The SitePoint PHP blog has posted an article for the Laravel Spark users out there, sharing their top nine tips for getting the most out of the popular "boilerplate" tool.

A while ago, I wrote about a product I wanted to build, to allow easy remote backups for Pagekit sites. I’ve been working on it (periodically) since then, and have come across a few interesting bits of advice.

I decided to use Laravel Spark as the foundation for the product, and I thought it would be helpful to share the advice. Whether you’re just starting your Spark app, or are in maintenance mode, I think you’ll find some of these tips useful!

His tips cover a wide range of the product's features:

• You Don’t Have to Keep All the Base Files
• Use Simple Repositories
• Don’t use caret (^) Laravel dependencies
• Host on Forge
• Re-Arrange Middleware

Each of these comes with a description and, where appropriate, a bit of code to help clarify the point.

If you’re on the fence about trying Spark, I can recommend it. It’s given my product a head-start it wouldn’t have had otherwise. Hopefully these tips will save you even more time.