As a contractor, I always feel that I am asking a lot for the service I am providing. After all, I am not bringing about world peace, nor am I curing cancer. However, I am asking people to trust that I know what I am doing, and in many cases, putting the future of their businesses into my hands when they hire me.

Given the level of risk that is involved - at least from their perspective - I often wonder what I can do to help prove I am worth the money I am asking, and increase the amount of money I can ask for.

This blog is in and of itself an attempt to solve that riddle, allowing potential clients to understand the values I stand for and the sort of code that I strive to write.

But what else can I do? I have asked - and received - linked in recommendations from previous colleagues, I work to ensure that my employers would gladly welcome me back to any job I have left, and generally try to ensure I write the best code possible for the given situation.

However, I find myself worried as my current contract comes to a close that at some point in the future I will find myself unable to find a job. After all the contract market is brutal, and with new people declaring themselves web developers every day, the daily wages will eventually have to drop.

So is it enough to merely be good at what you do, learning new idea’s and techniques on the job.

I think not, I think that as a contractor it is my responsibility to be actively improving my skill set, constantly learning new technologies - and dare I say it - staying ahead of the curve. This is much easier to say than do, once your time is taken up with your day job, wife and dog - and in the future, children.

To me this is one of the reasons for the disparity that can be seen between contracting and permanent salaries. The fact that to stay contracting for any length of time - with success - requires self-discipline, to ensure you are constantly improving, something that is just another perk for most permanent employee.

Hopefully, I can continue along my current path, actively working on my skillset, without sacrificing too much time that could otherwise be spent on the better things in life. Once this is no longer the case I think the time will have come to rejoin the permanent workforce.