?

Additional Services

Once your website is up you are bound to need other services such as business identity or logo branding, Search Engine Marketing, programming (PHP, ASP.NET) and maybe even a Content Management System (CMS). Rather than dealing with several different companies to get all this done, why not find one company that can do it all?

“One of the challenges of having been around so long, for the past decade in Morristown, has been keeping our own website looking new and fresh, ” says Barry Wise, President of ITCN NJ Web Design and Marketing.  “We spend a lot of time working on our clients’ projects, that we tend to neglect our own.”

ITCN has delivered database-enabled web applications and marketing services for some of the biggest employers in New Jersey, including Lucent, Avaya, AT&T and ADT Security.

“Sure, we’ve worked on some very complex projects for big business over the years, ” says Wise. “But with the re-launch of our website we wanted to let the local community know that we are still committed to working with small and local businesses right here in New Jersey.  The experience we’ve had developing and marketing some of these big companies with big budgets on Google and Yahoo have given us a clear competitive advantage when it comes to targetting local and regional customers.”

ITCN is primarily an online marketing company which specializes in three aspects of web marketing: Web Design, Application Programming, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 
 
 ”After 10 years in business in a very fast-paced and competitive market like the web, you really appreciate the fact that there is no room for a learning curve.  When we are contracted for a project, we come out of the gate running, ready to complete that project on time and within budget every time, ” says Wise. “If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have been in business for 10 years.”
 
ITCN, http://www.itcn.com, has been providing online marketing, SEO, web design, and application programming services for New Jersey since 1998.  Working with Fortune 500 clients such as Lucent, Avaya, IBM and AT&T, ITCN has become positioned as the local leader in web design and marketing services.

“When we approach a project, we don’t like to just give a new look to the same old stale content,” says Barry Wise, President of ITCN. “We like to determine with the client what the true objective with their web presence may be, whether it is just more traffic, more sales revenue, or simply brand awareness. We then use our experience in user interface development and database programming, coupled with online marketing and search engine placement, to implement their objective.”

The goal of the New Jersey Mayors Wellness Campaign is to equip mayors and other key leaders with the tools to develop and implement active-living initiatives in their communities with the ultimate goal of improving health and reducing the skyrocketing health care costs that come with the obesity problem in New Jersey.

“We’ve worked with a lot of other large web application projects in the healthcare field before, such as the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, the Hoboken University (formerly St. Mary’s) Medical Center, and the Bon Secours Medical Staff. But the MWC was a unique challenge, ” says Wise. “They have a very specific target audience they want to reach with their website - public officials and key decision makers on the local civic level throughout New Jersey. Our goal was not merely web design; it was web interaction with a specific purpose.”

One of the most important interactive features of the new site is the ability for town Mayors or other officials to pledge their support for the MWC active lifestyle project. ITCN accomplished this goal by supplying a method for Mayors to sign the pledge in digital form, and then allow anyone who visits the site the ability to check and see if their town is included on the list.

“We are of course aware that this is a public web presence, and even though it is a tool for public officials, it is also a source of information for all their constituents, ” says Wise. “So we wanted to let everyone check on the status of their own town, and on the activity and commitment level of their local government.”

ITCN delivered the website as a custom application in the form of a Content Management System, which allows MWC site administrators to update the site on their own, whenever they feel the need to add new content.

“The Mayors Wellness Campaign plans to keep updating the site with newsworthy items of interest, videos, photo galleries, grant information, and more. And they want to do this on a fairly regular basis, so it didn’t make sense to have someone else do it for them. So ITCN provided them with a complete custom Content Management System which allows them to add news and update website content daily, ” says Wise.

ITCN, http://www.itcn.com, has been providing online marketing, SEO, web design, and application programming services for New Jersey since 1998. Working with Fortune 500 clients such as Lucent, Avaya, IBM and AT&T, ITCN has become positioned as the local leader in web design and marketing services.

Some of the information which can be found on the new THA website includes how to apply for housing in Trenton, eligibility requirements, and photos of the various THA Housing developments. Over the past 30 years, the THA has served nearly 2,000 households, and they are constantly striving to meet the demands of the growing population in Trenton.

“Our old website was simply not performing the basic function of getting our information to the members of our community, ” says Cindy Smith, the IT specialist in charge of the website launch at THA. “We wanted a way for everyone to know what we had to offer them.”

In addition to designing and programming tha-nj.org, ITCN also applied their search engine optimization techniques to the new website. This resulted in an almost immediate 300% increase in online visitor traffic from search engines like Google and Yahoo.

“ITCN has helped us immensely by not only making a clean and professional website, but by also helping more people find us on the web. Our traffic tripled due to ITCN’s work, ” said Smith.

“This was a great project for us, ” said Barry Wise, President of ITCN. “Not only did it help expand our professional portfolio, but it was very rewarding to be involved in a project which provides so much assistance for the people of New Jersey.”

ITCN also worked with the staff of ABS, a Trenton company which provides management solutions, to publish the content on the new website. ABS provided all copy for the site and worked to ensure the flow of information was user and search engine friendly.

“ABS was also a pleasure to work with. They focused on our content requirements and worked with us to insure a high level of quality went into the new site,” says Smith.

ABOUT ITCN:
ITCN is a web design and online marketing company in Morristown, NJ. They have been providing web design, programming, e-commerce, database application and search engine optimization services in Morristown since 1998.

ABOUT THA:
The Trenton Housing Authority provides decent and affordable housing in a safe and secure living environment for low and moderate income residents throughout the City of Trenton. It is an autonomous body that is charted by the State of New Jersey, partially funded by the federal government, and governed by a seven member Board of Commissioners. Over the past 30 years, the THA has served nearly 2,000 households. Several new housing sites have been added to meet the growing needs of families in Trenton.

TutorMatch today announced the launch of their newly re-designed website, http://www.tutormatch.com/, an online service which connects students with tutors in specific areas of study.

This new design will help students and tutors more easily navigate the website and offer more resources as well as links to other educational portals.

Since 1996 both tutors and students have recognized TutorMatch as the internet leader in tutor referral services. Their website was perhaps the first to ever offer any kind of online tutoring services, and today they still rank as one of the web’s most popular tutor destinations.

“We have always offered students a free and easy way to find tutors,” says Chaim Lazar, one of the founding partners of TutorMatch. “But in the past we focused on local services, helping students find tutors located near them geographically. Now we have expanded our service to allow students to connect with online tutors located anywhere in the world.”

TutorMatch does not require any signup or membership for parents or students to search for tutors, it is an entirely free service.

TutorMatch has a very strong base of locally advertised tutors - over 4,000 at press time. These are tutors which operate by either visiting students or having students meet with them in a public library or school to provide tutoring in person. According to Lazar, he plans to use this base as a launching pad to attract online tutors.

“For many people seeking help in a very specific academic subject, there simply may not be any tutors located nearby, ” says Lazar. “We hope to give them the same level of service by allowing them to find tutors anywhere in the country which can meet their needs.”

TutorMatch has focused mainly on providing services in the United States since its inception in 1996. Lazar says over 90% of their database is comprised of tutors located in the U.S. “We hope that will change as we expand, and we can begin reaching into new markets to provide our services on an international level.”

TutorMatch makes the privacy and safety of all involved a primarcy concern. The TutorMatch.com website protects the identity of tutors by only providing students and parents the tutor’s first name. It is up to the parent or student to supply a tutor with any contact information, at which time the tutor then has the option to disclose their contact information and begin a tutoring contract.

TutorMatch (formerly Tutor2000) was established in 1996 to help students easily connect with qualified tutors nationwide. Today, Tutor Match offers a directory of thousands of tutors waiting to assist students. TutorMatch is dedicated not only to matching the right student with the right tutor, but also protecting the privacy and safety of all tutors and students.