I’ve been asked to review a Website Promotion, Affiliate Marketing and .Net Development Blog. This is the blog of a man who lives in South Wales, U.K.. He makes his living doing internet programming on a contractual basis. His tagline states: ” My ramblings about making a living on the internet and life in general”.

You know…. being an arty girl and all – my first comment has to be on aesthetics:

First of all, I love the green bar and idea of a sandy background – not so sure the “celestial” pic fits into that scheme. Although, I think the idea is to give us a feel of being on a South Wales beach, the idea could be pulled off to great results with a little extra work or contracting out to a WP theme writer. After all, GUI gets us all in? Or out!

I like the green in the navigation bar, but hey, my family comes from Wales and Ireland, so if it were me, the site would be sand and everything else varying shades of green. But I’m also OCD. Still, some green could tie in the bar. Like say, the Digg It or add a small icon of some sort to invidual posts? It would keep it from becoming too graphic intensive, more text, as a blog of this sort should be, but the addition of just a few icons would give it a more techie feel, and would make the posts the focus (as Slobo would say).

As for the content:

Having been a contract programmer myself who often travelled out of state for weeks on end – your blog brings back memories! Many people forget or don’t realize the mundane things you have to deal with while on the road. From dealing with unreliable or non-existent internet connections, horrible food, no friends to talk to other than the guys sitting in the cigar bar (that was fun for me – learned how to smoke a cigar) not to mention, having to go into an IT Dept. staffed with full-timers and be there on a contract basis. Let’s just say, you learn to deal with not being liked from day one. The challenge becomes winning them over in a week or two so you can avoid being sabotaged and get future jobs. It’s a tough way to make a living. From getting paid, to paying (in the USA at least) for your own healthcare, praying your tires don’t blow, or people don’t steal from you and you can remain safe.

Sharing information is one of the great strengths of the internet. Sharing your experiences as you travel, working for others, is an important part of history to record. Contract programmers have become the traveling salesmen of the new millenia! It is especially difficult when you have children to worry about aside from the work. This guy deserves respect and support from others in IT. After all – Someone has to physcially trek out there, underneath the inter net to keep things going and there are millions who are willing to take on the job! At least hotels should give them reliable internet access!!!