How did you get involved in web development

[mack]

How did you get involved in this industry. Was it a choice to do so, or did it just sort of happen.

For me it was through choice, but at that time I didnt really know what I was getting myself into. Back then everythign just seamed so simple. You build a site, you get loads of traffic and you become rich overnight.

Still waiting for it to happen lol

Whats your story?

Mack.

[FranknDiane]

Gee Mack story is the same here. I see you've been a member since 2001. So you've got it down now! Sure did look easy to start. I never realized all that was involved! We keep plowing ahead, tackling one road block after another! we are teaching ourselves as we go along. Kind of a hit or miss deal. We spend at least 8,9,10 hours a day trying to make a decent site. Considering we are self taught, I think we've done well so far (of course we have no traffic yet!). I am so glad I discovered this forum. Now I have a place to ask my "dumb" questions! Thanks to all out there!

[txbakers]

I was living in American Samoa at the time I learned how to do web stuff. 6 hour time difference between there and "home" so I used AOL IM alot and emailed photos,etc. I wanted to learn how build a website to post all my photos and used one of the early geocities/anglefire sites with their wizards.

I also used webmonkey tutorials to get going.

When I came back to the states I made my first foray into eCommerce with a music publishing site to supplement my hard catalogue. It was fun to implement Perl scripts for auctions, classifieds, etc. No one ever used them, and I sold a few things here and there, but it was great to learn how.

Then, I downloaded a trial of Drumbeat - which was the dynamic/database program before it merged with Dreamweaver. My eyes lit up!

I fussed around with it for a while then found a need for a web based program linked to a database, and started writing and writing and writing and testing and testing and in February 2002 actually started selling.

Today, unlike Mack, I do watch the money roll in every day.

[abbeyvet]

For me it was a drift more than a decision. I am a vet by profession, or at least I was, and ran a small animal practice. I loved everything to do with the internet from the get go and got into html and making sites as a sort of hobby.

Then I got a good offer for my practice, sold it, and since I had a very young child decided I would like to work from home for a year or so.

This was at the time of the dot com craziness and I was offered a job, home based, helping to set up a portal aimed at vets. It went belly up with the dot bomb but by then I had learned a lot and had several people looking for me to do some work for them so I just kept going.

Here I still am.

[jatar_k]

was working at a skihill

their brand new computer system was too complicated for everyone. I figured it ouot and started doing some basic programming/networking. I didn't really think much of it until people kept telling me I should do it as a career.

Moved across the country, paid a ton of money for a 1 year course that I finished in 3 months so I could have a piece of paper. Then got a job at a web design company.

The rest is history

[phantombookman]

Some years ago I was doing beta testing for Amazon book auctions and a woman there made me a simple template, just a border and coloured background, sounds daft but nobody I saw had them.

I thought, this looks fantastic, bought a big thick html book and started to fiddle and improve it, then my own webpage, then a few pages, all hand coded.
Now I have some 20 sites under my control (such as it is)

There were 2 pivotal moments for me:
The above mentioned template
Finding Webmasterworld (I mean that genuinely not sychophantically)

[ebound]

I started in 1998 because my father paid alot of money for a mediocre website for his patio furniture business.

I spent a year or so building a website to showcase his 300 products, one html page for each product (no DB, gag!). It was a daunting task but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've been in the industry working of myself ever since.

[JAB Creations]

For me it's the desire to present information effectively. Serverside programming (web development) is object oriented, conditional, etc. For example I started with PHP and used variables, includes, and printing variables to save tons of coding on my site's menu system. I have not gotten far in to development but I know where it will take me. The ability to deliver content based on conditions.

[ken_b]

Cool thread Mack!

I started out in 1997 or 1998 to build a website to promote and sell a product I'd developed. Never did amount to anything.

The site I have now is the result of a hobby interest. Building the site filled some time. The first version was less than great, much less.

Along the way I found WW and learned a few things. That resulted in rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up.

Then along came Adsense.

I'm not sure I'd say I do web development, but whatever it is I'm doing, it seems to have worked out pretty well for me. Which really should give hope to a lot of aspiring web developers. :)

[Essex_boy]

Id been on teh web since '98 and around 2000 I found myself working nights which meantthat on my nights off everyone I knew was asleep.

Me and the web were buddies big time and the Ecommerce thing was going full swing, so I thought Id love to have a go at that.

Bought sevral books on web design and found myself progressing far faster than the books allowed.

[pmkpmk]

Sounded like a fun idea back in '94 - even though I liked gopher better.

Used it for structuring information first, then started to make a webpage for the company I worked part time for. My boss let me do it to keep me happy but did not believe in it. He changed his mind since then.

[oneguy]

I discovered USENET and loved it. Then I made the obligitory homepage, all about me, and things no one cared about.

Then my younger brother decided he could maybe sell things on the net. I told him commercialisation of the internet probably wasn't the best thing.

Once I decided the train couldn't be stopped, I jumped on.

[moltar]

About 7 years ago, I stumbled across one of the first "quick website wizards". It was extermely simple. Sort of like choose a background color, background image, enter text and there you go. I remember the site name had the word "globe" in it, but don't remember it exactly.

Of course, I wanted more freedom, and I started to learn and learn. First site was on geocities. Then another one on 8m, then Hypermart.

Since Hypermart allowed Perl, I learned to install scripts (guestbook, form, etc). I wanted to customize the look of the forms, so I had to learn to read Perl. Eventually I was able to modify the code myself. Then learned to write my own.

After that I got an actual first domain and a hosting account. It allowed me to explore databases. The site is no more. I still have a lot of great memories of all-nighters trying to figure out why a certain thing does not work the way I want it to.

Then it just started snowballing downhill...

[Iwrite]

How did I get involved in this?

LOL Ex husband used to find every little thing on the computer- I was 'not capable.' I suspect it was me thought that just as much as him.

After all he was the expert and was writing programs for Atari when Atari was not just games. He did make money at it ..still does with a reasonably well known program for designing websites!

A lady with a 2:1 degree and not a first like his was unlikely to be unable to understand.

One day I got fed up....one day I bought this IMAC and it was MINE, ALL MINE....

But he still got asked to do everything........this lady was an internet mouse back then

THEN

My 12 year old put my poetry on a website with these cool clicking flowers.

A 12 year old can make a website? Now there is a clue!

Then the marriage broke down, and there was no person telling me I couldn't possibly know how to do it. There was nobody to ask any more.

And then it became easier, and I got hooked, and the final straw was the comment that

'I didn't have the kind of brain that could be a programmer.' (He is a software engineer).

Then I realised html was not that difficult.........and I started to put things online ..........and then it kind of got compulsive.

I got hooked on not using the website wizard of my 'off the peg website'. I started to want to KNOW for myself.

I'm taking it slowly, and actually this website opens my eyes to a LOT of things. I feel a bit like an intelligent two year old who is always asking questions. I could pretend to a dinner party I am an expert as long as they weren't!

Maybe I do or don't, can or can't.... but never ever tell this lady she can't, because she will, immediately, these days look into the possibility of doing it.

And I intend to do it without the ex's wonderful website making program whose name of course, I cannot mention on here. - It is a good program -

It isn't revenge, but just self realisation. The ex may never know I can do the things I can or even be interested.

But then he can't drive, and I know that not every problem when a car goes wrong is not because the 'big end is gone!" (I am pretty sure he doesn't post on here).

Probably, some day he will drive his Ferrari to a web development conference where I am selling my own programmes to develop websites, and we will both LAUGH!

[rfontaine]

I was a land surveyor in the 80's and early 90's. I have degrees in Surveying Technology, Geographic Information Systems. I wrote my own programs for field calculations using HP Handhelds - these programs were so handy I sold them in trade journals by the hundreds. It was alot of fun coming home from surveying in the woods and finding orders for my software in the mail.

About 1998 as the interent took off, I bought an HTML for dummies type book. Realized if I used a database and serverside scripting I could really make websites sing.

After agonizing for several months on which path to take, I decided on PHP, MySQL on Apache and just dove in. With a few years PHP really took off and I knew I had made a wise choice.

I started my own web design and development business, which only really lasted for a short while because a large newspaper saw my work and hired me after an interview as its webmaster in early 2000. I have been working for the newspaper for nearly six years now.

The last few years I have also been operating my own web based business part time - and actually make more money doing that than my full time job!

Yes, the internet has been very very good to me

[Twisted Mind]

I was playing with some html in 2002 left it alone till 2003 met dreamweaver... in 2005 i met photoshop and php so im doing a little more now :)

well am i sounding silly here just starting anyway

[mack]

Not sounding silly at all :)
Getting to grips with web dev can be a pretty daunting challenge. Being able to work with php shows you have come a long way.

Mack.

[limbo]

For me it was a univeristy project that bankrolled my social life. Was studying Landscape in 98 when one module allowed complete freedom so designed a website to promote a friends club. Ended up creating a pocket business designing e-flyers for the local club scene after a promoter from another faculty saw the site.

I got a job building intranets with a large(est) .gov in the UK after uni - now a legit web/graphic designer producing css based sites for a couple of niche industries.

[Twisted Mind]

Well i never did much i learned php the last few months becouse i am building an intranet site with a shop and stuff for fluke europe Dunno if u ever heard About FLUKE but it is kinda big company spread over the entire globe anyway im just a trainee :p so its a nice project for me :)

[tomda]

RENDERING
I knew nothing about computer before I had one in front of me in my office. I started to play with some rendering/raytracing program and it took me quite some time to write 100 lines of code correctly. I made few great ground elevation (or relief) rendering using black/white satellite picture and decided to do a small interactive animation (zoom effect like in GoogleEarth).

FLASH
The tool I used to do the animation was an open-source flash-like software but I realised that Flash was time consuming and was limited (such as form processing, etc..). So I decided to learn HTML.

HTML
The first tool I used to write my HTML was "1st Page 2000" and I can say that downloading this application was one of most important turning point of my webmaster history. Because it is an EDITOR, I learned really fast and got the joy of typing, coding, typing, etc...
My advice: Don't get a WYSWYG get an Editor.

LIFE TIME PROJECT
Since I knew HTML, a good and interesting project was needed to learn while making the website. I had contractual work for a well-known travel guide and had many many problem to get paid in time despite the fact the job was completed in due time. I was quite annoid and decided this day that I would make one of the best travel guide website for a niche destination of the net.

BETTER THAN HTML? PHP!
I made few pages (120 pages) but was tired to change the header, footer and other texts again and again. So I realised it was time to learn something better and started PHP. I was quite happy to see that PHP were resembling to the script of the rendering software I used way back ago (if, for, etc.. C++ like). Got EasyPHP

WW FORUM
Found this forum and learned a lot but really a lot. And SuzyUK great posts gave the will to add a final touch to my website, that is using clean CSS and make nice three-column fluid layout.

AND THE LIFE TIME PROJECT?
Now, I can say I have a good level (HTML, PHP, CSS) and I am progressing/working very fast. My site looks really nice.
And reading posts in WW about $$ in Adsense makes me realised that I can earned a lot by doing what I am doing. Nonetheless, I still working on my life time project (got 4500 keywords for my niche destination), doing the final touch (like putting Adsense Specimen lol) but always get new ideas such as forum, GDgallery, etc. This is the main reason why I never managed to finish it. But my dream will come true, I will be No 1 in all major SEO and money will flow!

Six years have passed already, MAN!
I just hope that Adsense & Google will still be alive when my website will be launched ;)

[moltar]

I just hope that Adsense & Google will still be alive when my website will be launched ;)

You mean it's still not launched?!?! Get it out there right now!

I used to have the same problem. I am a perfectionist by nature. I'd design a website, and then keep tweaking it and adding things forever. I'd take me a long time to finish it. I didn't realise that I'd better off to let it go live and then polish it off on the go.

But I overcame that problem and I think it's way better this way. You get visitor feedback and know exactly what to do.

Plus considering all these "sandbox" and "aging" effects that search engines apply to the sites, it might be years before you will see any real traffic. Especially in your niche.

So the moral is: let it go as a beta and fix things up as time goes.

[RonPK]

Back in '94 the idea that pages I made could be viewed by people all over the world, seemed fascinating. So I started playing with HTML in the local digital city. Then, five years ago, I quit my job. I ran into a friend whose company needed a web site. Now I'm making money with both: making sites for others and publishing my own sites.

[LostOne]

Worked in a very physical demanding job unlike many others that frequent WW. BUT, I gained so much knowledge in that job which in turn put it on the web unlike anybody else in my industry. All original content and very simple to understand for the reader.

Started my site back in July '02 and didn't know beans about making websites. In fact it was then I finally discovered how to cut and paste. Three years later we have a site that has high visibility in all search engines. Two employess; ex-wife and myself. We'll probably top $2m in sales by this years end.

Hint for others:

You don't have to be the cheapest to make a good living on the web.

EDIT:

YES LAUNCH THAT SITE!

[bid4abook]

To cut a long story short, my brother came to visit me some three years ago, he had recently retired as a Submariner and got heavily involved with the buying and selling of antiques via ebay. When staying with me I had two bin bags full of junk to take to the local charity shops, he persuaded me to sell these items via ebay. Needless to say a loss to the charity shop and a gain to me, as all items sold very quickly on ebay. I decided to do a mini project within ebay in the book category, basically because I have always read alot and had started a wee collection of books. In essence I had six months of buying and selling second hand and rare books. I did allright at it, however, I quickly realised that with the charges being levied by ebay (listing fees, uploading fees, picture fees, designer fees, final value fees then paypal fees) any profit realised was being eaten up. This made me think that there was possibly a niche in the market for an auction site specifically for books that did not over charge the seller. Anyhow I did a bit of research found a reasonably good auction software, purchased the domian and published the site in Sep 05 and am now learning the naivity of my ways because of not doing my homework in respect of web promotion, design flaws etc The message from my lessons learnt "I wish I had known about this place before I started"

[httpwebwitch]

My university degree was in Fine Art and Music. I started work as a graphic designer; my first web-related job was doing photo touchups on an online used car magazine. Gradually learned HTML, & started taking over other projects. That evolved to learning javascript, image optimization, DHTML, ASP(VB), SQL, Flash, XML, Actionscript, Lingo, PHP, Regex, IIS, ASP.NET(C#), XSLT... in approximately that order. 11 years went by quickly...

[Lobo]

I came from another angle ;)

I was doing my degree in business and marketing and chose Internet marketing as my final paper...

Left Uni and took another course on web design in 1993..

Designed a site for a major Edinburgh Fringe festival, at that time and was head hunted by a design company, and started the dirty business from there.

Since then I've worked so many full life cycle sites and now work mostly as project manager. And never stopped working ..

Design Technical and Marketing, concept to completion.

Strangely I have just started my own online business for the first time, I reckoned I know enough now to make it work :)

[Sunlee]

i learned some html in highschool and got really interested
dropped it for like two years
and started my own website with some class mates i paid to help me out.
Had huge money with google and affiliates so i thought i start learning it, to make great free content pages on the web and live of it.

still learning and i guess you always will be, have a lot of fun Internet rocks!

[Stephen Tiller]

Though I touched on web design on my college course I actually got my present job of 5 years through a friend I met at college, who has since moved on and is now an Organic Search Specialist and making a lot of money.

I on the other hand am a jack of all trades and find it hard to prioritise what I should be learning or keeping up with. ASP V PHP. Dreamweaver v Frontpage. Access v MySQL. Tables v CSS. The list is endless!

I need to specialise in a particular area in order to increase my earnings. I note that the Search engine industry is very well paid.

Steve

[Litefoot]

Back in 2000 I had undergone some surgery that had me off work for a few weeks. I had been tinkering with a webpage that my daughter had built for me for a birthday. Totally destroyed it! LOL

But, then a crazy thing happened....a friend asked me to create a website for his business. I told him I'd give it a shot and if he liked it, we'd put it up on the 'net.

Well, he did like it (even though it was very basic) and others showed interest in the work.

Since then, I have gotten deeper and deeper into the inner workings of the thing. Got hooked in Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrater, Swish, etc. I love the work.

I still have the "day job" as I have no illusions as to this taking it's place but as a plus........it has added to my income nicely.

Of course, finding WW has helped alot too! ;)