I was getting seriously fed up.

I'd been dealing with a programmer for several months. Now don't get me wrong - he was great at programming. But, things weren't going smoothly:

* Hiring him was getting expensive, even for simple tasks.

* He was taking much longer than originally stated to get many things done.

* The finished code often did not match the specifications he'd received from me (some of my specs were up to 50 pages long - I wasn't being vague!)

If you've ever dealt with freelance programmers, I bet you can relate. Now, I'm certainly not saying all programmers are bad, but I've consistently found them difficult and often very expensive to work with.

I got so fed up, I decided to teach myself how to do the stuff I wanted to do.

Okay let me be clear - if I want a 'shopping cart' written, it's best if I go to a professional programmer, or buy a ready made solution. I'm not looking to spend every day writing code!

BUT - for the small but important stuff that can take days for a programmer to get round to doing, and can often cost you over $100 (even though it just takes them a couple of hours), then it really is best if you can do that yourself ...