I’ve journaled a lot recently. I find it mindful – though I mostly use it to track what I’ve eaten. It’s not helped me make better decisions yet, but I’ve always found food is a great way to unlock memories.

I think I’m going to use this blog as a space to jot down my thoughts on the industry, but these things tend to be pretty organic so we’ll see what happens.

Who am I?

That’s not meant in a existential way but for you as the reader. I’m guessing if you’re here you know I’m Daniel Bateman, but I’ll offer up a short background.

I’ve been in web development (predominantly WordPress) since 2014. I started working for a three-man band on the Isle of Wight, I completely blagged the job. I’d taught myself the basics over 6 months and tried my luck.

My boss then knew I didn’t know my stuff, but he took a chance because, “you maintained eye-contact and seemed enthusiastic” his words.

Since then I’ve worked mostly in-agency with a brief stint in FinTech. Mostly in the South early on, but the longest position was with Brixton based Spaced Digital.

They sadly went bust at the start of 2026. I was of course made redundant and so I decided to do the thing I’d been putting off out of fear for a long time – going freelance.

It’s been a journey. I have it in my head most of us make the decision to go freelance and then plan for it over a year or two. Spend some time building a network and then jumping into it when we know we’ve got some clients.
I’ve less jumped and more nose-dived into it! It’s been tricky managing networking and trying to make a living at the same time but it’s been very liberating, if scary.

You can find my work here.

Today’s desert island disc is, The Partisan by Leonard Cohen.