About Me
For the last decade or so I have been running affiliate businesses in numerous sectors but primarily focussed on gaming and finance.
During the early period of working for myself I was using freelance developers to build my websites.
My journey into development started when the frustration of operating online affiliate businesses without any technical knowledge got too much to bear!
Although the outsourced developers always did a good job, there was numerous times when I felt huge frustration at not being able to dive into the code myself and make things exactly how I envisioned (instead of sending countless MS Word documents with dodgy looking MS Paint drawings to other developers to try to communicate what I wanted).
In 2015 there were two incidents that made me fully reassess what I was doing:
One website I was running which was starting to do well and earn a decent income - cashbackmad - was hacked. One day I just woke up and checked the website to find a 500 internal server error. After contacting the developers and hosting provider I was informed that the website had been hacked and the database destroyed and unbelievably there was no database backup! So 3 years of work and investment disappeared permanently.
Another promising app was a betting odds software app. I had customers paying a decent amount every month to subscribe and it was growing nicely but the app continued to throw up occasional errors and was buggy and eventually it just ran out of steam under the weight of customers getting tired of the bugs and it taking too long to fix and/or optimise.
In my opinion both of these failures were largely the result of myself having literally no idea what was going on in the background and the resulting difficulties in a non-tech person trying to communicate ideas and concepts to developers on the other side of the world. I also think I was too naive in assuming that the developers I hired would take care of absolutely everything in terms of development, security, ongoing maintenance etc
Following that difficult year I decided enough was enough and I became determined to learn to code.
I started by doing Freecodecamp and Codecademy courses.
In 2017 I attended a 6 month coding bootcamp which was very useful in helping to understand coding principles like TDD and pair-programming and also helped me to understand how all the coding skills can be applied to real-world projects.
I managed to make my final project into a new successful affiliate business and following the completion of the bootcamp I have been working on this affiliate business.
Fortunately this has meant that I have been able to continue coding every single day and learn many new frameworks and skills.
What started with doing something that I felt was necessary has now become a life passion for me now - I absolutely love to create new projects and I am extremely grateful to now have skills to be able to turn my visions into reality.
My Personal Philosophy and Values
I am a firm believer that anybody can achieve anything with enough determination, desire and hard work.
I believe strongly in personal development and taking responsibility for my own progress.
I'm a big reader of books and I've learned so much from reading.
However, I've learned over the years that it's also important to "get your feet wet" and take action to progress in whatever you're trying to progress in.
One relatively recent example for me is conquering my fear of public speaking at Toastmasters.
With enough practice and enough humiliating myself, I've managed to somewhat conquer this fear.
Life Outside Work
Being self-employed and spending most of my time working from home it does sometimes feel like I don't have a life outside of work!
Family Life
I'm a very proud father of two beautiful little girls, Sophia and Georgia.
They give me the inspiration to keep working hard so I am able to provide a nice and interesting life for them and they give me the drive to keep learning as much as possible so that I can share my knowledge with the next generation.
Colin the Cocker Spaniel
We invested in acquiring a family pooch a couple of years ago.
Overall, he's been a great addition to the family.
Like most Cocker Spaniels, he's a bit crazy and being a 'working' Cocker Spaniel he's got even more energy than most but he's a lovely dog with a strong positive outlook and a great attitude to life.
I think anything that helps get people out of the house and out into nature is a plus and the great thing about being a dog owner is it forces you out of the house and away from the screens at least 1-2 times per day.
I also find I come up with a lot of good ideas when out walking Colin as it's a time where there is no distractions and it's an opportunity to reflect.
Gardening/allotment
During the covid years, like a lot of people, I developed a keen interest in gardening and I'm pleased that I've managed to maintain this hobby. Spending so time in front of a screen, it does genuinely keeps me sane to be able get out in nature.
Along with looking after my own garden I now also have a local allotment - I genuinely don't think anyone can truly appreciate the buzz of cooking a roast dinner with 90% of home grown ingredients until you've done it.
I believe a lot of design and UX/UI can take inspiration from nature and gardening. You have to get the layers right, colour schemes looking on point and the theme should be consistent! It should also respect the local culture and conditions - in my case severely limiting my choice of plants to ones that can survive in cold and wet North West England :-(
The UX of a garden should also be thought about carefully. It should be obvious to visitors how to navigate around the garden and the CTA should be obvious - cracking open a couple of cold ones 🍻 on the decking!
Football has always been a big part of my life whether playing or supporting.
I'm a lifelong football fan and a lifelong supporter of Manchester City - it's safe to say that the experience of being a City fan in the 90's is somewhat different to the 2010's and 2020's.
Being honest, I'm not sure what 'version' of City I prefer - there's pros and cons to being both rubbish and brilliant!
P.S being terrified by a hamster eating a slice of apple is not relevant to the broader points being made ;-)
