Difficulty of making a website?

[razorboy5]

Hi

I see many ads in my area looking for "professional" to make a website for them. Pay seems quite good and i'm thinking about doing this when i have free time away from my University studies.

I vaguely remember doing some website stuff in high school but i can't claim i know much about it. But not too unfamiliar with computers since I was in computer science for a bit until i switched.

It seems that with the right tools and some "design" sense making a website should be simple... is this correct? Would an average person be able to make websites in reasonable amount of time for the client by just working on it 3-4 hours a day? So overall would u recommend learning this trade? at least to make some money to pay for University?

thx

[NoaHall]

I make custom build websites, and it's pretty easy to make a basic one. However, more advance ones, you're going to need to know at least how to do CSS, HTML, and a server side scripting language like PHP at least.
If you want a hand with anything, just ask, I'd be happy to help.

[hoppipolla]

Hi

I see many ads in my area looking for "professional" to make a website for them. Pay seems quite good and i'm thinking about doing this when i have free time away from my University studies.

I vaguely remember doing some website stuff in high school but i can't claim i know much about it. But not too unfamiliar with computers since I was in computer science for a bit until i switched.

It seems that with the right tools and some "design" sense making a website should be simple... is this correct? Would an average person be able to make websites in reasonable amount of time for the client by just working on it 3-4 hours a day? So overall would u recommend learning this trade? at least to make some money to pay for University?

thx

I dunno maybe man, it depends what you get asked to do ._.

Personally I would feel a bit uncomfortable going in without a knowledge of things like PHP and MySQL, and of course HTML and maybe more advanced things like Javascript or Ruby-on-Rails.

To be fair though, if you have maybe Dreamweaver, Flash and something like Joomla behind you you do stand a chance even without knowledge of the above... it depends what you're making :)

EDIT -- and yeah CSS too, thanks NoaHall :)

[razorboy5]

yea remember working with Dreamweaver for a bit ... i think :confused:

thx for the replies ill ask some of the people with ads see what they're looking for usually
it's a small town with very few"techie" people so these may be simple tasks and will research a bit more about making websites before making any decisions

thx again :P

[NoaHall]

Dreamweaver is good, or NotePad ++ , or geany.
I just use gedit or edit files directly on the site, but it takes quite a bit of knowledge to start doing that.

Here is a good site for learning -> http://www.w3schools.com/

[razorboy5]

yea even editing simples stuff on Ubuntu with gedit was quite confusing for me

now i'm getting the hang of it but probably not at the level which i should be

[ninjapirate89]

Simple HTML/CSS website are fairly easy to make and can even be fun. If you are only going to be designing sites for small local businesses you can probably get away without learning more advanced things like Flash/Javascript etc. I only know HTML and CSS but I put this page together for the fun of it and while it's not the most advanced website ever, I'm proud of it.
http://ninjapirate89.gofreeserve.com/

Just don't look at it in IE6 :lolflag:

Edit -> Sometimes all the images don't load correctly since it's on a free server so you may have to refresh.

[razorboy5]

that is a quite handsome site if i may say lol :P

yea im gonna try to learn at least a little bit of it then even if i dont get paid knowledge cant be that bad

[ninjapirate89]

that is a quite handsome site if i may say lol :P

yea im gonna try to learn at least a little bit of it then even if i dont get paid knowledge cant be that bad

Thanks! Did you like my "Crocasaurusrex"? :D

I took a web design class in high school and I really enjoyed it. Give it a try, it can't hurt.

[razorboy5]

couldn't understand it but visually appealing ^^

any recommendations for tools on Ubuntu that i can use to make websites?

EDIT: just saw the dino/croc and I wouldn't wanna see it in real life :P

[ninjapirate89]

couldn't understand it but visually appealing ^^

any recommendations for tools on Ubuntu that i can use to make websites?

EDIT: just saw the dino/croc and I wouldn't wanna see it in real life :P

Couldn't understand what? The text? It's Lorem Ipsum. It's just filler text. The site isn't actually in use.

As for web design tools I like Geany. I've heard good things about Screem too. Both are in Add/Remove.

[NoaHall]

As good as it is for a site from someone without much experience, I doubt many customers would pay for a site like that. Which is why you need something like PHP/CSS/Javascript. It'll make your site much better, and customers are more likely to hire you.

[joey-elijah]

I've made several websites for various clients (pole-dancing site to a driving instructor site).

I'm not a superboi when it comes to css or flash or php but i put what i did know to very good use and made websites that the clients were stoked with - and i got more work thanks to word of mouth.

my tip is, as you said, to ask what they;'re looking for. Usually, if they're a small business, they probably won't have a clue. Use this to your advantage and make some mockups in photoshop and show the client to get feedback about what they're looking for. Once you've got a proper brief to work from then just hack/google/copy until you get something that works.

I'm not a snob when it comes to webdesign, either, so don't feel like "pro's" don't use WYSIWG software - these are really helpful! Nvu has gotten me out of many a tough spot.

[hoppipolla]

yea remember working with Dreamweaver for a bit ... i think :confused:

thx for the replies ill ask some of the people with ads see what they're looking for usually
it's a small town with very few"techie" people so these may be simple tasks and will research a bit more about making websites before making any decisions

thx again :P

Ah yeah, I think you will actually do better if you live in a smaller town, thing is I grew up in London and so competition would have been THICK lol

Even now I'm in Canterbury so it's quieter but there's still reasonable competition. It really depends who you're up against and what the requests are :)

[Warpnow]

I know a few people who make good money just downloading free templates, modifying their colors, graphics, logo, and changing them enough so they aren't identical, and charing people $200-$300 to put their content on it and host it for them. You make more money by providing an "All inclusive solution" for the business, tell them all they have to do is choose a domain name, write the content down on a pad of paper, and sign the check.

[norm7446]

AS long as you follow a few simple rule's and remember to save you text file as a *.HTML it will work and hey presto you have a website.

[FunkyRes]

You make more money by providing an "All inclusive solution" for the business, tell them all they have to do is choose a domain name, write the content down on a pad of paper, and sign the check.

It's better to use some kind of content management system that they can use to add their content.

[gordintoronto]

Full Circle Magazine issue 29 has a review of Kompozer, which is dandy for producing web sites containing online brochures.

If you're going to do order entry, you'll need to know PHP and Mysql.

[hessiess]

Take a look at http://htmldog.com/.

Don't use visual HTML editors, they produce awful code and will only make it harder to maintain in the long run.

[razorboy5]

so most would not recommend learning this trade for someone like me... to make a profit at least...? (I plan on dabbing in it just cuz it sounds fun :P)

[-grubby]

To give you a small idea, here's a very simple HTML 5 document:



<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
<title>Hello, world!</title>
</head>

<body>
<p>Hello, world!</p>
</body>
</html>


What does it do? It displays "Hello, world" on a very blank webpage. Simple webpages are pretty easy, more complicated ones are, well, harder. As expected.

[steev182]

Don't be afraid of Joomla. It's open source, and gives a starting point and the ability for the client to add their own content.

[Frak]

Fairly simple using HTML and CSS. Just remember to mockup your diagrams first.

Also, take advantage of HAML and SASS if you get the chance. They're amazing



HAML
!strict
%head
=javascript_include_tag defaults.js
%body
%p Hello World!

SASS
#body
p
margin: 0 auto
border: 5px solid red

That compiles out to full HTML and CSS (if you aren't using Rails, you'll need to precompile them). Oh, and I threw a bit of Rails code in there.

[Irihapeti]

so most would not recommend learning this trade for someone like me... to make a profit at least...? (I plan on dabbing in it just cuz it sounds fun :P)

Why not just give it a go? Not everyone wants all the latest bells and whistles and flashing lights on their website. It depends very much on who you get to work with. Maybe you can find people who can't afford to pay the expensive designers. Are there any charities where you could get some initial practice?

Be honest with people about what you are prepared/able to do, but at the same time don't put yourself down unnecessarily.

And, perhaps most important, have fun.

[starcannon]

The Gimp, KomPozer, Dreamweaver, and Geany is what I use. As mentioned previously: HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript, are all good tools to have at your disposal. I do all the graphics with The Gimp, and use KomPozer and Dreamweaver for various tasks, and Geany for hand editing. You can learn everything you need to know on line; there is an amazing amount of tutorials, manuals, a-z teaching, templates, and code, to get you going. If your a CS student, you'll be right at home PHP and JavaScript, I find CSS to be a pain, but worth the effort(it may be a snap for you though).

GL and HF

[hessiess]

so most would not recommend learning this trade for someone like me... to make a profit at least...? (I plan on dabbing in it just cuz it sounds fun :P)

Web development is relativly easy to lean, but also rarther boring and repetitive.

[stwschool]

Web development is fun but honestly, don't expect your first jobs to be payers. Clients want to see a portfolio so have something ready to show them so they know what they can expect from you (make sites up if you have to - ie make a site for a business that doesn't really exist). It's how I got into the business.

In terms of making real money, designers are 10 a penny I'm afraid. The real money's in programmers, databasing, etc. Learn php, jsp, database stuff, be good at CSS, and you can make a career out of it. Don't go in looking for a fast buck because it's not there anymore.

Finally, manage your customers well. At the cheap end of the market (and with no experience that's where you'll start) your customers will be undisciplined. At my first job we had one customer who literally came in every day for a year to peer over our designer's shoulder and tell him what to do. This for a $1500 website. Let's just say it wasn't worth it. You will get timewasters like that. Lay down the requirements at the start, make it clear that changes mean charges (if you don't, there will be last minute changes then you get the blame for it being behind schedule and also you end up working more hours). If you don't do this stuff you'll work out your hourly rate at the end and wish you'd gone to work at McDonalds!

Good luck.