Hello, my name's Malcolm Fellowes. I'm 25 years old and I live in England in a town called Tamworth. MF Web is my trading name; it simply stands for Malcolm Fellowes Web. It's the business name I operate under when doing Web related work. A little boring I'll admit but easy to remember.

At the moment I'm very fortunate enough to be making a living as a full time Freelance web developer. I'm very passionate about creating websites. It's something i've been doing now for almost half my life.. quite literally. I started teaching myself web programming languages when I was about eleven years old after being taken on a "HowTo make websites like the experts do" day course.

This was a somewhat misleading introduction. The course could literally of been boiled down to a two paged manual on "how to use a program's flashy interface (Dreamweaver) to do it all for you". I can't help but have some respect to that course and moreso some serious gratitude to the person who took me on it, as it inspired me to learn how to do it myself.

From here making websites naturally became a hobby which I tried to put into practice at every available opportunity I had, be it for a small gaming clan fad I was involved in at the time or just a hobby related site. It has pushed me as well as my school education in the direction of learning "general" programming languages (like Java, C#, C, C++), software related methodologies, software design patterns, laws etc. After University and some other unrelated business training (salescopy/internet marketing/direct marketing training workshops) I pulled back to my roots and have been freelancing since.

My higher education began at Wilnecote High School. I hold 9 GCSE's A* - C including English, Maths and ICT. I also went to the Wilnecote High School 6th form where I achieved 4 A Levels in ICT, History, Drama and Citizenship.

I followed this up by attending Staffordshire University on the BEng Computer Games Programming course. The course should of lasted 4 years but I left after 2. Unfortunately it just wasn't for me and I was no longer enjoying what I was doing; infact the hobby I once adored became unbareable. This is what motivated me to leave. I am very grateful to of had the life experience and I certainly have no regrets.

After leaving University I attended several business training workshops run by some of the best salecopy writers in the industry. Eventually I found my programming roots again and have since started Freelancing as a frontend and backend web developer.

Everyone is different. We're all unique and we all have our own personal preferences. Traditionally Techtypes aren't let out of their cages to deal directly with clients because most are unable to break down technical jargon into plain English.

You'll also find we feel most comfortable behind a screen rather then talking directly or even face to face. I'll be the first to put my hands up and admit to being guilty of this, but I learnt a long time ago that business is done with people and not with machines.

Believe it or not my favourite part of this job is the interaction with my clients. I really love talking with people that are as passionate about their hobby/business as I am of my own, and I enjoy exchanging different ideas and perspectives.

This leads me onto "my policy" which is to be honest no matter what. Relationships (personal or business) are built on trust. How can you trust me and how can I trust you if we're not honest with each other?

If I fallback into my programming roots and come out with a bunch of Technical jargon rubbish then I want you to tell me. If there's something I've done that you don't like then tell me! I will always offer my personal and professional opinion as much as you allow me to, but it's your website/project.

At the end of the day I do what I do to make a living (I'm just lucky I love what I do). As cliche as it may sound, this is what puts the food on my table and the shirt on my back. I understand I'm being trusted with your hard earnt money to not only build the website you want but also one you're proud of. I want you to be successful.

Why do I care if you're successful or not? I should be paid either way for the services rendered. The easiest way to explain it is with ten foot chop sticks, which is an old folks tale that has resinated in me. If you're interested continue onto the box below.

Once there was a man who wanted to check out the after-life. He'd heard all the stuff about Heaven and Hell and wanted to see what both were really like. After all, he thought, if I live a good life here on Earth and I get to the afterlife only to find that its all been a con, I'm going to be upset to say the least especially after all the great food he refused to eat because he thought it must be wrong to be so gluttonous. But if it didn't matter, he may as well enjoy himself and eat as much as he could.

So he booked a guided tour of Heaven and Hell for a day.

First his guide took him to the Gates of Hell. As he looked through the gates he could see the most wonderful food piled high on massive tables as high as the eye could see.
It looked great, so he wandered through the gates with his guide. On and on they walked and all the while they were surrounded on all sides by piles of the most wonderful food imaginable. This seemed more like 'Heaven' than 'Hell'.

WOW! Hell's definitely the place for me he told his guide..

All the food I can eat for eternity.. what could be wrong with that? It's my dream!
His guide said nothing. However, as they walked into a massive hall with a table piled high with food as long as the eye could see he noticed that all the people sitting around the table were thin and weak.. people with little or no flesh left on their bones. All moaning in agony at being hungry for the whole of eternity.

The man turned to his guide, "I don't understand, there is all this food and yet these poor souls are starved". "How can this be?!"

"Look more closely" replied his guide. "You'll see why soon enough.."

As they got nearer the man noticed that all the people seemed to be holding very long chopsticks. As the man looked on he saw how none of them could eat the food. They could pick the food up with their long chopsticks, but couldn't get it round into their mouths.

On seeing this he decided that now was the time to take the tour of Heaven. As he wandered through the Pearly Gates with his guide he was amazed that everything looked the same. Huge piles of food everywhere as far as the eye could see. On and on they walked untill, as in Hell, they came to another large hall with a table many miles long. Once again the table was full of food. Once again the man noticed that the people seemed to be holding very long chopsticks, only this time these people were all healthy, happy and well fed.

"But I don't understand.." the man asked his guide. "How come everyone here is happy and healthy while everyone in hell is starving..?"
His guide looked at him and said, "The difference is simply in the state of mind those in heaven have compared to those in hell".

"Look more closely.."

The man did, untill he quickly realised what was happening. In Heaven each person would use their 10 foot chopsticks to pick up some food and feed the person opposite from them. In return, the person opposite would do the same back.

In hell the people are afraid of someone pinching their food, so they are selfishly trying to use their own chopsticks to feed themselves. Thats why they go hungry.

The moral of this story if you hadn't worked it out for yourself, is we can only really gain by helping each other. You can have everything in life you want, if you just help others get what they want as well. You feed me by giving me work, and in return I feed you a fantastic website which will hopefully bring you great success; maybe that success is measured in more business or perhaps in getting your message out to the world. Maybe the success is measured by something completely different. Either way, in return you're feeding me by giving recommendations and potentially more work. It's a mutually beneficial relationship.

This is one of the big problems I've noticed working Freelance within this industry and that's the lack of trust. Too often I hear and see businesses / individuals getting ripped off by greedy self acclaimed web experts that are just trying to make a quick buck, and then I see hard working web developers who have put blood, sweat and tears into a project just to have the client try to dodge paying. The sad thing in reality is this industry is not the only one to suffer with this.

If everyone just helped each other this world would certainly be a better place and we'd all certainly be better off for it. My hope is that I can breach that gap with you and create a long lasting mutually beneficial relationship where both of us can be successful.

Skills / Knowledge / Software

As I've been lucky enough to grow up alongside the web, I have been able to see it evolve first hand from a somewhat socially awkward information tool to being incorporated into the normal of everyday life. The internet is no longer just perceived as being "digital paper" by the masses. Over the years I've battled through various limitations and bugs. I'm constantly at the bleeding edge, because this is not only my job, it's a hobby so I naturally continue to learn new techniques.

I consider myself a (Web) Developer rather then anything more specific (like a PHP Developer). It's my job as a developer to find a solution to a problem and choose the right tool for the job. I not only have the ability to design websites, but I also have the ability to handle the backend programming. This means I have the technical skill to produce feature filled custom systems as well as being able to work with popular open source systems (like Wordpress, Drupal etc), while giving birth to accessible and engaging designs which are able to harness the utility on the backend.

I'm also well educated on various software design patterns (like MVC/MVP) and have a solid understanding of the object orientation programming paradigm and it's implementation / uses in various programming languages (Yes, PHP can make any sane man cry, but luckily I'm not sane).

In layman's terms, I'm a frontend and backend web developer which means I can make the pretty stuff but also make the pretty stuff actually do complicated tasks. I can not only deal with all your typical content management systems and ecommerce systems, I can also do it on a tight budget. I can handle everything from development to deployment.

I'm an avid PC video gamer who adores playing competitive games like Dota 2. I am also a fan of sandbox MMO's like Eve online which give you the freedom to do whatever you want; the player interactions, politics and rivalries that occur within these communities makes for an unforgottable experience.

As well as gaming I'm a Trombone player. I've played since I was 7/8 (15 years-ish). I use to be the Principle Trombone player of the Staffordshire county youth wind band when I was still attending school.




I was a member of the West Midlands Fire Service band but have taken a break due to lack of time. The band is not only a concert wind band it is also a marching band. I have had the honour to play at many prestigious occasions. I played at the menin gate on the 90th anniversary of remembrance. I was also very privileged to play in St Paul's on 11/9/11 to remember those who were lost in the 9/11 attacks.