Gruber for Hire

Friday, 8 October 2004

I’ve been publishing Daring Fireball now for a little over two years, and for most of that time, this web site has contained almost zero self-promotion. That has changed in the past few months, with the T-shirts, memberships, sponsors, and now, T-shirts again.

With very few exceptions, the response from Daring Fireball’s regular readers has been tremendously supportive and gratifying. I sold many more T-shirts and memberships than I’d expected, and the second batch is selling well too. The sponsorship venture is going well, too: I’m happy to announce that Defaultware and Cocoatech have joined Jewelboxing as Daring Fireball sponsors. Defaultware to promote Proteus, their multi-protocol instant messenger application, and Cocoatech to promote Path Finder, their powerful file manager / Finder alternative.

Many of you have written with congratulations on my success, and I appreciate it; I get the feeling that a lot of you genuinely understand what I’m hoping to achieve with Daring Fireball. But before we, shall we say, toot each others’ horns, I need to frame just how successful Daring Fireball has become.

The revenue from this web site is well beyond that of a typical weblog — but, it’s way short of a full-time salary. It’s turned into a very lucrative hobby, but the numbers are still firmly in the “don’t quit your day-job” category.

In my case, the “day-job” is my own self-employed consultancy, working as a web developer, designer, and technical writer.

As for why I have never promoted my services on this web site, all I can offer is that self-promotion does not come naturally to me. I’d much prefer to let my work speak for itself. Unfortunately, you can’t pay rent with a well-written weblog, or with consulting services no one is aware of.

So, this:

I am currently free, where by “free”, I mean under-employed and available. Services you might consider contracting me for include:

  • Perhaps most obviously to readers of this web site, I am a technical writer who can present and explain complex subject matter engagingly.

  • I develop web sites using web standards, including extensive experience re-implementing existing tag-soup sites using standards-compliant markup and CSS. My design emphasis is on usability, this very site exemplifies my design aesthetic. (Note that I’m happy to develop sites that make use of dark text on light backgrounds.)

  • I write Perl and PHP code, including award-winning experience extending the Movable Type publishing system. If you’re looking for an MT consultant or custom web-publishing code, I might be able to help.

  • I know a fair amount about Mac OS X, and Mac-specific nerdery such as AppleScript.

While I’m primarily posting this in the hopes of drumming up contract work, I’d also like to hear about interesting and/or lucrative full-time employment. If you’re hiring, I’m listening.

If you have any questions or work to offer, please send email to contact@daringfireball.net.