Check what it is specifically for your area, since it does vary a lot and London salaries pull the average up. Then raise the issue with your boss, and be prepared to give notice if they're not going to pay you more.
£18k is a mediocre salary for full-time helpdesk work, nevermind eight years of experience at dev. You're being proper fucked here, and you need to get away from it.
If you're too scared to walk from your current job right away - and I'm in much the same position and can appreciate how you feel - pick up some easy PHP dev work from RentaACoder, Elance, or guru.com on the side. You should be able to give up some weekends for a month or two to make money on the side, which will prove that you CAN make money on the side and give you some headroom for when you quit.
Oh, and the sites you've made don't really matter. You just make what you get told to make, right? Everyone understands that.
http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1&sortby=...
Check what it is specifically for your area, since it does vary a lot and London salaries pull the average up. Then raise the issue with your boss, and be prepared to give notice if they're not going to pay you more.
£18k is a mediocre salary for full-time helpdesk work, nevermind eight years of experience at dev. You're being proper fucked here, and you need to get away from it.
If you're too scared to walk from your current job right away - and I'm in much the same position and can appreciate how you feel - pick up some easy PHP dev work from RentaACoder, Elance, or guru.com on the side. You should be able to give up some weekends for a month or two to make money on the side, which will prove that you CAN make money on the side and give you some headroom for when you quit.
Oh, and the sites you've made don't really matter. You just make what you get told to make, right? Everyone understands that.