luma - 6:38 pm on Jul 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

You need a goal. Write it down. Make it something specific (add a date when you want to reach the goal). Say, your goal is to become a webmaster by the end of this year. But what kind of webmaster? What is a webmaster? What do webmasters do? What do you want to do?

It might be best starting with a small project and aquiring the skills as you go. Webmasters are solving problems. Again, what's the goal of the project? What do you need to know to achieve this goal?

For example, if you notice lots of 206 Partial Content status codes in your log files, you will ask yourself why this happens. The answer might be the size of your pages. You might ask yourself how you get the file size down, and discover the beauty of CSS.

Or, someone will point out problems with your HTML and tell you, your code doesn't validate [validator.w3.org]. Now, you'll learn how to write valid code. Someone might tell you, he has problems accessing your site. So you might want to learn about accessibility [diveintoaccessibility.org]. You will notice lots of 404s in your log files? Go learn about .htaccess 301 redirects. Want to create dynamic content? Go have a look at PHP and MySQL, ...

So, you either want to learn something cause you are interested in the topic or you have to learn something to solve a problem.

Of course it's possible you don't like programming or you don't want to do database stuff, so you might want to focus on interface design or something else.

The really important thing is to notice a problem, describe it, track it down, and find a solution. It really helps to have someone you can ask (WebmasterWorld) if you have a problem.

Do what you like to do. Learn how to ask good questions and learn how to find people that can help you solve the problem.

Oh, and check if you achieved your goal. Good luck. :)