James Dowen

A single developer working from Birmingham and London, James Dowen builds websites and software for clients in the UK and abroad, including a good number in the United States. He describes himself as a freelance designer and builder of websites, and an AI software engineer, with more than a decade behind him. One caution applies: his site currently carries a notice that he is unavailable for work and that the pages have not been updated since 2020.

The range of things he has built

Because he works on both the front end and the back end, the projects he lists run well beyond brochure sites. They include small business websites, live bidding platforms, online shops, blogs, booking systems, finance systems, business portals, systems for health and hospital settings, e-learning platforms, user interfaces, custom social networks and projects in cryptocurrency, blockchain and web3. More recently he adds AI integration to the list.

His portfolio gives a sense of scale. It mentions a cryptocurrency news site with a niche audience of over a million readers, a podcast management platform built from scratch, a football data service with predictions across more than forty leagues, a volunteering information site for a London borough, and online retailers and wholesalers handling thousands of orders a year. A law firm, an investment firm, a food supplier with a store locator and a live one to one tuition platform also appear.

How he approaches a site

He says each site is custom developed so that it stays unique, scalable and able to do what the client needs, and that it should satisfy both the owner and the owner's customers. Three habits are stated on the site:

• Standard on-page search engine optimisation on every page he builds, to help it rank and bring in more traffic.
• Responsive design, so the site works on any screen size, since over half of web traffic now comes from mobile devices.
• A content management system, so the owner can view data and edit important content from anywhere and keep the site current.

Online shops

For e-commerce he says he builds solutions fitted to the business and its customers, whether the trade is business to consumer, business to business or both.

After launch

He also offers long term support along with advice on hosting and domain names. The services listed on his site are web design, web development, SEO, responsive design, content management, e-commerce, software engineering and AI development.