John Fenton - Biography

Next year will mark my 30th year as the owner and manager of Wordmasters, a direct mail and data processing firm in Sacramento, CA.

I am a skilled computer programmer, data manager, direct mail provider and marketer. In the years that I have been running Wordmasters I've learned a lot. I have programmed everything from small utilities to major systems in numerous computer languages, worked with countless data and media formats (think tapes and disks), and dealt with almost every form of promotional mailing imaginable.

I am a strong believer in excellent customer service. I want my customers’ promotional actions and data bases to work well for them and will go out of my way to ensure that they do. I take pride in my work, and I insist that my staff do so too. We prefer to answer the phones ourselves rather than have a machine greet you, and I am always happy to give advice, even when I know it won’t lead to a sale.

While I love programming and developing applications for various needs, many of my clients need help discovering how best to utilize their databases, how to expand their sales and gain name recognition. As a consequence, I spend a good part of my day dealing with, providing services for and advising copywriters, graphic designers and marketing executives. And I really enjoy that too.

Prior to Wordmasters my experiences are almost too varied to be listed. I’ve always found that if I put my mind to it, I could do anything I wanted. In my teens I picked apples and baled hay working on farms, was a mail truck driver for a while , worked my way up to cook at the Four Seasons restaurant in Yosemite, and was even a crew foreman for a painting and decorating contractor. I’ve done almost every type of construction work imaginable, and I can do metal work with a lathe and a mill. I have always loved learning new things. That's actually how I ended up becoming a programmer. It intrigued me, was challenging and fun, and I discovered I was very good at it. The rest is history!

I blog here to help others effectively market their businesses and I post on various programmer's forums to help others learn the art of coding.

I live in the Sacramento area with my wife. My son works as a programmer for Cryptic Studios in Sunnyvale and my daughter is studying fine arts at San Jose State. I am very proud of both of them. In my spare time (like I really have any spare time) I enjoy construction projects and spending time with my wife and children.