Mark Norman · Web developer · Cape Town, working worldwide
A proper website in two days.
Websites for guest houses, lodges and small businesses, wherever you are. Fast on a phone, easy to find on Google, and yours to update without calling anyone.
I use modern AI tools for the routine work and spend my time on what matters to your guests and customers, so you pay for two days, not two weeks.
Before we start
Tell me about your business
A short call or a few emails. Send your logo, your photos and what you want visitors to do: book, call, enquire or visit. No wording yet? I draft it and you approve it.
Two working days
I build it in two days
Designed and built from scratch for your business, not dropped into a template. It works on every phone, is set up for Google, and is protected against spam and common attacks.
At your pace
You check it, it goes live
You review the finished site, ask for changes, and we launch. You get a short written guide, so updating text, photos or prices never means waiting for a developer.
Recent site · Tandre Fruit Supply
From a site nobody could update to one they run themselves.
A fruit distributor in Somerset West, South Africa. Their old site was built from a template nobody could safely change. The new one was built from scratch, with a fruit catalogue the team updates themselves.
Before
Heavy template, slow to load
Every edit needed a developer
Invisible to Google as a business
Open to spam and easy to attack
After
Built from scratch, fast on a phone
Fruit and seasons edited by the client
Shows up as a business in Google search
Locked against common hacks and spam
0.10s
seconds for a cached page to start loading
6/6
standard security protections switched on
100%
of the wording and photos the owner can change, with a written guide
0
spam comment forms or exposed admin logins
The important part was not the design. It was giving a client with no technical staff a catalogue they can maintain: four fruit types, each with a season, a colour and a photo, drawn into a seasonal calendar. Change a month in the admin and the calendar redraws. Nobody phones a developer to update a season.
Everything was measured before it was called done: load time, security and how Google reads the site. The numbers on this page come from those checks.
We came from nothing to this, from a website we were afraid to touch to one we updated ourselves. When the season changes, we change the content, no phone call needed. Bets of all, it was done in two days.
Jaco Meiring, Tandre Fruit Supply
Small businesses, done properly.
Lodges, a game reserve, a school and a property group: businesses that live on bookings, enquiries and phone calls. Each one is updated by its owner. The links open the live sites.
Mini factories to let in Gordon's Bay, Strand and Somerset West. Rebuilt from scratch around the parks, the businesses they suit, and an enquiry form that reaches the owner directly.
A template theme and five plugins, two of them sliders→One hand-built theme, no plugins on the page
Property listings in placeholder Latin→Each park with its own photo gallery
Known to Google by name and logo only→Listed as a local business, with address, phone and hours
0.13 s cached load6/6 security headers0 page plugins
Anything else, ask in the form below. A real person answers within one working day.
What does a website cost?
Every site is quoted for the job, because a three-page guest house site and a lodge with rooms, rates and seasons are different amounts of work. Tell me what you need and I will send a fixed price before any work starts.
What do I need to provide?
Your logo, good photos and a few lines about the business. If you do not have wording ready, I draft it from a short conversation and you approve every word before it goes live.
Is it really two days?
The building is two working days. Gathering photos, approving wording and pointing your domain at the new site happen at your pace, so the sooner those are ready, the sooner you are live.
Can I update the site myself?
Yes. Text, photos and things like rooms, seasons or prices are changed in a normal admin screen, and you get a short written guide that shows you how.
Can guests book on the site?
Yes, in whichever way suits you. If you already use a booking system, I link the site to it or embed it, so a guest can check availability and book without leaving your pages. If you do not use one, the site has an enquiry form that lands straight in your inbox, and a booking system can be added later.
Will people find it on Google?
It is built so search engines can read it properly from day one: clear page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, your business details in the format Google uses, and fast loading on phones. Where you rank also depends on your competition, so I do not promise positions.
Do you work with businesses outside South Africa?
Yes. Everything is handled by email and video call, and the site is built for visitors from anywhere in the world.
Get a quote
Tell me about your business.
A few lines about the business and what you already have (logo, photos, wording) is enough to start. I reply within one working day with next steps.
There is no price list on this page, by design. Every project is quoted individually, and you get a fixed price before any work starts.
For developers and technical teamsMy day job, how I use AI, tools I have built, and the stack behind this site.
Why a two-day site is not a two-day-quality site.
Fourteen years engineering production systems at scale. My day job is frontend architecture at HyveMobile; the two-day builds are the same discipline applied to a smaller problem.
Now
Frontend Developer, HyveMobile · Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, a 6,400-test suite, per-operator templates for a single-telco platform.
AI
Core engineer on a vision-based generator, built on the Anthropic SDK, that turns design input into production React components. I help shape the team's AI-assisted coding standards.
Hand-written WordPress block theme, theme.json v3, self-hosted fonts, enquiry form and structured data in the theme, CSP and security headers, no page builder.
Anyone can prompt, copy, paste and go. The craft is understanding what comes back, and refining it until it is right.
Generation
AI does the typing
Templates, patterns, CSS, copy drafts, the boring PHP. With a coding agent, a theme that used to take a week takes an afternoon.
Judgement
I make the calls
Architecture, what the client can safely edit, security posture, what to leave out. Fourteen years of production systems is what stops a fast build being a fragile one.
Verification
Nothing ships unmeasured
Every claim on this page was checked with a real request, a real security scan or a real Google test. If it cannot be verified, it does not get written down.
Tools I have built with AI
Training app · installable, works offline
Unlock Mobility
A mobility programme that runs itself. One movement on screen at a time, timed and logged, with a record of every session. Built for a gym with bad signal: everything saves on the phone first and syncs later.
Runs the session in order; holds count down, efforts count up
Remembers last weights and charts the right measure per movement
Admin edits everything from the phone; guests get a read-only view
Exercise clips uploaded from the phone and re-encoded in the browser
Stack
Next.js 16
React 19
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS 4
Neon Postgres
Drizzle ORM
IndexedDB
Installable PWA
Vercel
Claude Code
Private dashboard · behind a login
HQ
An operations dashboard that does the checking so nobody has to. Every morning it reads about 35 employers' hiring boards, scores what is new, and sends one email only when there is something to act on. Budget and goals live alongside.
Reads applicant-tracking APIs directly and diffs careers pages that have none
Scores new listings against keywords and files the poor fits out of the way
Morning digest stays silent unless something is new or a follow-up falls due
Deploys to shared hosting with no command line; scheduled jobs run over authenticated HTTPS
Stack
PHP 8.1
SQLite
PDO
cURL
Vanilla JS
No framework
No build step
cPanel cron
Claude Code
What colleagues say
Recommendations from people I have worked with, taken from LinkedIn and lightly edited for grammar.
I worked with Mark for about five years, and in that time I had the privilege of watching him grow from strength to strength, not only as a professional developer but also as a person with strong character and leadership abilities.
Mark is incredibly capable, hard-working and committed to delivering the utmost. Nothing is too large or too small for him to get involved in, and he will see it through to completion while motivating those around him to do the same.
Mark is loyal, passionate and an all-round fantastic person.
Tyler ReedManaged Mark directly
LinkedIn · Feb 2019
Mark is an excellent software developer. He is capable of researching and finding solutions, and he works well in a team. He is able to complete any task successfully despite deadline pressure. I would easily recommend him for any developer position.
Reyaan BoltmanDirector and founder · worked with Mark on the same team
LinkedIn · Feb 2019
Mark proved to be a terrific person to work with: wise, clever and well educated, a Senior PHP Engineer who can be trusted. He is an organised, customer-service-oriented perfectionist who has no problem working hard when necessary. Give him the really challenging tasks, the ones everyone else is struggling with, and he will get them done. Mark always maintains very good relationships with co-workers and clients, and he shines in a hectic environment. Definitely worth recommending.
Darryl GoodrichSenior Engineer at SiteConnect · worked with Mark on the same team
LinkedIn · Feb 2019
