Tech Talk: Ask the Experts – J House Media, Jeremy Minnick discusses website work

It’s fun to watch Jeremy Minnick think.  His head pushes forward and his big eyes squint slightly, cornering his eyelids from side to side.  Then, after a few moments, just when you think you’ve puzzled him, a slight smile appears.  Then the smile gets bigger and bigger just before he answers.  And usually, his answer is brilliant.
See, Jeremy co-runs one of the more in-demand website development companies in the South-East, J House Media, and he’s become my go-to guy for all problems, concerns and questions of the internet.  I’ve known Jeremy for a while, back even before he had the beard. And so, I tie the busy guy down twenty minutes at a time and ask for him to share some knowledge.

In this week’s edition:

I keep hearing about Web 2.0.  What is it?

Jeremy Minnick: Most web firms would give you a variety of similar answers along the lines of “websites with greater interactivity.”

Web 2.0 was a term coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004 used to describe the new wave of web technology that came about after the “pretenders” had disappeared.  So many businesses rushed forward without having all their pieces put together, and failed under the pressure of too much debt and too little income or growth.

According to Tim O’Reilly: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform"

Many of the most popular sites these days, such as Google’s APIs, Flickr, Facebook and LinkedIn are great examples of the level of interactivity and utilization of web services to build a better internet.


I wanna have a cool, popular website. But I don’t know about that stuff. What should I look for in a good web designer?

Good personality, sense of humor and great with kids.  Just kidding!  The relationship you have with your web designer is based on one simple premise:  They need to meet your expectations.  If you don’t know what you’re expecting, then you don’t have a good basis to judge their qualifications.

This is a relationship like any other.  The more open communication you have about your expectations and desired outcomes, the less likely you are to be disappointed.  I personally feel you can find a lot of value in any web designer when the expectations are clearly laid out and you find someone who listens to you while you describe your project.  They must also genuinely want to not only earn your business, but do a good job. 

I’m intentionally skipping over the obvious requirement of skill and experience.  The more important your business is, the more important the experiences of the web designer are.  I can tell you from experience that the best way to get mistreated by a client is to mistreat them first.  Speaking as a web professional, I am proud of my team’s talents but without clients to hire us those talents are wasted   A professional developer appreciates the fact that they were chosen by you to work on your project.

Jeremy Minnick is the CEO and Systems Manager of J House Media, an East Coast website development firm focusing on interactive applications and websites for medium to large businesses.

For more information on J House Media or their services, they can be reached at www.JHouseMedia.com or call directly at 706-425-1976

If you’d like to have a question answered directly by someone on the J House Media team please send it to questions@jhousemedia.com

If you’d like to have your question answered in one of the next weekly editions of  “Ask the Experts”, please send your question to Joe@LASplash.com