Overview
Monty Network brings together my websites, apps, music, photography and automation systems under one brand and one way of running them.
I didn't set out to build a platform. I set out to share photographs and music, and the network grew around them. Today every site, app and service I run plugs into the same identity, the same tools and the same control centre.
This case study explains why I built it, how it fits together, and what it lets one person do.
Ecosystem at a Glance
From original music and photography to apps and operational infrastructure, the individual projects form one interconnected network.
Why I Built It
It began with things I love, not a business plan. Music has been part of my life since my years as a DJ, and photography came with the travelling. Galleries led to guides and stories. Original music led to releases, artwork, listening pages and a 24/7 radio station.
Every project raised the same question: how do I run this, improve it, and connect it to the next one?
Behind the name is Monty.
Monty, my Shih Tzu, gave the network its name and its character — a name that goes back to my army days. He's the reason very different projects feel like they share a home.
The Challenge
I've been designing websites since the early 1990s, but for years it was the odd site here and there. That changed in 2021, when photography became my new passion and the sites began to multiply, each with its own admin panel, login and way of doing things. Independent creators know the pattern:
- a separate dashboard for every site
- tools that don't talk to each other
- branding that drifts from project to project
- the same jobs done by hand, over and over
I needed something that one person could run, that would scale as new ideas arrived, and that would keep everything recognisably mine.
The Vision
The answer was to stop adding projects and start building the ground they stand on.
Build the ecosystem first. Build products second.
From then on, every new idea became a service inside a larger network, not another standalone site. Six principles guide it:
- One identity
- One control centre
- Shared services
- Unified branding
- Mobile-first running
- Reusable architecture
Ecosystem Architecture
The network is built in layers. Each one serves the layer below it, and everything answers to one control centre.
- Control — Monty Control (MC) is where I monitor, deploy and manage everything.
- Identity — Monty ID gives every service one sign-in.
- Data and AI — a shared database, plus an MCP connector that lets AI assistants read and act on the network.
- Music catalogue — Notion is the single source of truth for every track: title, description, category, language, release date, audio, artwork and links. Listen, Artwork, short links and Share Kit all read from it, so I add a track once and it appears everywhere.
- Shared services — Stats, Social, Links, Artwork and WP Control, used by every site rather than rebuilt for each.
- Websites — ten custom sites and four WordPress sites.
- Apps — six desktop, phone, tablet and TV apps built on the sites and services above.
A separate Sandbox lets me build and test changes before they reach the live network.
Websites and Apps
Fourteen websites and six apps make up the visible side of the network.
Custom websites
| Site | Address | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Monty Network | montynetwork.com | The front door and showcase for the whole network |
| Monty Select | select.montysounds.com | Choose how to listen: website, web app, Android or Google TV |
| Monty Listen | listen.montysounds.com | Listen to Monty Sounds in the browser |
| Monty Sounds App | app.montysounds.com | The web app for listening, drawing on Listen and Artwork |
| Radio Player | radio.montysounds.com | The live radio player, combining the stream with track details and artwork |
| Monty Search | search.montynetwork.com | One search across every site |
| Monty Help | help.montynetwork.com | Help and guides for every service |
| Monty Check | check.montynetwork.com | Shows what search engines and AI can see on your site |
| Monty Subscribe | subscribe.montynetwork.com | Join the Monty Network newsletter |
| View From My Lens | viewfrommylens.com | Travel photography galleries |
WordPress websites
Run from WP Control.
| Site | Address | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Monty Sounds | montysounds.com | Home of my original electronic music |
| Monty Sounds Radio | montysoundsradio.com | 24/7 internet radio, streaming from Poland |
| Monty Photo Studios | montyphotostudios.com | A photography guide: how to take better shots, from aperture to light |
| VFML Journal | vfml.net | A personal journal of our life in Poland since 2021: not a travel guide, but what we did and where |
Apps
| App | Platform | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Monty Control | Phone and tablet | Runs the whole network from anywhere |
| Monty Sounds | Android phone | Music and radio in your pocket |
| Monty Sounds TV | Google TV | Music and radio on the big screen |
| Monty Polish | Android | Learn Polish by listening first |
| Monty Social | Phone | Social media stats, plus posts scheduled to one or many platforms, each at its own time |
| Monty Workspace | Windows desktop | My most-used sites and apps in one window, instead of tabs and apps spread across several screens |
Monty Control
One app to run the network from anywhere
The websites are the visible part. The real work is the system that runs them.
Monty Control is the command centre I built to run the network from my phone or tablet. Most admin dashboards show the same menu whatever you're doing. MC changes its navigation to suit the job in hand, so each mode answers one question.
“Is everything working?”
A live view of every site: availability checks every 5 minutes, response times and alerts. Here's what happens when something breaks:
- A daily automated run checks every link and spots a broken URL.
- MC checks it again. If the fault is still there, it opens a ticket with the details and the URL.
- I get an email and a Telegram message straight away.
- The ticket can ask Claude or ChatGPT to help work out the fix.
- Once it's resolved, the ticket closes itself, records the notes, sends an all-clear by email and Telegram, and logs it for next time.
“How do I safely publish changes?”
I pick a repository, inspect the latest commit and review the changed files before anything goes live. Sites deploy from GitHub straight to Cloudflare, and every change is logged.
“Where does everything live, and who's finding it?”
Short links with tracking, site search, mail workflows and a dashboard of every property. For example, listen.montysounds.com/track/beyond-the-fields/ becomes tk.montysounds.com/2t6f: short enough for platforms with tight character limits.
“How do I get this in front of people?”
Built for Monty Sounds. I search the catalogue, pick the artwork and generate promotional posts that match the brand, without leaving MC.
Monty Polish
The app I needed, so I built it
I moved from the UK to Poland, and Polish is hard. The vocabulary apps I tried taught me to recognise words on a screen, not to understand people speaking. So I built my own.
Listen first. Look second.
Monty Polish starts with sound. You hear the word in context, then see it, then keep it.
- ListenHear it spoken first
- TranslateSee what it means in context
- CollectSave it to your own library
- ReviewCome back until it sticks
A daily word keeps the habit going, and every word you collect builds a personal library that grows with you.
Brand
Every site and app shares one design language, so a new project looks like part of the family from day one.
- Dark premium theme
- Gold accents
- Consistent type
- Card layouts
- One navigation pattern
The brand runs top-down: Monty gives it character, Monty Network gives it a home, and every service, site and app carries the same look.
What Makes This Different
Many portfolios show websites. Some show apps. Others show infrastructure.
Monty Network shows all three working together, built and run by one person.
Build
- Platform architecture
- Phone, tablet and TV apps
- Fourteen connected websites
Run
- Deployment from GitHub
- Monitoring and alerts
- An MCP server for AI assistants
Create
- Music publishing
- Language learning
- Content promotion
None of these is a separate achievement. They work as one system.
Results
What began as a handful of separate websites is now one network I can run from my phone.
Today the network spans 14 websites, 6 applications, shared services, automation systems, AI integrations and deployment pipelines, all designed, maintained and operated by one person.
Ideas become systems, systems become products, and every product strengthens the network.
The result isn't more websites or more apps. It's the freedom to keep creating, while one connected system keeps the network manageable.
What's Next
The network is never finished. That's the point of building it this way. Here's what I'm working on now:
- Leaving WordPress behind. WordPress was how I built sites in the early days. Now I design my own, faster and fully responsive. montynetwork.com is the first to move, and the four WordPress sites will follow.
- Galleries off SmugMug. View From My Lens is moving to my own hosting, with images on Cloudflare R2.
- Monty Control as a tablet app. A fresh, native version of MC for the phone and tablet.
- A newsletter. One subscriber list for the whole network, sent from Monty Control.
Each one plugs into what's already there. That's what “ecosystem first” buys.
What I've learnt
WordPress got me started. In the early days it let me put sites online quickly, and for years it did the job well. As my skills grew, I wanted more: pages that respond properly on every screen, load faster, and look exactly as I picture them. Moving on from WordPress isn't turning my back on where I started. It shows how far the work has come.
A second lesson: keep one source of truth. I once lost track of which copy of an app was current. Now GitHub decides.
One Man. Many Ideas. Everything Connects.