Anyone here who designs sites, can you point me in a good direction to learn how to do this stuff. I am trying to improve my website (which is very plain right now) and am considering buying a for dummies book. Anyone got anything?
Web design tools
- Thread starter tonymcclellan
- Start date
Web Design is my profession.
Best Advice.
If you are going to be a trainer, be a trainer, focus on what you do. Hire somebody to build your website, it will be money well spent and it will happen in a fraction of the time.
Too many times I have seen trainers get buried trying to build websites and online businesses themselves. At the same time they focus less and less on their primary skill.
No need to spend years getting something that could be done in weeks or months.
After building it, you then have to learn how to optimize it and get people to show up as well.
Just my two cents.
Best Advice.
If you are going to be a trainer, be a trainer, focus on what you do. Hire somebody to build your website, it will be money well spent and it will happen in a fraction of the time.
Too many times I have seen trainers get buried trying to build websites and online businesses themselves. At the same time they focus less and less on their primary skill.
No need to spend years getting something that could be done in weeks or months.
After building it, you then have to learn how to optimize it and get people to show up as well.
Just my two cents.
I understand exactly what you're saying however I would like to learn for the sake of learning. I like to know how to do things and how they work, rather then have someone else do them.
Since its your profession, do you have any recommended materials?
Since its your profession, do you have any recommended materials?
HHMMM. I learned on joomla some odd years ago. (Before it was joomla it was mambo) It started as a hobby that turned into a profession. It is an easy content management system that will allow you to set up a really nice site, fairly fast, that works well and is secure. You do not need to know any code to start.
I still use it for sites where I work with people with limited coding knowledge. You can see it in action at It is a hobby site of me and my friends. You can see that joomla can look very nice.
As you learn more and more coding you can make more and more changes to it.
After a while you will be designing your own stuff.
As far as learning materials, I am a people learner. So I just went to peoples homes who knew what they were doing and stood on their front step until they told me they would do anything to get me to leave. (read, I went and found "coaches" to help me learn faster)
I joined the local computer clubs and what-not. Pretty much anything where I could learn more.
I have read php and html books. They are long and very boring, and all pretty much the same. You will need them at your side for reference when huge frustrations arise. The name of a good book escapes me at this hour.
To make a cool site you will need to know flash, php, and html. you will have to understand java and xml.
I know a lot of people are enamored with flash, but do not make an all flash site.
It is fun (though I have smashed more things since starting this profession than ever before) and very rewarding when you start to make cool things happen.
I still use it for sites where I work with people with limited coding knowledge. You can see it in action at It is a hobby site of me and my friends. You can see that joomla can look very nice.
As you learn more and more coding you can make more and more changes to it.
After a while you will be designing your own stuff.
As far as learning materials, I am a people learner. So I just went to peoples homes who knew what they were doing and stood on their front step until they told me they would do anything to get me to leave. (read, I went and found "coaches" to help me learn faster)
I joined the local computer clubs and what-not. Pretty much anything where I could learn more.
I have read php and html books. They are long and very boring, and all pretty much the same. You will need them at your side for reference when huge frustrations arise. The name of a good book escapes me at this hour.
To make a cool site you will need to know flash, php, and html. you will have to understand java and xml.
I know a lot of people are enamored with flash, but do not make an all flash site.
It is fun (though I have smashed more things since starting this profession than ever before) and very rewarding when you start to make cool things happen.
Goergen, it's funny, I was going to recommend Joomla!! The really nice thing about Joomla is that you can have it so your front page is always changing (one I did had a random picture on the front page each time you visited. You can also display the latest weather, the most frequently viewed articles on your site, set up polls, etc.)
There are a bunch of other choices though, some very complex and incredibly frustrating. Dreamweaver, GoLive, FrontPage....the list goes on and on. Joomla is nice and easy, but won't really expose you (in depth) to HTML, PHP, CSS all that stuff. In fact, most web people will tell you their favorite program for writing HTML, PHP and others is notepad because you just need something very basic. Those other programs are always trying to be 'helpful' and screw it up.
I am sure there is a "beginner's guide to designing websites" out there. It wouldn't hurt Tony any to go and get it and jump around. My only advice would be to pick one area and really learn that area IN DEPTH. The latest "whiz bang" things seem to be AJAX, dotNet, PHP, Content Management Systems (of which Joomla is one), etc etc. I avoid Flash like the plague.
Good luck Tony! Web desiging (as Goergen said) can be incredibly fun, very rewarding, and sometimes the most frustrating thing you've ever attempted!
There are a bunch of other choices though, some very complex and incredibly frustrating. Dreamweaver, GoLive, FrontPage....the list goes on and on. Joomla is nice and easy, but won't really expose you (in depth) to HTML, PHP, CSS all that stuff. In fact, most web people will tell you their favorite program for writing HTML, PHP and others is notepad because you just need something very basic. Those other programs are always trying to be 'helpful' and screw it up.
I am sure there is a "beginner's guide to designing websites" out there. It wouldn't hurt Tony any to go and get it and jump around. My only advice would be to pick one area and really learn that area IN DEPTH. The latest "whiz bang" things seem to be AJAX, dotNet, PHP, Content Management Systems (of which Joomla is one), etc etc. I avoid Flash like the plague.
Good luck Tony! Web desiging (as Goergen said) can be incredibly fun, very rewarding, and sometimes the most frustrating thing you've ever attempted!
Knowledgeable of alot, master of a little. I think thats the quote
Well I am pretty knowledgeable of computers, and basic website building is becoming kind of necessity these days. I checked out another book from the library called "Learn HTML in 10 minutes." I cant read the book in 10 minutes but so far have "understood" a great deal more. I kind of understand the process, but didnt know the details.