Interview with Simon Gooffin CEO of eSyndicat

[temi]

UK W Forum:
I assume you are a programmer, how did you get into programming?

Simon Goofin:
Well, you are right. I'm a programmer and hold B.S. in computer engineering from State University. I also hold B.S. in linguistics. Before I was making programs using Visual Basic and later found a job of PHP programmer. There I got some skills and only after that I felt the future was WEB.

UK W Forum: When did you start eSyndicat?

Simon Goofin:
I started working on it early in 2005. I had a need of directory software for my other sites and existing products were not good enough for me. So I decided to start making my own script. It was just for fun and it was my hobby. It's still my hobby despite its popularity though I never forget its business as well.

UK W Forum: what lead you to starting eSyndicat?

Simon Goofin:
In my previous reply I already mentioned this. I just wanted to create a directory that will suit directory owners needs. I used directories myself and I knew what functionality should present in this software. I also paid great attention to our members’ needs and requests and tried to implement all requested features.

UK W Forum: Apart from eSyndicat, what other product or services does your company offer?

Simon Goofin:
Now eSyndiCat is a part of Intelliants LLC company. We also produce articles publishing software, affiliate tracking script and live help service. I think I will not advertise how great our products are We put many efforts to make other products even more popular than our first product eSyndiCat. But this does not mean we will pay less attention to it. All our products are targeted to be #1 in their niche and we will do all possible to take them to top.
Btw, there are two zend certified engineer in our company.

UK W Forum: When you created eSyndicat, did you ever imagine it would be this successful?

Simon Goofin: At first I was not going to give it to the public but later when a first version was ready I thought it would be great to share it with other webmasters. Of course it was for free and we still have a free version. It does not meat it's bad if it's free. Our eSyndiCat Omega version is really great. We spent more than a year for its development and testing. I hope it will be #1 directory software among free scripts (to be honest I'm sure it will be ). Later I got many requests asking for new features and our members were ready to pay. So we started to develop Professional edition for our software. Here I already knew one thing - we must be #1 otherwise we should not even start. With this idea in my head we started to work.

UK W Forum: eSyndicate offer so much value, how did you manage to achieve this?
Simon Goofin:
Well, the answer is easy to understand. We use KISS approach. There are quite many people on the net who don't have good knowledge of computers. It might be quite difficult for them to install plugins, modules, configure everything. That's why we created a full-featured software that's easily managed from one admin panel. We will also make new features and functionality in our next versions and it will be full featured by default. Now we are also working on our own modular system. We should offer something really great that's out of just a simple niche - directory software. We have plans for making some custom packages like classifieds, etc. But this is another story.

UK W Forum: You offer unparallel support services, how are you able to offer this and still have such a competitively priced product?

Simon Goofin:
Now we have about 10 persons involved in eSyndiCat project development, support and testing. We will work even more to provide even better services. We know how important support is. It's great to get fast and good help. We are also customers of some other companies like Jelsoft (vBulletin), Kayako and we'd like to get fast help. That's the reason we try to offer the same.

UK W Forum:
Are you able to give us a peep into future eSyndicat releases and tell us what to expect?

Simon Goofin:
Sure. First of all I would like to say our Free version will not be developed anymore. It's quite thin difference line between our Free and pro version so we will concentrate our efforts on Pro version only. eSyndiCat Omega is one head up other commercial competitors products. Our eSyndiCat Pro 2.2 will be released in mid July and I have already posted in our support forums todo list for it. You can read it here: http://www.esyndicat.com/forum/about10415.html



UK W Forum: What script(s) do you consider the main competition to eSyndicat?

Simon Goofin:
Well, you know how many offers exist in directory software niche. Some scripts are bad, some are good. Others are just excellent. Every script has its own manner of code and features. I wish good luck to all directory script makers.

UK W Forum: Your licensing are one of the most cost effective, especially you unlimited install option, why are you so generous?

Simon Goofin:
We know there are many webmasters who own many directories. We just tried to make a special package for them. The very first aim we have is to make #1 software. And the money we get selling our software is just enough to support and continue developing. Any software must be affordable to webmasters all over the world.

UK W Forum: Please give our members some SEO tips.

Simon Goofin:
I read quite many information about SEO before. I also got some tips in our support forums. So in general if we are talking about SEO I would stick closer to 2 things: unique content and backlinks. Now I see quite much info saying backlinks are not so effective. Who knows? I do not think a link from a relevant site might be bad for you. Of course your site should have good logic structure. Internal crosslinkng is also important. I would also go with CSS based sites only. Forget tables for making a layout.

UK W Forum: Most people in your industry are a bit of Netaholics, are you as well?

Simon Goofin:
I'm Netaholic also.. Every day I spent about 15 hours working over the net.

UK W Forum: How do you relax after a days work?


Simon Goofin:
Just playing chess, guitar.. And then sleep. Sometimes we go to mountains or lake.

UK W Forum: What thrills you about your work?
Simon Goofin:
Everything. I like my work and do my best to make it well

Now the fun questions

UK W Forum: If you were elected President of the net, what changes would you make on your first day in office?

Simon Goofin:
Ha ha.. I would close Google joke, of course. I will let you know my changes the very day I'm elected President.

UK W Forum: What are your favourite sites?
Simon Goofin:
gameknot.com, yahoo.com, seochat.com

UK W Forum: Take out your Crystal ball, give us a snap shot of how you see your segment of the online world evolving.

Simon Goofin:
No comments.
UK W Forum: How many cups of coffee do you drink a day? (Programmers are known for their coffee drinking habit).

Simon Goofin:
5-7 cups. That's all. In summer I prefer Pepsi or juice.
UK W Forum: What is your favourite Music?

Simon Goofin:
I prefer metal. I like death metal bands like Dark Tranquillity, Children of Bodom, etc. I also like classical music. I can say I'm fan of rock.

UK W Forum:
Who or what do you find inspirational?

Simon Goofin:
Music. I rarely work without listening to music.

[OldWelshGuy]

Nice Interview. Simon is a really nice guy as well. I don't have to tell everyone how highly I rate Esyndicat

[Simon Gooffin]

he he... does anybody here listen to death or math metal?
Thanks, OWG

[temi]

I am hearing about those two genres of music for the first time, shows how clueless I am about some music genre

[OldWelshGuy]

Temi thinks thrash metal is a new processing method for scrap watse. He thinks heavy metal is waste from a neucler power station.

Poor temi thinks that AC/DC is an electrical acronym (by the way if anyone is interested, I have a FANTASTIC MP3 of ACDC that was recorded in a Pub in Scotland with Bonn Scott playing on it. It runs into some real blues towards the end. happy to make it available to anyone who wants to hear it)

Back to the Yo Temi jokes

[temi]

James,
You missed the fact that I think rock and roll is when miners are breaking rock and rolling it down the cliff

[OldWelshGuy]

Yo Temi thought that Posessed, death & morbid angel were characters from lord of the rings, Candlemass was a Catholic Festival, & that Pig Destroyer and Napalm Death were weapons of mass destruction

[Simon Gooffin]

I would also like to say a great thanks to all the guys who help around eSyndiCat, to all moderators and personally to Greg
We do appreciate and value their help in the forums

[temi]

I remember Greg helping with a query I raised once, he is a very helpful guy

[gkd_uk]

Hi Simon, nice to have you here