Q. When did you launch your first website?
A. September 1997, two months after Mari and I met on a discussion list and two months before we were married. Mari had several years Internet experience and I was still wet behind the ears.

Mari moved her site from her previous host and revamped it to show off her considerable design and graphics skills. I created and discarded a dozen sites, implementing an idea or two and then learning something new that required starting over.

Q. Did you have a business plan?
A. We had no business plan. We decided to use my programming skills and Mari's design skills to supplement our income from outside jobs, and hoped we could make a go of it. I am a good programmer in several popular languages, including C, C++, and Pascal.. Now I began learning the CGI protocol and the Perl and JavaScript languages. Almost daily, in those first heady months, I discovered a new or more elegant way of doing something. Then one day I discovered something that was to launch our hopes into a real Internet business.

Q. What was the key to launching your business?
A. I happened upon http://www.recommend-it.com/ and liked what they did - letting webmasters place links to let their visitors recommend their site. I wanted one. But I didn't want my visitors to fill out the "recommend me" form on someone else's site.

After looking around script download sites for several hours and finding nothing related to "recommend me" scripts, I created my own. Once the script worked well, I called it Master Recommend and put it on our site for free download. Creating Master Recommend and giving it away launched our Internet business. Not only was it the first free "recommend me-type" CGI script available to the Internet public, it showed off my programming skills. Today, there are dozens of similar programs.

Q. How did giving away something free significantly increase your business?
A. People came to download the script. They saw the quality of the site's graphics and design while there. Once they began using Master Recommend, they realized the quality of the programming. And when they needed programming or design work done, they already knew someone who was good.

Q. What is so special about Master Recommend?
A. It's a great promotional tool. Our free Numerology Reading site went from under 100 readings per day to a consistent 1,000+ readings per day in less than a year. Most of the increase is directly related to visitors recommending the website using Master Recommend.

Master Recommend is multi-lingual and is designed to help people spam-proof their sites. It monitors for potentially offensive words and phrases and refuses to email such to any but the person maintaining the site. Over 5,000 copies of Master Recommend have been downloaded. It is, and shall remain, free.

Q. What differences did you face on the Internet as a result of having grown up Amish?
A. When I left the Amish religion, I walked into a different life. It was my second life in this one lifetime. Everything was new; excitingly so. Yet, my second life did not have the feeling of familiarity like it would if I had been born into it. I was on the outside looking in.

The perspective from outside can foster unique realizations. It allows me, sometimes, to see possibilities and solutions others might miss. The perspective also hinders understanding, sometimes, because I am not as familiar with this life as people who were born into this culture. I must be especially watchful for assumptions which can be the root of misunderstandings. Misunderstandings can bring varying degrees of disaster because of the belief that the communication was understood when it actually was not.

Q. Tell us about your short- and long-term goals.
A. At first, we intended only to supplement our income. That was accomplished within a few months. When we realized we had the good fortune of people liking our work enough to come back to us when they needed more, we also realized we had the potential for a full-time Internet business. It took us a little over a year to build up enough business to go full time. We have been busy ever since.

We have a new goal now. It is a personal goal but one which the business plays a predominant role. The new goal's pursuit has determined we shift our focus to include creating Internet business solutions on speculation. Two such projects are in the works

The first is based on a Master Series script someone liked enough to request distribution rights. It enables you to list many e-zines hosted by different list servers on one subscription/unsubscription form, and your visitors don't have to leave your site.

The second project, which will be announced in my weekly e-zine for webmasters, WillMaster Possibilities, will be released later in January. It is something that has not been done before. Like Master Recommend, it will be a first.

Our new personal goal is to travel by living in different geographical locations for several months at a time, and operate our business, concurrently. To reach that goal, our business will run as automatically as we can make it. We will create numerous Internet business solutions with long- term income potential requiring a minimum of personal attention, beginning with the two projects just mentioned.

Q. Once you're on the road, how do you intend to make sure the Web population knows of your existing and new projects?
A. WillMaster Possibilities is our major announcement vehicle. We list in search engines and download directories. Our demonstration sites altogether deliver about 70,000 page views per month, and they all point to our business site. However, because we are creators more than marketers, we will let others do the latter whenever feasible. How long it will take us to reach that goal will depend in large part on how much the solutions we create are needed and desired by those they are designed to benefit..

Q. What technological difficulties give you the most problems?
A. This is difficult to answer because it is those very difficulties and problems that ensure our livelihood. Thus, they are not problems for us. If you have a technical problem or a problem resulting from technical inadequacy, talk to us. We might or might not be able to suggest a satisfactory solution. But we encourage people, always, to ask.

Q. What are some difficult aspects of Web development today? Why?
A. Communication. That's a biggie. Differences in technical expertise, assumptions, and using dimly understood terms all contribute to subtle misconceptions. Web developers and their clients must have clear communication, especially when communicating concepts which, if implemented, can determine a business's future.

An instance comes to mind when I was developing a project which included using cookies to partially fill in forms for repeat visitors. About three weeks into the project, the client said he still didn't understand how the cookies will be sent by email. Somehow, the client had formed the understanding that cookies are sent by email. He had failed to grasp the fact that the browser itself stores the cookies on the user's hard drive. This prevented the client from understanding the whole process.

We must understand what the client envisions in order to make it happen. Although it is not necessary, many clients want to know the technical details of how it works. For some, it is a desire to know how everything works. For some, it is curiosity. For some it is a fear of being ripped off. Understanding how something works can give them a sense of the skills and time required to implement their project and assure them that the developer can perform.

The fast-changing Web itself can result in difficult situations for developers. There are too many changes to be expert in all phases of Web development and also maintain that expertise in the face of other changes and developments continuously being published. The problem comes when a Web developer promises something s/he is not prepared to deliver.

That, in itself, is not a problem. When it takes more time to acquire the skill than the developer estimated, or when the developer finds learning the skill beyond his or her capacity, there still need not be disaster. The ethical Web developer finds someone to do that part of the project. The problem arises when the Web developer continues to bluster and blunder through the project, in spite of self-perceived lack of skill, and ends up delivering a less-than-professional product. The client is ripped off and usually knows it.

This type of situation gives other developers problems, because stories about being ripped off circulate, causing all developers to be approached with distrust and viewed with suspicion. This can be especially trying for Web developers starting their business, for they have few or no client references or examples of their work.

Q. What made you start two separate but complementary businesses rather than one Web development business?
A. Our Web development business is inclusive. However, because Mari's and my skills are distinct, and because some people want one service and not the other, we present the design/graphics services and the CGI/programming services on their own websites.

Q. You're one of the many "givers" on the Internet. How has publication of your newsletter affected your business?
A. Publishing WillMaster Possibilities (we began in mid-1999) resulted in some business that we would otherwise have missed. It has also established me as a professional and, to a certain extent, as an authority in my field. More benefits come from the friendships and business associations we have made. Many of the business acquaintances established thus far are still building.

For example, it was through our subscriber Bob Cortez of www.tqm-online.com that I discovered his homebiz discussion list. Many on that list now subscribe to WillMaster Possibilities, and in addition to other interaction, I was given the privilege of being interviewed for this publication.

Q. How has publication of WillMaster Possibilities affected the businesses of others?
A. When someone implements a "possibility," it affects the site to some degree. Most of the people who write are very pleased with the function and/or performance of the implementation. Some offer suggestions for improvement, which I'm always open to receive. Once in a while people write that implementing a featured "possibility" has boosted confidence in themselves and their abilities. In fact, one subscriber is in process of creating a website as exclusive distributor of one of our software products..

Elimination of webmaster uncertainties probably affects a site more than technological innovation, because the best innovations come from confident minds. I once received a 4k e-mail from a subscriber in Australia who had followed the instructions and installed his first CGI program. The fellow was ecstatic, full of plans for future projects -- now that he was certain he could do it.

For me, then, the most personal benefit is when a subscriber writes and tells me s/he has implemented one of the weekly featured "possibilities" and that it was exactly what was needed. Those messages produce a glow of warmth in the center of my being.

Visit William Bontrager's site at http://www.willmaster.com and subscribe to WillMaster Possibilities e-zine at mailto:subscribe-possibilities@willmaster.com