Forum Moderators: phranque
I'm finding this experience interests employers - while they would never be able to employ a full-time web design guy (or guyess) they like the idea of having someone on staff who can do this on a part-time basis - it saves them having to deal with external companies who will probably be more expensive and often less responsive.
Given this, what skills / languages / packages should I look at next? Some kind of scripting? Databases?
Thanks in advance for any ideas . . .
Roddy
In the process of developing websites as a learning process I came across some ideas that have really started to pay off. Last month was the first time my personal sites earned more than my ‘real job’. Even when the sites weren't making much they were MUCH more personally rewarding than my real job or helping design the company site.
The moral? If a company isn’t going to hire you as a full-time web guy they’re just going to try to get extra work out of you that they’re not really paying you for. I recommend using what you’ve learned for your own good. It may not pay off for a while but in the long run it will be more rewarding.
Understanding relational databases is a valuable skill for IT in general, not just web sites. Teamed with a scripting language, a database allows you to add practically any custom functionality to your web site(s).
Any script language will do: once you've learnt one (and, importantly, understand what's happening between the server and the client) it's easy to pick up others :)
Depending on your IT environment, I'd choose either PHP and MySQL or ASP and Access (or, better, ASP and MS SQL Server).
I keep track of all our basic numbers, do segmentation, figure out conversion, and a zillion other things. Its interesting, a lot of puzzle solving, and in short supply.
I'll search for some decent resources for this later - but if anyone want's to recommend any, I'd be grateful (sticky mail if posting the url is against the TOS)
What I forgot to mention is that I speak and read Mandarin Chinese - should get me into a few more niches . . . Something else I should look into is SEO in Chinese - that's got to be a growth market, and while there are plenty of web designers here in Beijing, there aren't many of them capable of working efficently with western design principles - it's all flash and bang, little attention to content.
Roddy
I'm an old foggie and made my living with VB and ASP and that's made the transition to C# a little difficult ("okay...now here's how I'd do it in ASP...how the hell do I do it in C#?"), it might be easier for someone newer to pick up something like that when they don't have predisposed code in their head.
SQL is great also.
As for PHP...I've never really seen it catch on in the corporate world...only because (and I'm guessing) conservative businesses are less likely to jump on the Linux / Apache bandwagon and more apt to go with IIS because of corporate deals with MS. That's just my experience and I might be wrong.
Like woop01 said, you may want to think about how you can make money for yourself with this rather than working for someone else, at least as a long term goal.
I know a tiny bit of Mandarin Chinese, but want to learn more when I have the time again. How did you learn? Are you from China?
As for learning Chinese - I'm Scottish, but have spent 3 out of the last 5 years in China. I'm currently working in Beijing. I'll sticky you the url of my website which has plenty of (extremely good quality, if I do say so myself) advice.
Roddy
