1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and what you do?

I’m a college student who just loves the internet and business. I have been using computers since I was ten and running my own businesses since I was just a little older than that.

2. So what type of businesses do you own? What are your passions and skill set?

Naturally my heart is in the web hosting industry. For many years than I can remember I’ve been involved with web hosting. I wrote my own automation script once upon a time for my friend who ran a hosting company; that’s what got me started in this business and now I wouldn’t change that for the world. I don’t do much php coding anymore, however I still know a few bits, and that goes along with css and xhtml.

3. Well, I see you run EarnersHost.com, how’s that going? Is that a full time job for you? Any plans you can share with us?

EarnersHost has pretty much been running slow (but soon is all about to change); and that’s to be expected from having our site down for many months. The main reason for not relaunching any sooner is mainly just because we’re not ready. We have a large service list and we’re looking to recruit some support officers too. Which is just taking forever to get it all done. We don’t want to launch until we’re 110% finished with our website. EarnersHost you could say is my fulltime job, I go to college during the day and work from my iPhone/Laptop to respond to tickets etc. I usually stay up to early hours of the morning working with clients.

4. I see so many hosting sites around, what makes yours different? Why should I host with you over This* or MT?

I do hosting because I enjoy it. While we have a strong customer base; I don’t think there is a unique reason to join EarnersHost. We’re just like anyother hosting company in terms of excellent servers, uptime, connectivity etc. However we are different in support and making sure our customers are happy with their product. I think if you ask anyone about our business I’ve began to notice that good support is a common positive. We’re just a small business providing solid shared solutions, but in the future we hope to have a few unique products of our own to include with hosting; such as freelancer project management tools/invoicing tools to use also. Which I think will make us stand out in the future.

5. Hosting is incredibly tough market to enter. Any suggestions to someone who wants to have their shot at the market?

Stay clear… Nah I’m just kidding. It’s something I enjoy which is why I think I’ve had some success (tiny compared to other companies) but I think if your heart is in what you do, you’ll go a long way, and that goes for anything else than hosting too.

6. So any chance of some sneak peaks of the new site?

7. Well you seam to have got the hosting section mastered. What about new projects? Any other stuff you have, anything your planning?

I’ve been planning to diversify and open just a VPS business. There is becoming a high demand in VPS hosting and it’s something I’d like to venture into. I also planned to open a business article site offering tips and interviews from business owners on how to start-up your own business; specifically aimed at young people. However, that was a year-ago and still plan to launch it.

8. Young people? Well your pretty young, 18 going on 19. Do you think that in you’re early years being ‘young’ has made things harder for you? How do you think people (12-20) could overcome these boundaries?

I wish I only just got into this now. It has been stressful on my younger years and having so much commitment and responsibility at 12-15 wasn’t right for me. I wouldn’t recommend anyone younger than me to get into hosting; I’m lucky to have a secure financial and experienced (family have worked in networking/IT for years) background to back my business. Younger people starting younger than me, good luck!

9. I would agree with you, I say leave the hosting business to the older people who can dedicate there time to it. What do you think about just the recreational coding, web dev and business management?

Business management has to be the most fun out of those. While I used to enjoy coding and developing things on the web, the way things were a few years ago are a lot different to now and I couldn’t possibly get back into designing or coding again, probably because it doesn’t interest me no longer. But those who do coding and the like good for you! It sure was fun when I did it and wish you the best of luck. Business management is where my heart joins hosting; business means you can do anything you like and get paid for it

Quick Fires (1/2 word answers)

Fav website? (not owned by you)
www.facebook.comTools?

Textmate Final Cut Pro
Inspirations?
Aventurehost
What annoys you? (webdev wise)
People who don’t code a website and use their common sense.
Mac/Windows?
110% Mac
IE/FF/other?
FF3 and Safari
Other hobbies/interests?
Vide Editing/ Music Production / Socialising

I’ve got a final two quick questions; If you could speak to the entire web development community, in one place – what would you say? For the next person we interview whats one question you would like asked – remember this could be a designer, coder or developer?

If I could speak to the community in one place I’d ask them why everyone seems to always give negative comments about designs these days, nothing is ever good, in my eyes every design I see is unique and shows passion from the designer, and it’s really annoying to see people put others down, so I’d ask them to stop, and give better criticism, because most of the time they don’t tell them how to improve it, it’s simply just not good enough apparently. I would also raise the issue on pricing in the marketplace and try to get everyone to settle on a sensible price for things; than selling websites/domains for stupid unreal prices.

The next person I’d like you to ask them how on earth they do what they do, how do they fit it in with everything and do they find their hobby/full-part time job takes over their life.

Welcome to our first interview here on MSD. We hope to get regular interviews going in the future – with some industry experts mixed in with some exciting up and coming talent. We’re very keen to interview some people that have some really good development projects going on – so give us a shout if your interested.

So without further delay, we present owner/founder of CreativeNine and Vorolo.com – Jason Rai

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

Well, my name is Jason, I’m 17 years of age and I currently reside in London, UK. I’m a Freelancer/Web Designer in my spare time.

2. How did you get into the web business?

About 6-7 years ago someone called ‘Lee Dava’ help me set up my first very own PHPBB forum on Lycos, since then I’ve had a great passion in developing websites and thinking out of the box with my projects. Lee Dava also used to deal with Photoshop and I remember when I used to go through his art work and think to myself “I want to be a Photoshop expert like Lee one day”, infact to this very day I’m still not a Photoshop expert but I know enough to design to a standard. I guess I’ve always had a interest/passion in designing for the web.

3. Your portfolio, CreativeNine – this going to be serious business for you in the future? What are your plans for it?

At the moment I’m planning to keep it just an online business, however, I do plan on making it an offline business too, just not yet.

4. Ok, we’ve seen this exciting new project of yours, Vorolo – a new social network. Where and why did this begin?

Where? It began as a simple thought in my imagination which I got off my arse and executed. Why? Gut instinct, I had a feeling inside of me that said “What’s the worse that could happen?”, Vorolo started off as an experiment, to see how far I could push myself to the creative developing limit but has now become quite successful.

5. Such a tough Market to enter, do you think you can mix it with the big boys, e.g myspace/facebook -give us your marketing pitch?

I agree, it is a tough market, however, I do honestly believe that if I was to put enough blood sweat and tears into the project then I could maybe, just MAYBE make it to the top. Everyone needs a goal/target to get themselves motivated right?

6. We had a play with Vorolo whilst it was in beta testing, we are impressed with the design and functionality are you planning any changes, any sneaky peaks?

Yes, there are going to be BIG(notice it’s in caps :P) changes and new major features to the website, enough to hopefully take it a step up the ladder. And no, I’m not going to show you any sneak peaks yet! You’ll just have to wait and see.
7. So you have the fantastic product, how are you planning to market it? – unless its top secret information!

Right now, I’m relying on viral marketing, word of mouth, but once I’ve got Vorolo to a stable, rock solid level I’ll probably be investing most of my money and time into marketing it offline and online.

8. Any other projects lined up?

Yeah, GTAWishlist.com. Not going to say anymore until it’s released(next week hopefully), although the domain name should give you a little idea.

9. What inspires you? Who inspires you?

I inspire me. That might sound a little vain but I’m just being modest. There’s nothing like your own personal preference. After every successful project I like to take a step back and admire what I’ve built all from a simple thought/idea. That gives me a drive to do something even bigger and better next time.

10. Finally, last words. Your advice for any up and coming designers/developers out there? For anyone with a ‘killer’ idea ready to be put into practice?

Time is vital, it’s no good sitting down and imagining a project for years on end, do something with yourself, put that imaginative idea into action NOW. Like they say, there’s no time like the present.

A big thank you to Jason for taking the time to complete this interview – if you haven’t got a Vorolo.com account/profile, get one!