New To Web Development Forum

I wish I had knowledge of good site structure and page design.

Now days I want to know more about Microsoft based products because I've spent 90% time working with *nix based toys. When I started using places like WMW I realized it might be important to build knowledge in other major areas of systems and software.

1. how to manage the uniquely iterative design and development process of web sites when working with a client -- whether it's one person, a task force, or an entire organization. Web sites are not like other product or design work in that the development process never ends. There is no end product, but rather a process that must allow for continuous change: new content, new features, and new strategy.

2. Which brings up item number two: how to develop communication and transaction strategy in which a) the web serves a larger purpose, and is not the purpose, and b) the web is deployed in connection with other technology and initiatives that all interact with and depend on each other. That's a bit high-falutin, but I guess at the simplest end it means that if you put your web url and e-mail address on your business card, you better put something on your web site that can serve the needs of the people who get your business card, and you better be prepared to answer your e-mail quickly.

1) that optimising my pages and overall site design for search engines is the most important thing (if looking for SE traffic) - i thought the SE's just found and spidered my site and traffic would then follow with no special effort or thought from me.

2) that teachers in adult learning centres are great at teaching html but clueless (please forgive the generalisation, i'm sure there are exceptions) about website development

>>>>What are the four or five basic skills/areas of knowledge every webmaster should know starting out?

i've taken a slightly different approach to this question ...

1) Planning ... learn how to plan projects and schedule the work, no matter how big/small the task write down a list of "things to be done" and write down when you will do them.

2) Records/Organising/Accounting ... keep good records keep the business end of things very tight, setting up a good system will save huge headaches later on.

3) basic but good solid html with an awareness of how things look different on different OS and browsers is all you need to get started.

4) knowing your product or subject is of equal importance to having web skills.

5) repeat this mantra... webpages are not magazine pages!!! learn that a web page is fluid and design accordingly.

also this ... webpages are not the cartoon network!!! if you are a great animator why waste time webmastering?? if you are not a great animator don't let it drag your websites down.

>>>What basic info do you want to know now to expand your skills?

i'll change this question to ...
What next after the first stage??

1) don't be shy about web hosting fees, you can get good quality hosting with all you need at the pocket money levels of a 12 year old.

2) log files ... find out what they are and what to do with them, miss out this step and you may as well give up (after a year of no sales, i discovered this step)

3) software ... learn to use it!!! see other threads for heated debate on different types, but all worthwhile software has depth to it; library items; page templates; code snippets; auto-complete macros; etc etc; learn to use these features.

4) learn about server side includes and external css.

5) set up a webserver locally - use the webserver that your host uses, its not that hard to set up.

>>>Any other topics that would be useful for a beginner.

learn a bit about how the internet works.

Less is often more, separate work from play - if you love playing around with cool web things like mouse trails and other funkie stuff, then great!!! but save self indulgence to personal fun projects and keep your commercial work mean and lean!!!

Web security issues are important. Once a person starts learning how to set up CGI scripts they need to learn about setting permissions. I don't see that explained very well in many places. Even now, I understand the basics but don't have a very thorough understanding of it and tend to worry about whether I everything on sites I set up is secure enough. Also, SSL and related ecommerce security issues.