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Starting up a Web Design comapny


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been doing a lot of web design lately, just wanted to see if there were any tips from the pros on starting up a company for this kind of thing, seeing as it would mostly be an online company.

 

what are some things that i absolutely must know before going into this? will I need to learn PHP and all the other languages if I really want to do something with this, or can I make it by with my HTML knowledge and programs such as Dreamweaver?

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If you're serious about it, you definitively will need the ability to build dynamic sites at some point. Learning some PHP, ASP, Ruby, etc. would be a good start. And some background using a SQL implementation would be useful too. MySQL is quite popular.

 

In the meantime, you may want to check some CMS (Content Management System). There are lots of of good, free CMS that are easy to master and requires no (or minimum) programming skills. A good start point:

 

http://www.opensourcecms.com/

 

These days, HTML is used only as the medium to print final output (and quickly being deprecated in favor of CSS). The fun is somewhere else.

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Hey I'm pretty much in the same boat. Just starting a company (well not really a company - more of a small business) too. Basically no PHP or SQL skills, I've got my CSS/XHTML skills down, but lacking in the dynamic area.

 

Dynamic sites are basically the {censored} aren't they.

 

So, the point. There are loads of free open source solutions that other people have written, as Proteo says above - they require little to no programming language. It is well easy to use these things, and plus you learn alot along the way.

 

If you wanted to - and this is kinda what I am considering - you could study a bit of php and mysql formally (read books, go to college whatever) to add to your existing skills in web. But it ain't everything to know that stuff. Why bother to code a whole database to make a bulletin board, when you can just use phpBB. Better to spend the time figuring out how to make cool personalized skins for all that stuff.

 

YOu can almost guarantee that someone has needed what you need and written it already, made it open source and put it on one or many of the plethora of online script databases.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I started up a webhosting company a while back. If any of you guys need free webhosting / domain in exchange for helping me out with some design work please msg me on AIM KilrInstkX.

 

Also any web designers like to join up with my tiny company that would be cool tool.

 

David

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I started up a webhosting company a while back. If any of you guys need free webhosting / domain in exchange for helping me out with some design work please msg me on AIM KilrInstkX.

 

Also any web designers like to join up with my tiny company that would be cool tool.

 

David

I'm freakin awesome at HTML, and css..... I made about 5 websites for this company this summer.... (im not going to give the url because they are non profit, and they already have to much biz.... sry) ...

 

If I get $$ i'd be MORE than interested....

 

... I'm also in the process of learning PHP and Java, PHP should be fully learned over Chrismas, and Java I will know before summer (I'm taking an Advanced Computer Class in Java)....

 

If you are intristered in me, PM me and ill give you my AIM

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And this is why I see sloppy spegetti code when clients pay me to fix their sites.

 

Lets see, to be a competent developer now a days? What do you need to know?

 

1) knowledge of CSS and xhtml is a *must* - using dreamweaver or the like will get you no where, beyond a "hello world" cutsy site.

2) Have a good understanding of the MVC paradigm and object oriented programming. PHP5 is moving in the right direction but still makes baby jesus cry.

3) Have a good knowledge of client side scripting languages (javascript and actionscript). Pick up on a good solid framework such as Dojo. Macromedia/Adobe has been pushing flash8/actionscript towards interoperability with javascript. This really gives you the best of both worlds.

4) Know a thing or two about databases - LEARN ABOUT DATA INTEGRITY and FOREIGN KEYS! I get paid to clean up {censored} database schemas with dead references since the amateur before me never put in place foreign key constraints. GO MYSQL losers!

 

There is a lot to being a -competent- web developer. Any monkey off the street can pick up on Dreamweaver and make something. Knowledge of the things I listed separates the boys from the men. You need to be universally in-tune with server side and client side coding, along side with a bit of photoshop,flash skill.

 

Oh and to back up where my mouth is - some stuff I have made.

 

http://ircmine.com/

http://letsgetdugg.com/

http://kranichformayor.com/ <-- paid to conform mambo to whatever this dude needed. Ya I think he lost.

http://lamer0.com:8090/ <-- site in development for a huge corporation.

http://fabulously40.com/ - the project that sparked my interest back in web development work. Even though its extremely rough since this is where I picked up on CSS and Photoshop.

 

oh and I write for http://planet.catalystframework.org and I have also contributed code - specifically the SCGI engine.

 

Ya I am not to keen on *design*, but I am getting there.

 

Next.

Edited by lamer0
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been doing a lot of web design lately, just wanted to see if there were any tips from the pros on starting up a company for this kind of thing, seeing as it would mostly be an online company.

 

what are some things that i absolutely must know before going into this? will I need to learn PHP and all the other languages if I really want to do something with this, or can I make it by with my HTML knowledge and programs such as Dreamweaver?

Caps would be a start. Then start getting craetive with Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Build a small client base from there.

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I have been in business for 5 years and agree that PHP or mySql will be good to know... But that all depends on your client base as well. There are plenty of companies that will never need nothing dynamic. To break into it you can start working with some XML contnet inside flash. But Please keep away from showing some stupid "Loading" menu to start with. We are not on modems anymore for the most part. If you think you have so much content that you need a progress bar... then you havent creativly figured out how to pump out the content. I built a 200Mb plus site for a nieghborhood and there is no wait to see the site.

 

FInd your area of expertise and market that, dont go after stuff you cant do or are not passionate about... otherwise you will build stuff that looks like {censored} and probably doesnt work very smoothly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

im coming from the other spectrum. i am a coder trying to learn web design. so far, im losing. lol..

 

actually what jackt283 says goes both ways. as of now, i am finding templates and using them for my guis and just modifying the content. i am having an awesome experience working with templates from opensourcetemplates.org. their designs are working really well with my ruby rails applications.

 

to the original poster or anyone interested, id be more than happy to show you ruby on rails code in exchange for some designs. actually we can even work on a project together and launch it on some free domain.

 

thanks.,

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Hey, as a designer, you should be making your own templates. You can make one, then about five different variations of that. So by the time your done you've got thirty templates, all kinda similar, but totally different too. Then you get a client who wants a dynamic website and it will take you about two hours to finish it! (once they supply all the content of course). If your a programmer you should find a designer to build your templates even still!

 

Flash is really cool to. A lot of people hate it because of its built in lack of accessibility - but clients love it. You can be smart with it too, you don't have to use it to build horribly inaccessable sites.

 

 

Yeah you REALLY REALLY need to know html and css like the back of your hand.

 

They are both very easy. go to www.w3schools.com everything to get you started is there. Read up at w3c.org too.

 

Loose dreamweaver and get a decent text editor. I use bbedit.

 

Code everything by hand. Its faster and the sites you build will be more personalised and way way sweeter.

Edited by jackt283
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