I recently ran another survey test through compete.com for my business website, www.dynamicwebs.com and found the site is still out performing all the other major competitor sites in the region.  See the charts below and test for yourself on www.compete.com.  The next nearest site to www.dynamicwebs.com is www.firstgrp.com, another site that I (Frank Beier) manage for First Communications Group.

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I recently submitted the following question and discussion on Linkedin.com discussion forum.  I would like to hear from other developers and the general public.  Please feel free to create a Linkedin account and join one of the groups or send me an email with your comments.

Is it time for Web Developer Licensing?

Here is a dangerous thought... Need some opinions, but expect to hear mostly negative.

As a professional web developer, now in my 12th year, I have run into untold number of clients who agreed to have an "unknown" developer or company develop their website. All too often it is the same outcome... the developer vanishes without a trace and the client is out their money.

Additionally, in Ohio, Ohio Revised Code 1329.01 and 1329.10 stipulate that all persons or businesses must register their DBA with the state. Unfortunately, Ohio's AG office and Secretary of State office refuse or are unable to enforce these rules.

So, would a national "Web Developer License", with similar screening to that of an Accountant be worthwhile in our industry? Would it help to weed out the unscrupulous individuals that prey upon unsuspecting clients and businesses? After all, many of these developers have access to a clients' e-commerce system and access to all the customer data within the system. Shouldn't businesses have some assurances that the people behind the scene are ethical, honest, and have been screened through a licensing process?

Thoughts - What are the pros and cons to licensing?

You are probably wondering how PCI DSS Compliance applies to you or even for that matter, what is PCI DSS Compliance?

"PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and is a worldwide security standard assembled by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The standard was created to help organizations that process card payments prevent credit card fraud, hacking and various other security vulnerabilities and threats. A company processing, storing, or transmitting payment card data must be PCI DSS compliant. Non-compliant companies who maintain a relationship with one or more of the card brands, either directly or through an acquirer risk losing their ability to process credit card payments and being audited and/or fined ^[1]. All in-scope companies must validate their compliance annually. This validation can be conducted by auditors - i.e. persons who are PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs), however smaller companies have the option to use a self-certification questionnaire. Whether this questionnaire needs to be validated by a QSA depends on the requirements of the card brands in that merchant's region." - Wikipedia.org

For simplistic sake, I will be discussing how PCI DSS Compliance relates to Level 4 Vendors and Merchants... Businesses that process less than 20,000 transactions per year.

Frank Beier outperforms all other local web developers and agencies in Search Engine Optimization and site traffic generation.