Gas Mark 8

02/25/2026

I'm excited to be speaking at the Greater Manchester Cancer Conference in May.

I'll be talking about the fundamentals healthcare education and nonprofit websites need to get right before they dive into the world of AI.

If you're attending (I'm guessing not a ton of you here are), come see us at our booth or my session. More info below:

THE GREATER MANCHESTER CANCER CONFERENCE AND AWARDS The Greater Manchester Cancer Conference will return in 2026, bringing together professionals and partners from across the cancer system to share learning, celebrate success and drive

02/03/2026

We've seen a big jump in form spam the last week or so. It's coming from all over the world, including the Tor network, so its hard to stop. Now's a great time to review your anti-spam form tools if it's been a minute.

Good news: we use both honeypots and captchas (where needed) on all our sites. Is it 100% perfect, no, but it's better than nothing.

Compare honeypot and CAPTCHA options to secure your nonprofit WordPress form from spam while ensuring a seamless experience for your donors and volunteers.

01/05/2026

I met Jeff Pugel from Ignition, LLC a few years ago at a tech talk I gave here in Cleveland.

Early last year, we reconnected and Ignition did some signaling work for us at Gas Mark 8. The work was genuinely useful. His frameworks and research tools are well built and gave us data we could actually use heading into the second half of the year.

So, who is Ignition?

Ignition is a strategic consultancy focused on helping service-based agencies get out of the founder-led sales trap and build toward predictable, scalable growth. Their work is thoughtful, grounded, and built for the long haul. That approach resonated with me.

As the commercial from the 80s said: I liked it so much, I bought the company.

Short version: We’ve acquired Ignition, LLC, and Jeff is joining Gas Mark 8 as our CEO.

Longer version: The more we worked together last year, and the more conversations we had, the more it became clear that we have distinct strengths that complement each other—and a shared perspective on how to build. We weren’t running parallel businesses. We were building two halves of the same system.

I’ve always been the technology, creative, and development guy. That’s my lane, and it’s where I do my best work. Jeff brings the business side to the table. His focus is upstream—strategy, clarity, direction. Mine is in the day-to-day—delivery, infrastructure, and making sure the work holds up over time. We’ve carved out clear roles, shared vision, and real alignment as we kick off 2026.

Over the holiday break, I had time to reflect on how far this business has come—from side hustle, to solo shop, to a team of four. It’s been a journey. I’ve learned a lot along the way.

What excites me most is what this partnership makes possible. Jeff brings experience and leadership that will help us grow with intention and continue to serve even more nonprofits and healthcare education clients across the US and UK.

We’re building something special here, and I’m excited for what’s next.

More info from Jeff is below:

As of January 1, Gas Mark 8, Ltd. has acquired Ignition.

11/21/2025

I wish you could see the faces people made when I told the SEO was on the way out and they need to start thinking about AEO.

This was from the Keycon conference held a few weeks ago in Erie, PA. I talked about using AI tools to automate day to day tasks for nonprofits.

11/06/2025

We've been working with the Greater Manchester Cancer Academy for a few years now, and last year we started supporting and hosting their ePortfolio tool. It's been great to watch it grow and add new features - this new user profile functionality is a big addition to the platform.

This is the type of project I love. It's a big web app with lots of interesting technical challenges. It's also making a difference in the professional development of GPs and other cancer care providers, allowing them to record their educational development, reflections, case study reviews, accreditations, and certificates as they progress in their careers. It checks (or ticks for our UK friends) a lot of the boxes we look for in a project.

Our team has crushed this project - and its been awesome to watch them work on this large project. 😊

10/31/2025

Over the years, I’ve had so many web app ideas. Dozens of them. A whole graveyard of domains I’ve bought and never used.

Every so often, I’ll get inspired, spend an hour or two hacking away at an idea between client projects, and then… life happens. The idea fades. But it never really leaves my brain. They just rattle around up there — quietly annoying me for years.

Lately though, something’s changed. Tools like Cursor and Kiro completely flipped my creative process.

Now I can sit down for 10–15 minutes, talk through an idea, and get an actual product requirements document written. These tools ask me the right questions and they help me think through what I’m building.

And then the wild part: they can actually build it. In minutes.

In the past few weeks, I’ve built three small apps:

• A customizable proposal builder that lives inside my WordPress site (no new domain, no extra platform — just mine).
• A simple, clean to-do list app that finally does what I want — no unnecessary bells and whistles.
• And my favorite: an iOS app to track every sporting event I’ve attended, especially the ones with my kids.

Each started as an idea I would’ve ignored before. Now, they’re working MVPs.

And Cursor just released Composer, their own coding model. It’s ridiculous. I watched it write Swift code faster than I could read it. I had multiple agents coding at once while I was testing on my phone. Absolutely wild.

I’ve been around tech long enough to see a lot of hype. But this? This is different.
The tools are finally catching up to the ideas.

We’re living in a crazy, exciting moment for builders — and I’m having the most fun I’ve had in years.

Want to try my proposal or to-do list (see the screenshot below.) Let me know, I'd love your feedback.

10/28/2025

Heading back to my hometown of Erie this week for the Keystone Nonprofit Conference put on by my friends at The Nonprofit Partnership. It's one of my favorites to speak at, and it's always nice to be home for a minute.

I’ll be speaking about how nonprofits can use AI automation to get more done with less, and it looks like there are only a few seats left in my session. If you haven't RSVP'd yet, please do.

If you’re attending, stop by my table in the exhibitor hall! Sure, I’ll have candy like everyone else… but I’m also giving away two Cleveland Cavaliers tickets and bringing something a little more unique: exotic sodas.

Come by, say hi, grab a soda, and let’s talk about how AI can help your nonprofit save time and stay creative.

10/20/2025

You might have seen the news about the outage at Amazon Web Services today that took down large parts of the internet. Fortunately, our systems and our clients’ websites stayed online and stable throughout.

If a platform, app, or service you use was down or sluggish today, chances are it runs on AWS. That’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a testament to how much of the modern web is powered by Amazon’s infrastructure.

At Gas Mark 8, we only use Amazon SES (Simple Email Service), which was one of the first services restored. Our hosting and websites continued running smoothly thanks to our reliable infrastructure, powered by our partners at Cloudways (and DigitalOcean). Have we mentioned we're a Platinum agency partner at Cloudways?

Moments like this are a good reminder of how important resilient, well-managed hosting really is.

If your organization relies on its website to engage supporters or deliver critical information, make sure it’s hosted somewhere that won’t let you down.

Looking for a stable, managed hosting solution? We can help. Learn more about our hosting and support options for nonprofits and mission-driven organizations: https://www.gasmark8.com

09/19/2025

Google is bringing AI straight into Chrome. I'm interested in this but also nervous.

For a lot of people, this will be their very first time using AI tools. Not in some new app, it'll be right in the browser they already use every day.

And here’s the part that gives me anxiety.

We're going to have to look at how our sites function in lots of new ways. An example: as web folks and marketers, we’ve poured time and energy into making even something mundane like forms “better.” Multi-step flows. Smooth pagination. Fancy effects. All the little details that make things feel polished.

Now here come AI agents. They don’t care about polish. They just need structure. And a lot of the things we’ve built with pride could break the second an AI tries to use them.

That keeps me up at night. Because when things break, it’s not Google getting the call. It’s us.

We’re entering a new era where websites don’t just serve people. They are going to have to also serve AI and agents now. And that means rethinking some of the fundamentals we’ve taken for granted.

Stay tuned, I guess.

More here:

Google Chrome is getting upgraded with the latest AI to make it safer, smarter and more useful

09/05/2025

One of the things I’ve been reflecting on lately is just how lucky I am to do this work.

In the US, most of our projects are with nonprofits. In the UK, though, we often get to partner with healthcare education platforms aimed at caregivers. Recently, we've been working on sites designed directly for patients. It’s stretched me in new ways.

This week, I’m really proud to share the launch of the Greater Manchester Multiple Sclerosis Information Network (GMMSIN). It’s a place where people living with MS can find resources, stories, and support.

I’m so grateful to Paula Ormandy, Dr. Cristina Vasilica, and the GMMSIN team for trusting us with this work, and to my team at Gas Mark 8 for pouring your hearts and creativity into every project. None of this happens without you.

Site:

06/30/2025

I'm home after a whirlwind week in England and Spain meeting with our amazing clients and team.

It was to great spend days at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and University of Salford as well as travel to Birmingham for the HSJ Digital Awards.

Did I lug a rented tuxedo 4,000 miles? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

Not only did I look fresh, our friends at the Greater Manchester Cancer Academy were shortlisted for two awards. While our ePortfolio work wasn't recognized, the GMCA team received a highly commended award in the Digital Literacy, Education and Upskilling category for their work with my new (awesome) friends at Recourse AI. Congrats to everyone who worked on that project!

If you need me, I'll be trying to get back to Ohio time and doing laundry. And, oh yeah, returning the tux.