SitePoint is a

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

-based website, and publisher of books, courses and articles for web developers.

History

SitePoint was founded by

Matt Mickiewicz SitePoint is a Melbourne-based website, and publisher of books, courses and articles for web developers. History SitePoint was founded by Matt Mickiewicz and Mark Harbottle in 1999. The company had its origins in Webmaster-Resources.com, an i ...

and

Mark Harbottle Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

in 1999. The company had its origins in Webmaster-Resources.com, an

internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

Mickiewicz founded as a resource for beginner web developers. Originally, the company's business model was based on selling

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

and sponsorship. Following the collapse of the

Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

in 2000, the company looked towards publishing as an alternative source of income. The company's first book, ''Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL'', was published that November, based on a popular online tutorial. Originally made available using

print on demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

, the book went on to sell 20,000 copies. By 2004, the company had published six books, and began distribution through

O'Reilly O'Reilly ( ga, Ó Raghallaigh) is a group of families, ultimately all of Irish Gaelic origin, who were historically the kings of East Bréifne in what is today County Cavan. The clan were part of the Connachta's Uí Briúin Bréifne kindred a ...

. The SitePoint Marketplace, a spinoff from the site's existing forums, was launched in 2005 as a forum in which web designers and developers could outsource projects. In 2007, part of the marketplace was spun off as

99designs 99designs is a Melbourne, Australia, based company that operates a freelancer platform for connecting graphic designers and clients. The company was founded in 2008, and has a United States office in Oakland, California. History 99designs wa ...

, an online marketplace for

crowdsourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

graphic design. In 2011, 99designs received its first outside investment in the form of $35 million in venture capital funding from

Accel Partners Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional ...

. Another SitePoint spinoff,

Flippa Flippa is a private marketplace for buying and selling online businesses, based in Melbourne, Australia, and Austin, Texas, United States. It was founded in June 2009 by Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz. History Flippa was founded by Mark ...

launched in 2009 as a dedicated marketplace for buying and selling websites and

domain names A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

. Following the introduction of its own courses, the company launched Learnable in 2010 as a new online learning platform for web developers. Originally designed as a marketplace, it later became the primary outlet for SitePoint's online book and course products. Learnable was later phased out for the simple
SitePoint
website. It allowed some courses to remain as paths, but mostly removed the community aspects of it. SitePoint now partners with major book production companies and has SitePoint Premium, a subscription or one-time purchase to get access to their whole library. Th
learnable.com
website now redirects to SitePoint.

References

{{Authority control Book publishing companies of Australia 1999 establishments in Australia Companies based in Melbourne