freshlyblended

I'm, a bit 'meh' twitter-wise. It's gtreat to touch base with other developers and promote my Joomla side, but I can't honestly say I've met many 'real life folk', i.e. small business owners that actually use it.

Don't forget Reddit - they're a bunch of sharks, but you can get great readership in seconds with the right blog post.

A code editor - in my case Coda 2 - and a browser. Job done. Oh, and a MAMP installation, assuming you're going the Linux way and need to develop a dynamic site on your local machine.

There's always going to be slow burners in your workload - freelancing is calculating your wage at the end of the year, not b the week or even by the month in most cases. As long as those slow burners are going to get you good exposure, it's well worth doing them. As Bluedreamer states, you need a sub-division of services to carry you through the fallow weeks. Copywriting, SEO, freelancer network jobs such as pph.com - anything to keep that roof over your head.

You're loooking at the bloke with the only mac keyboard I've ever seen that's had the keys melted by fag ash. Had to replace it; don't smoke indoors anymore, am using the e-cig on and off. They do work, but something's not quite the same.

TBH, 'web design' to me is every other bloke on a street that can string a doctype declaration and a page title together. It's way too catch all - I tend to bill myself as a 'Joomla developer'; makes it much easier to get seen in the sea of masses.

For tools, I've got a preference for Coda 2 - try and get yourself out of Dreamweaver and get used to writing in a proper code environment. The windows alternative would be notepad++/sublime text. Don't go it alone - while you're learning, get with likeminded people, especially those who compliment your skill set; if you're not so hot at design, get someone to collaborate with. On your tod, it's a pile of crushing weight that'll bring you down.

The Missing Manual series was a fantastic resource when I started taking it from a hobby to a business. Don't know about anyone else, but I've always found it easier to learn from a book.

In the same boat at the moment, more or less - looking for blog authors on my site. Got 2 peeps ready to start now, and that was just from a general post in a group on Linkedin.

TBH, I wouldn't worry about the local area - most of my work comes from all around the UK and abroad. Network the living daylights out of yourself, and don't set yourself up as a 'web designer' - specialise in something, get a niche you can target with some comeback.

Currently signing the contracts on a Spanish ex-pat radio station - though I've had weirder. Had to do a Norwegian translation once, and the only Norwegian I know is whatever Google Translate throws out. Damn well hop they checked it through afterwards, otherwise there's a frog in the bidet and the waiter needs to get rid.

Hi Peeps! Joomla loving mad cat man, based in Louth Lincolnshire. Been freelancing for a long, long time over the years, got thouroughly dusted in a motorycle/car interface and now building things back up. Kieren is the name.