3 Years On, Time To Show You Who I am?
187(This is more of a personal post than normal. If that’s not your thing, sorry, but at least I warned you!)
My name’s Michael Martin, and I’m the person behind Pro Blog Design. If you’ve ever emailed in, tweeted, or left a Facebook message (or most likely, even if you’ve just left a comment here!) then you’ve talked to me before.
And if you’ve been here at all before, you’ve definitely read articles I’ve written (and naturally if you’ve worked with us, you’ve probably had more emails from me than you actually wanted!)
But you’ve never seen a photo of me.
In one week from today, I launch the biggest project of my life, and it just doesn’t seem fair to ask you to purchase something from me without knowing who I am.
So you’ll have to forgive this being a bit of dull post. It’s for those of you who really want to get involved with PliablePress and take part in shaping what it becomes. The first step towards that is introductions.
So Who Am I?
Well, that’s me over there on the right!
The reason you’ve never seen a photo before is that I was fairly young when I started Pro Blog Design.
I’m 20 now, and have the reputation of 3 years writing and designing at Pro Blog Design to back me up.
When I started out though, I was 17 and wondered if I’d have trouble with people taking me seriously or not. I never lied about my age, I just avoided bringing it up.
The awesome thing about the internet though is that the very best people (ie. the ones you actually want to work with, and the ones you want to be your customers) really couldn’t care less what age you are (Or where you’re from, or anything else for that matter). They just want you to know your stuff.
It took me a while to realize that, and I probably could (and should!) have put photos online before now. Maybe a few people would have been put off, but not the important ones (A few especially perceptive clients even worked it out because of the times I sent most of my emails at, and none were bothered).
Kind of nice to have done that now, I think I was the only person in the world to have Facebook and not have a single photo on it!
What All Do You Do?
I’m a full time student at Queen’s University, Belfast, studying Computer Science (It’s good most of the time, but if you were having concerns about Flash now, have you ever even heard of Adobe Director? Yawn…).
Pro Blog Design is where the real fun happens though. When I started out, and for quite a while afterwards, this was all a one man show. I wrote all the posts, handled all the communications, and did all the design and code work.
Now I still write a lot of posts and do all the communications, but instead of writing every post, I often hire other writers and then work as an editor. And instead of doing all of the design work by myself, I now oversee it and guide the project (Though I do most of the coding myself, and all of the coding in Chameleon of course).
Why change to a team effort? Well for one thing, I needed to. Productivity is one thing, but there’s a point where even the most colorful of to-do lists and focus tricks aren’t going to take you any further…
The best reason though is that I get to work with people who are better than me. If you hire us to design your website now, you’re going to get a much better site than if you’d hired just me 3 years ago.
Why? Because I work with designers who are better than me. I’ve done enough design work myself to know a fantastic designer when I see them, and that’s why at Pro Blog Design, you only get the best.
Sorry if that seems like a copout as a freelancer, but anyone who thinks they’re the very best at everything they do just isn’t being honest with themselves. Everyone has strengths, and the only way to build something awesome is to find people who rock at the areas you’re just “good” in.
For me, that meant graphic design in particular (Ever notice how I don’t write Photoshop tutorials? I can make your site as user-friendly and functional as you like, but for really eye-grabbing graphics, I knew I needed to pair up with an awesome designer)
The Exciting Part
So now you know who I am and what I do, I have some news to share with you. Up until now, I’ve always had something full time to work on aside from Pro Blog Design (i.e. university), but that’s about to change.
The next year in my course is supposed to be spent working in industry for a year. For me, it means that come June I’ll be working full time on the web for (at least!) the next 16 months. And I can’t wait!
So if you thought everything up until now was good, just wait until I’m able to go at it full throttle! And naturally, PliablePress is going to be a massive part of that.
If you made it this far down the post, thanks for taking the time to read it all. Now that you know me, I’d love to know you.
With PliablePress, we really are going to involve you in everything. We’ve done enough work on the web to have a good idea of what you will like, but it’s not possible to know that better than you do.
If you want to get involved and help shape PliablePress, I’d be delighted. A big part of that will be in discussions on the user forum when we launch, and on the blog, but the first step is just joining the newsletter. We’re going to have some big questions on it soon and I’d love to hear your opinions.
And if you’ve been following along in the background in all this or we haven’t spoken much before, please do introduce yourself in the comments (let me know who you are and how I can help you!). I’m not joking in the slightest about wanting to get to know you.
It’s just 7 days to the launch. I hope this post took you a little further along the road to trusting me to make your site rock!
Enjoy this post? You should follow me on Twitter!
What? You are still 20 years old? I am 19.
quite similar, part time web worker and attending classes at the same time. Looking at your portfolio, seems like a sign for me to work even smarter, harder n better :D
Sounds like we’re doing pretty much the same thing! And I imagine I’m not the only one who finds the web work far more interesting than the class work? :D
My life exactly. 21 years old, freelancing and going to class, though freelancing is much more interesting than class.
lol, I figured most freelancing students would think the same way Pippin! :D
Me too. same age (20 years old), same interest (freelancing more than class)
Nice to know you Michael, Keep up your great work :-)
I started when I was just 15!
Well that’s not that shocking after all!
I discovered Pro Blog Design about a week ago and I’m really impressed. You’re doing a great job and hope all is going well in your work. Maybe it’s time to write part 2 (4 years on) as you can see by the amount of comments, people are interested in what you are doing here ;)
Oh. I always thought you were made of squirly brackets. My whole perception of you has changed! Haha. Doesn’t it feel nice to have your mug out there? :p
Haha, it was a little nerve wracking! lol, you’re more than welcome to picture me as the swirly brackets still if you like! (I like smilies far too much, the logo definitely proves that! :D )
Hey Michael! It’s about time! :) You’ve been creating brilliant stuff all ready, so I too am excited to see what happens in your 16-months.
Best of luck. I’ve been reading your stuff for a while now, occasionally commenting, and just having a good time all around. Cheers!
Thanks for that Chris! It’s great to hear you’ve been enjoying the content, hope I can keep you interested for another 16 months now! :D
(I’ve been checking out your site too lately, found you through comments youve left here. You’re doing a really great job, all of your posts have been insightful and detailed!)
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I’m glad you shared :).
It’s best to be clear abut who you are and what you do, from the very beginning.
No one will judge you – it’s what you do and how you do it that’s really important.
If someone doesn’t realize that and it’s a problem for them – maybe you should consider to avoid making business with them? They are no good and won’t bring you anything valuable.
And hey, one more thing, the age really doesn’t matter :).
I’m 23, which is still quite young – and believe me or not, but I’ve been in this field since 2000, which ads up to 10 years. So I was very young when I started, and didn’t really face any problems because of that.
Be transparent and be yourself. If someone sees only your age-number and not that value of your work – they are not worth your attention.
Cheers!
Thanks Michael. It took me a while to come round to that point of view.
The problem though is that you’ll never know if it’s doing you any harm. Clients aren’t going to write in to you and tell you they didn’t hire you because of your age, they just aren’t going to write in (And even if they do and find out about your age later, they’d probably blame their reason for leaving on something else anyway).
Either way though, I can definitely agree that if it is a major issue for some people, they probably aren’t the people I want to be working with anyway!
Awesome, good to know there’s other young people out there doing stuff, i’m 16 myself, guess it’s time to start doing something big! except i’m a programmer, code doesn’t stand out as much as design does! But i’m a photographer too so that might help.. hmm
Congrats on getting into this all early as well! Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s code. If coding is what you want to do, then that’s where you need to shine. And great code can definitely catch attention. Like if you wrote up a killer WordPress plugin, you’d have plenty of eyeballs on you! :D (Of course, thats obviously not easy to do! But definitely worth trying something along those lines :D )
Oh WOW! I never would have guessed. :O Every interaction with you has been mature and professional, consistent with someone in their mid-30s.
I’m going to go be depressed now, as I have one child your age, and another older.
Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us now.
Haha, I’m taking that as a complement Andrea, thank you! :D
(Have to say though, I wish my mum knew half as much about WordPress as you do!)
I started working with computers when I was 18. Of course, when I was 18 a computer ate punch cards and took up several rooms. :)
I don’t think anyone would have guessed your age, and that’s as it should be! May you continue to succeed in whatever you do.
Haha, I usually hear those days being referred to like the glory days!
Thanks for your kind words though, they were really nice to hear!
Surely that’s not you Michael – you’re just a lad!
What a great site you’ve built up in three years, you should be very proud.
I notice lots of info on the blogosphere comparing successful sites to Pro Blog Design. You’ve become the bench mark of success.
Studying Computer Science means that you can do all the hard work and then make it easy for the rest of us. LOL
Nice to meet you Michael Martin – may you have continued success.
Wow, well that was a great comment to read! It’s hard to see my blog as a benchmark of success. I’m really proud of it, but it’s just hard to see it that way for me! xD
Was really nice to read that, thank you! (And thank you for all the comments you’ve left here, you’ve really helped the site build up such a nice community around it!)
It’s been a pleasure Michael an absolute pleasure.
Only problem is… I can no longer treat you as a father figure. LOL
Hahaha, true, I may be slightly too young for that! (Shame though, I think we’d get on well. Like I’m never going to forget that you’re a big Sharpe fan as well!! :D )
Good to see the man behind the blog :)
My brother is a lecturer at Queens. Think his office is across from the Bot.
Kevin
Are you from Belfast Kevin?? :o
Not enough I meet another person online who knows their way around Belfast! My building is across from the bot as well, I’ll be reading name badges on doors to see if I can spot it now!
wow. this is surprising. Anyways. thanks for making your contributions to the design field and good luck with the new launch and keep it up =)
No problem, I just hope you’ve found some of them useful!
Would have said you were older but in the end who cares. Anyway, i’ve been following the blog for a while now and i was really glad recently on how it went when i wrote an article for pbd. You were really available for any questions i had really cool. If it can motivate other people to write for pbd. I’ll try to write back as soon as i get time and a good idea to share. Cheers ;)
Thanks for that Kevin! I can be really slow at replying to emails about articles sadly, kind of a nice surprise for you to find that wasn’t the case! It’s definitely something I have to work on though :(
Oh, I was under the impression you looked like this: http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/d07e3c3e487bb0e5161305216ea9b7f3 :D
I, for the same reasons, haven’t used pictures of myself or put my age on my About page. I’m still only 18, but I’ll bet a lot of my readers don’t know that. So, shhh…
Haha, I’ll keep the secret Matt! ;)
lol, I’m still not sure whether I should use that as my Twitter etc. pic still or swap now!
Keep the PBD logo. It’s more recognizable than a photo. Logos are generally more memorable than faces, and your Twitter handle *is* @problogdesign.
That’s definitely true. One thing I was considering was to have the photo, but with a small version of the logo in the corner (Like Adelle from Fuel Your Creativity used to do). Not sure how well that would work though.
It was really nice getting to know you a bit better Michael, I too would have guessed that you were older from our communications with each other. I’m a firm believer that age is an illusion and has nothing to do with who we are or what we know.
Good luck with PliablePress, it sounds like it’s going to be a great service!
Thanks Angie, it’s been a pleasure working with you on the site! (You always write killer articles!)
I couldn’t agree more with what you said about age. It really has no bearing at all on someone’s skills.
Awesome to see someone so young have so much success with their blog. I really didn’t know you were so young.
I’m proud to know you have taken advantage of the internet as I wish I would’ve have many years ago.
With anything online, it’s only a matter of time. In only 3 years your site has over 10,000 subscribers, that’s great!!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Greg! I’m really pleased with how the site has grown as well. If someone had told me 3 years ago that over 10,000 people would end up reading it and I’d get this many people actually interested in hearing about who I am, I’d just never have believed them!
My favorite part of it though is still how much I learn through it all, and the awesome people I get to meet and work with because of it :)
Oh, you’re too young, just 20 years old. But it’s not important. The important thing is what you’ve done. And this blog is an awesome stuff. Keep working and hope you’ll be more successful in the future.
Haha, thanks, I hope so too! ;)
Thanks for the “big reveal” post, well done. You are wise beyond your years, keep up the great work, you have a bright future!
Was definitely a little stressful for me to write! Beaming with all the kind comments people have left now though, yous really rock!!
You are so much younger than I anticipated! Wow, didn’t realize your background either.
Haha, guess it helps show you can’t really guess anything about anyone online! :D
I’ve come to realize that age really doesn’t matter all that much. it’s experience that counts the most.
Also, I can’t wait until PliablePress launches. It looks like it’s going to be very cool.
That’s a great way of putting it. Experience with something definitely makes a difference, you just have to remember that age doesn’t equal experience.
Thanks though, I hope you like it when it goes live! (Maybe wpBlast will end up setting up a few people with it even? Details on an affiliate program will be coming in an email this week, might be of interest to you if you do like the themes! :) )
No problem. I hope so. I’ll be sure to add PliablePress to our Themes page under the premium theme sites section. That is, as long as they are quality themes haha. I’m sure they will be though!
Haha, I’ll do my best to make sure that they are! :D
I had a feeling you were younger than usual when I interviewed you at Elite by Design! Great to finally see you and get a glimpse of the man behind the blog. You’re quite the inspiration – I’m still 17 and heading off to college next year. I still haven’t quite figured out how to balance online work and school, but I know that it’s possible looking at Pro Blog Design.
Keep up the good work and we will be in touch! Good luck with Pliable Press.
Haha, seems like you were right then!
It can be hard to find the balance (And a good answer would take a full post, not just a comment!), but one thing I can say is that I definitely found it easier to do once I had started uni than when I was still in school. Your college timetable is much more flexible, and you’ll start to find ways of fitting things together more nicely.
It can definitely be done! And if you really love what you’re doing, it’s not going to feel like work even! :)
Michael, it’s so great to finally be able to see the face behind the blog.
I’ve been reading for quite some time and I’ve always wanted to see who was working it behind the scenes.
I think it adds quite the credibility to the blog now. 17 does seem like an early age (I had those same doubts – always preferred anonymous) but after I saw the benefits of being able to network clearly with people after showing who I was, there was no turning back.
Here’s to your success in the future!
Thanks for that Murlu, it’s great to hear a positive impact of sharing who I am already. For me personally, I’ve never been too bothered by who was writing a post, but it seems more and more lately that there aren’t many sites where I don’t see a photo. Might be influencing me more than I actually realized!
Either way, I’m definitely glad to have it out there now. :)
nice man,
that makes me look bad not having
achieved such things with already 22 ;)
lol, sorry, don’t read it that way! 2 years difference between us isn’t much, but to be honest, even if we were double our ages, I still wouldn’t want either of us feeling bad. It’s only ever too late (or too early!) to do something if you tell yourself it is, otherwise, nothings impossible! :)
You are not the only one facebooker who doesn’t put any photos. I don’t either:-) I believe that my clients will not have to see my face, and don’t judge my work by my age. I feel so old when reading this blog post. But, I’m proud to young people who are very creative like you.
Have a nice day!
Good to hear I’m not the only one! I agree with you completely though, age has no impact on your work. I wouldn’t care if someone was 18 or 80. If they’re able to pump out great work, then they’re someone worth working with! :)
Michael! What a surprise! This is my 37th year of teaching students your age, and I never would have guessed you could have been in one of my classes! You are very mature in your posts and in our personal communications. I look forward to seeing what you do as you continue to mature in your field. Thanks for pulling back the curtain to give us a peek at the “real you.” :-)
Rob
Hey Rob, thanks for the kind words! It’s especially to hear that someone I’ve talked with quite a few times didn’t guess my age, and clearly doesn’t mind it either!
I’d like to have been one of your students (If the ivman blog is anything to go by, it definitely wouldn’t be a dry class! :D )
Kudos to you for crafting this brilliant and resourceful blog! Now if only half the young people your age were half as mature and productive as you .. can you imagine the possibilities? :)
I always thought you were older Michael, you conduct yourself beautifully. I wish you and your projects the very best!!
Thank you so much Sneh! I’m really pleased you like this site, and I’m chuffed with the complements!
Haha, I still have a bit to go with the productivity though! You’d be amazed how distracting anyone mentioning “ipad” has become lately… :(
I could never guess your age…
You are nearly half my age, but you write like .. well way better than me :))
Keep up the good work.
Very nice blog by the way.
Haha, thanks for the kind words! I was never a great writer in school (I loved creative writing, but essays just had me running for the hills!). Writing for the web is much more fun though, you just say what you have to say, in the way that you want to say it. There are no “rules” to follow. Love that part of it!
Well done Michael!
I’m from Belfast and have been using your blog as a resource for a long time. You will have an amazing future and career ahead of you. You should be very proud.
Good luck in you next venture .
Katrina
Thanks very much Katrina! Haha, I hope you’re right about the future, I guess there’s only one way to see though!
It’s nice to meet someone else from Belfast! It doesn’t happen all too often online, always cool to hear there are a few of us out there though! :D
hoho.. i just shocked to hear that u are 20 now..
Haha, I just hope it’s in a good way! :D
Good on you, Michael, and all the very best with your new venture (I’m sure it’ll be a success).
Thanks David! I’d be delighted if it goes half as well as you’ve managed to make all of Logo Design Love!
Wow I never figured you would be so young. I am 22 and doing pretty ok for myself in the web design/wordpress industry. I do wish I had started a bit younger like you at 17…but I did not have internet until I was 20. :(
PS: I’m waiting for that affiliate email for pliablepress… =)
No internet until you were 20? Ouch, I can hardly even imagine that now :(
If you’ve only been online for 2 years in total, then I’d say you’re doing pretty great, not just ok!
(And haha, the email is coming soon, promise! Either this weekend or on Monday itself at the latest!)
Hi, Michael… it’s nice to know you, I’m happy cause I learn lots from you…
Thanks! If there’s anything in particular you’d like to learn about, just let me know and I’ll see about putting together an article on it! :)
Wow Michael, I only got access to the internet at 26, that was in the year 2000…and ever since then, I’ve been hooked. You’re mature for your age and quite surprised that you’re only 20, I had assumed you’re in your mid-thirties. Just love your design work, thank you to CatsWhoBlog where I first discovered about you.
Thanks Muzi! I’m quite pleased I come off as mature and a bit older! (But sorry, your comments seem to have no luck with my spam filter lately. I always go through it before emptying the spam though, so at least they’ll never be lost!)
And ah, that’s cool how you found me! Jean-Baptiste’s CatsWhoBlog (And his other sites!) all rock! His posts are some of my favorites to read online! :)
Always thought it was a shame to see young entrepreneurs/bloggers hiding their age. I think it’s definitely something you want to get out there! I can’t put enough emphasis on my age (16), and I mention it on any picture or biography I have on my blog.
But it’s great you did this. Not to call you out or anything Michael (I respect you a lot), but if it weren’t for PilablePress – would you have done this article at all?
Hi Alex!
I can see what you mean about sharing your age. I’ve seen a fair few people even younger than me who do love to show their age, but it just never really appealed to me. In the same way that I didn’t want people to look past me because of my age, I didn’t expect them to think better of me because of it either. If I wrote great content and made great websites, then age didn’t come into it one way or the other :)
That’s not saying it’s worse to put your age out there early (or that it’s better), I just think personal choices have a lot to do with it. Like Blogussion is doing great, so it clearly must be working fine for you!
You’re totally right that I chose now in particular to finally mention it though! It’s like I said at the top of the post, PliablePress is a massive deal for me and the only thing that is going to get it going is if the people who have known me through Pro Blog Design for a while are interested in it. That’s why I’ve opened up for them. I’m putting it all on the line because I want more than anything for PliablePress to be a success (For both me and every person who ends up using it!)
I am shocked to hear that you are only 20 now!
No one will judge you – it’s what you do and how you do it that’s really important.i learn a lot of from you.you gave me the great knowledge.Its really beneficial for me.You will have an amazing future and career ahead of you.
Keep up the good work.
Bye.
Thank you megri! It’s really great to hear that you’ve learnt a lot from here, that’s the whole point of writing these tutorials. It’s always so nice to see that they really have benefitted people!
WOW.. We are just the same in age. Cheers for your success of this blog.
Haha, then I’ll race you to 21! ;)
Michael! It’s great to see you finally came out in the open! :D You always told me you have an issue with putting up a photo of you online. Glad you finally did it–and to a very large audience, at that! xD
I may be older than you (hey 22 is still young!) but I have learned a lot from you, ever since we worked together during our FG days. I have a lot of respect for you and I am very proud of you, for what you have accomplished. I’m sure you’ll conquer more frontiers!
By the way, belated Happy Birthday! Hope it was amazing. :)
Thanks Pam! Haha, yep, I’ve always been nervous of it! I think the FGers are the only ones who had an idea of my age! I have idea for that site still (The community there rocks!), which hopefully I’ll be able to get around to once I get a little bit of time when uni ends!
I always thought you were slightly older than that though! 22 is very young for finishing a medical degree, congratulations!!
Your hot ^^
Haha, are you sure you werent looking at the Chameleon?? ;)
Great to see more about you, Michael!
Age shouldn’t matter. Finished product is what matters. None of the comments here disagree.
Oddly, I’ve got a kind of reverse of your age issue. I’m a tad higher on the age continuum. People my age aren’t supposed to know about computing, and they are supposed to say things like “I use the world wide web with The Google.”
When they find out I started out doing Fortran on mainframes in the 1970s they get kinda nervous. When they find out I’ve written apps for Windows, they’re ready to jump out the…window.
I rest *our* cases.
%%robert (chopin_slut from Twitter)
P.S. I do those tweets about ppress because such a +++ enterprise deserves to flourish! I do not, and never will, expect any quid pro quo!
Hi Robert! (Nice to know your real name, it’s been cool talking to you on Twitter! And thanks again for sharing it with your friends there, I really do appreciate you helping us out and hopefully help make the launch a success!)
You’ve made a really good point there. There hasn’t been a single comment that disagrees that age just shouldn’t matter. There are near 80 comments here now, and half of them are mine, so nearly 40 people have all come together and well, they’ve all been awesome! It’s made me so so proud of the community we have here, you guys rock!
In my degree, they’ve made us work in Assembly language even, which definitely hasn’t changed since then, so there’s a lot of value in all the experience you’ve picked up! It’s great to see that you’ve been involved with the industry for so long, it must be interesting thinking back on how everything has changed!
Hi Alex!
Tnks for the kind response!
Delighted to hear that Assembler is still alive and kicking! I remember someone back in Windows 3.X days who wrote screensavers in it — fast and tiny. VERY tiny. He claimed the same thing could be done with Windows!
Hurry Tuesday!
%%robert
Haha, I don’t even want to begin thinking about how he did that! Just a few days to go now, I can’t wait!
wow..its so amaizing,Awesome,.
Yeah, You’ve helped me a fellow bloggers a lot!!! I Love Problogdesign.com :)
Great stuff…My nephew built my first website when he was 14…Good luck and thanks for all your help!
How inspiring! I think you have every reason to be proud of your accomplishments… who cares how many years you’ve been alive? Well done, and nice to meet you!
Thanks Sharon! I am, but there’s a lot of people I look up to and would love to be half as talented as!
Great to see a face to the name! I’m impressed at your young age and talents. Your blog has come a long way and been informative in many ways! Keep up the great work buddy!
Thanks Aman, and thanks for all the comments you’ve left here over that time!
looool 20 years old y
i love your blogger
you have special ideas presnt in your blog
nice to know who you are .. good work Michael
Nice to see a face behind name!
Hey Michael, this is indeed the best post ever on your blog ;) I am sure that people was wondering all the time who are the person behind the avatar!
Haha, I’m still not decided on whether or not I should replace the avatar with a photo or just remain behind the smilie face! ;)
hi michael….
nice to know you….
in the age of 20, I’m so surprise with your ability…awesome…
Hi Michael,
We’ve talked a couple of times before.. And you may not know, i’m on the same bandwagon. I’m 19, i do some freelancing and i love it more than school work :-) You’ve come a looooong way ever since i met you (on the web) 3 years back.. I still remember the days when ProBlogDesign was very new :) Your hard work has really payed !! :-)
Just read about PliablePress.. Subscribed to the newsletter.. All the best with it !! Rock on :)
Hey Shrihari! It’s really nice to know there are a good few of us out there doing this. It’s a lot of fun and you learn a heck of a lot, I just don’t get why more people our age don’t do it too!
(And thanks, hope you liked what you saw at PliablePress!)
Ha ha :-D Yeah.. Some of my mates hate programming and yet study Comp. Sci.. Funny world :-D
And, yeah, PliablePress is awesome :)
Great to know more about you and ofcourse to see a picture of you! :) Like Shrihari said am also the one who falls under the same age and we are all under one roof and guess that is why we work better together! ;) I too have the same thought of starting a wp themes marketplace but for some reason it just didn’t worked out but atleast you did it with Pliable Press and its shaping well! Wish you all the best!
Guess you should have a Gravatar now! ;)
Thanks Narendra! It’s always been great working with you on posts here!
Thanks for the good wishes! I’m looking forward to seeing what you try next as well!
Nice one Michael, didn’t realise you were so young :)
Hopefully see you at some of the web community events in Belfast in the future!
Thanks Steven! Great to see you here, I can’t wait to see what you guys have come up with for Onotate!
And haha, yep, I should start to see you there! There seems to be a lot on, really need to start trying some of the events out! (I was at Build, if that counts? :D )
Hi Michael, Nice to see you!
So young, did a good blog! Beyond belief !
Haha, thank you!
Reading through the bio I found out that I am getting older quickly and you are a genius indeed. At your age, I was till in University and internet seems something luxurious to me and I was unable to get a Yahoo Email :-)
PliablePress is a great project and you would be boosted with this if you are offering more added values to it such as free child themes, support and price policy. You have done it right at the beginning and I wish you could do more than that later on. Keep up your good work!
Thanks Tinh! We seem to be getting off to a great start (Thanks entirely to the support of people like you! :D ), and things are only going to get better, I promise!
(and haha, if it helps, it took me a while to get a Gmail one :( )
Really must not judge people by how/what they write anymore. I had another image in my head about you, however you rock mate!
Haha, thank you! :D
Wow Michael, I can totally see why you would be leery though as many of us assume a lot of the garbage on the web “A.K.A. YouTube comments” comes from a younger crowd, but I’m sure a lot of it comes from older people too. There’s been a lot of awesome projects created by really young people over the years.
I started playing with the web around your age too, but you’ve done way more than I did. Back then the Internet still didn’t have a defined direction and midi files and animated gifs were all the rage. I only wish I could have been as focused as you.
Midis? Ouch! Haha, I know exactly what you mean about Youtube’s “discussions”! There’s a great little Greasemonkey script I use that hides comments Youtube. It instantly makes you feel like the average IQ of the internet has jumped 5 points!
Hi Mike,
Great work, I really love your style and admire your work ethic, you will go far in the web design field!
I have a similar story to yours, currently 17 years old and working full time at a private web design firm.
shoot me an email if there’s anything I can do to help you out on your projects ;)
You have a full time job in a web design firm at 17? That’s fantastic! You must have a lot of talent to have gotten in there already, congrats! Hope you’re learning a lot from them! :D
Hi there,
After reading a lot of comments, i find this quite unbelievable and yet enthusiastic to see people of relative young ages working hard and full time.
I myself am in mid twenties, but when i see someone much younger doing the same thing as i am doing, i do feel that i should have started at an early age.
Hats off to all ya guyz !!
I think that in this world the more young you are, the better it is. :)
Go on with your awsome work!
Erriko, 21 years old ;)
Haha, well that would be an interesting turnaround!
Young age and youth !!
Divinity in motion.
Young people are more productive than old people and thats why what i have observed is that companies are hiring young people more than “older” guyz.
Potential is what matters.
:P
Just found this superb site, Michael, whilst looking up the school calendar on the Aquinas website. All I can say is “Wow!” Your work is fantastic and of such high quality. Aquinas is very proud to have such an esteemed and successful past pupil as yourself, but let’s face it, we’ve been spoiled with our Martin family intake as a whole!
Best wishes for the future and congratulations.
Regards,
Joanne Connolly (your Additional Maths teacher, back in the day!)
Hi Joanne! It’s great to hear from you again! Kind of surprised you found me here though, making the Aquinas site is a few years back now!
It was one of my first ever WordPress projects (the system I now use in all of my client projects and teach everyone about here), so definitely pretty cool to see it’s still in use!
And for what it’s worth, I *STILL* remember the quadratic equation song!
Cool man! Respect :-)
You project still looks great btw!
Great post, I do think it’s a shame that people get judged by their age, but with this blog to back you up I don’t think anyone can doubt your experience.
I’m 17 and currently looking for a job as a web designer, I do feel like my age is getting in the way a bit but I’m not giving up!
Hi Keiron,
Thats the spirit dude, well said.
Age cannot be the decision making factor that governs our actions.
People should be mature from the brain and the will power should be there in the heart.
Thumbs up !!
Thanx. Very nice.
wow. this is surprising. Anyways. thanks for making your contributions to the design field and good luck with the new launch and keep it up =)
Wow.. I can’t believe it you are 20th.. well done
Hi Micheal Martin,
Finally we have got the chance to know who was behind the steering wheel.
BTW, your looking cool and young.
I was expecting someone much older.
Giggles.
nice job. Learning more from you. I think you are the best.
That’s well. DO MORE, hold more for job, life. Come on man.
I wcould tell you were in the technical field in the university. Good luck with your school, and online projects.
Hi Michael!
You’re young, handsome and talented and for me it sounds more like an asset than a handicap! Just beware of girlfriends except if they’re web geeks :-) :-)
More seriously your blog is really great and I found interesting tips. Going through this post I just discovered PliablePress and really like your themes.
Both sites are now bookmarked and I will check them regularly.
Keep the good work!
Roger
Thanks Roger, great to hear you’ll be checking back! Hope you like what you see in them!
Haha, my girlfriend is my link back to normality! It takes her to drag me off the computer or I’d have melted into it by now! :D
Michael, nice to meet you. Sounds like things are going well, and it’s always good to hear some good news. You’ve got an excellent resource here, especially for WordPress types. I’ll definitely be giving you a link from http://billbean.wordpress.com/
Best of luck with the Pliable thing.
Great post, it’s always nice to see who is behind the writing!!!
Keep up the good work.
hi michael.. CongraTZ :D but im still 16 years and studying about these thing.. so this is a very useful site to learn new things… ;)
Nice work with PliablePress. Keep up the good work man! :-)
Learning from you,oh hello Micheal !
i am Sarah. :)
btw, you are so young. :)
hi Michael Good to see you and know about you.
I really like to read about you. Because i learn lot of from you.
You looks nice and cute. I can’t believe that you are 20. Keep it up lol.
A Buddhists sole purpose is to become like a child again ; for through a child’s eyes , the world is perceived within all it’s beauty and purity . It is only when we get old that we become bitter and cynical and try to find fault with everything in the world around us and no longer are able to see the beauty in anything .
I have known and been around people 20 + years younger than myself all of my life – not because I pursue this – but simply because it just happens . I believe that we learn through our youth and NOT the other way around : Some of the best life long lessons I have extracted have been through people younger than yourself Michael – and I am still learning so much every day !
Parents are placed here to serve as protectors & guides , but it is our children who teach us the most fundamental lessons in this life . I dont respect people based upon their age – but rather by their words & their actions .
Age is not a number – but rather a state of mind . I have encountered people in their 70’s with not an iota of wisdom – and I have spoken with 10 year olds who bore more wisdom than a 90 year old person ! Today I encountered a 14 year old developer who possessed more insight at development than most of his older counterparts , and I was speechless ! ( but not surprised in the least ) .
Being young is nothing to be ashamed of , nor hide – ( you will have plenty of time to do this when you are old-er ) . In this profession [ as in any profession ] , it is your skills and your knowledge which count , and not your age , and I believe you have an ample amount of both :D
It is nice to meet you young Michael ;) I wish you much continued future success within your life & career endeavors & keep Rockin the code w/ your Ninja skills !
Go with the Force Luke ! :D
P.S: Here is the @ 14 year old young Developer .
P.P.S : Children teach us about the Future & what is to come – while elders teach us about the past so that we may learn & not allow history to repeat itself . :)
Thanks very much Mia! That was great to read, and very well put! I like the sentiment, that we learn from our youth. The dream is that we can all stay young forever (at least, I’m definitely still just a big kid inside!)
And haha, any point that ends with a Star Wars quote *has* to be a good one!
Great introduction and great story wish you best of luck with your wp themes, and don’t ever worry about the age because world belongs to young entrepreneurs like you and me,
Nothing wrong with starting young! Good luck with Pliable Press and your placement year :)
Amazing.. I can’t believe it you are 20th..
Briliant Stuff……
Hey Michael cool to reveal yourself. I still would have hired you knowing your age – why does that matter? Your designs rock!
Thanks Adam! I really enjoyed working with you and love your blog, so that means a lot! :D
Ditto. I wish I had half your design skills. Keep up the good work.
Surprising, but doesn’t really change anything. I hope you remember me, I’ve been a long time commenter (right from year 1).
I’m 18 myself, the best thing about the web is that people either don’t care about your age or respect you more for being younger.
Your course work requires a year of hands-on working? I’d like to join that college ;) We have no such things in my place (India) and I reckon in much of the world :(
Edit: Ok, I don’t think I have to mention I’ve commented often, “40 comments” on the previous comment by me (above) shows it.
Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.
I usually do go through the spam filter, so even the simple fact you have a Gravatar
based on the photoshop default picker. But you can use it to create color palettes and save them for future use. Also, you can download the palettes that you create as
Hey Michael, i am glad to meet you. You looks nice and sweety. I can’t believe that you are 20. :)
Very nice Site number one topic Thanks you..
very goood site. thank u.
I’ll note this down as my inspiration, I am exactly like you! I am 16 years old now and I just learned blogging and designing blogs. Although i have a
“not so good” custom designed blog, but I’m proud of it.
I hope to be as good as you are now when I grew up!…thanks for the inspiration yo!
Nice stuff. Thanks for sharing!
This is amazing work for one so young!! Can you imagine a decade from now?
what a clever young man ! :D
you have done a great job.
what a clever young man !
Don’t follow the crowd by getting a gravatar…it’s overrated…
just kidding. :)
It seems my Uni wasn’t the only one teaching Director then. We were the last year to be taught it even though Adobe had already taken over Macromedia and Director had been discontinued?! I am glad I imported my flash files and wrote the program in AS. 4 years on and it shows how quickly the web is moving as Flash is not as popular as it once was.
Thank you for your article is wonderful
Thank you for your article is wonderful..
You loog really smart. So young. You rock friend.
so young but so capable
hello from another michael martin.
just found your blog.. looks like an awesome source for me to learn some new WP tricks.
keep up the good work.
looks like an awesome source for me to learn some new WP tricks.
WOW! It will help a lot of people which is so kind of you. Thanks for all of your hard work!
Good read, Thx! Less is more.
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Thanks a lot for these mate!
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Great icons. Really beautiful and really cool. Thanks
Thanks for all of your hard working!
I really appreciate of all what you do in this site. I like this site.
Thanks Michael..
I would wish to stick to this blog with my twitter. How am i able to do that?
great blog mate. i’m just learning wordpress so I hope to read more articles on your site.
keep up the good work.
It’s always great that such young person have so successful blog. I thought you are older.
Socialization remains on top in the activities of social life and online networking sites are the tool to do so.
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