I’ve been a PHP developer for quite a few years now. I’ve accumulated a fairly large library of PHP and MySQL related books and have read countless how-tos and development articles on the web. As a PHP developer you really need the ability to identify and overcome daily programming challenges. This is done via web searches, forum posts and referring to books on occasion. Now-a-days I have a very large set of code to pull examples from, which can be very helpful, but it’s important to always push yourself and find a better or more efficient way to perform the same task. If you do any coding at all, you’ll surely know what I’m talking about.

To me, this always comes down to inspiration. Seeing good examples or interesting new methodologies promotes creative and innovative coding. The last few years, I started feeling that books and web searches weren’t really cutting it for me. It almost seemed like the examples were either “old school” or crappy programming. I primarily define crappy programming by insecure and/or inefficient coding practices (see: BANS).

A couple of years ago, I came across a fantastic magazine called PHP | Architect. This magazine is the best magazine focusing PHP development and is truly a good read. I find myself getting inspired with every issue. The biggest reasons why I like this magazine, is that fact that they talk about new things going on in the PHP world. As an affiliate marketer AND a PHP programmer, I feel that these things could potentially give you a slight edge with the competition. Developing ideas that have not reached the affiliate world yet. The other huge plus of the magazine is that they focus on excellent coding practices and always have a eye on security. I do appreciate that.

If any of you are starting out with PHP programming, I strongly recommend you pick this magazine up. If you guys are seasoned programmers.. then again, I would still recommend this magazine. To me, this beats any books currently being published, and I’ve yet to see a good PHP resource on the web that can match this.

Currently, buying at Amazon will save you a ton of dough. It’s only $29.99 for a 12 month subscription. WTF? That’s a awesome deal!