The skills required in modern web design are constantly changing … that’s because the Web itself is always changing. If you want to be successful as either a web professional (web designer / programmer) or as web site owner, you have to keep up!
What to learn (as of 2011-2012) – in order of priority:
1. HTML
2. CSS
3. PHP basics
4. Javascript
5. JQuery
6. Wordpress
7. OOP PHP (for programmers only)
8. HTML 5 and CSS 3
9. iPad / iPhone (choice of either: Objective C or HTML 5 + CSS 3)
Every once in a while, something very big happens that affects the Web in general. Recently the iPad came out blowing away the market and effectively shutting down Flash by not allowing Flash to run on iPads.
… Yes, Flash is dying.
Unlimited Domain Names
The nerd powers that be, have just opened up the domain name market where any extension (suffix) is possible; no longer are we limited to .com, .net, .org etc … anything can go!!
That said, it ain’t cheap but it should still help put an end to the volture-like, blood sucking industry of after market domain names and cyber squatting losers, who can’t come up with anything more original than buying up a bunch of domain names, hoping to bilk someone in a resale.
From the article:
… people and companies will be able to set up a website with almost any address by the end of next year, if they have a legitimate claim to the domain name and can pay a hefty fee.
The Internet body that oversees domain names voted Monday to end restricting them to suffixes like .com or .gov and will receive applications for new names as of Jan. 12, with the first approvals likely by the end of 2012.
And they can be in any characters — Cyrillic, Kanji or Devanagari, for instance, for users of Russian, Japanese and Hindi.
One of my main motivations is to teach you web design skills that are practical, marketable and in the end, will make you more money. We want to teach you how to make a living with those skills.
… Yes, web design for cash is a good thing – in fact, it’s the goal for many of us!
How to beat the competition:
Though the Web is growing faster than ever before, you still have a lot of competition out there when it comes to web design jobs. In fact, there are many more web designers today than ever before. Fortunately, we have a couple of big things going for us:
The Web is many times bigger than it was in the 1990’s.
Like the 1990’s, the key to getting ahead of the competition is not all that hard because (as always) we have one thing on our side: laziness! Yes, people are lazy.
The more you learn, the more you earn:
The key to getting ahead is found in learning. The more you know, the easier it will be to find work, to land that contract and to charge more for your time. It is important that you as a web professional continue to develop your skills and to look to what is coming around the bend – those who jump onto the next web technology trend, will be able to monetize that upside.
… Since most people are lazy and will only learn new techniques when they absolutely have to, all you need to do to get ahead, is to continue to the learn.
So, what are the web skills for today and tomorrow?
I am happy to announce yet another screencast tutorial for all you nerds out there: Build A Content Management System.
OK, not the most exciting title, but still an exciting course for those PHP nerds who want to go from PHP basics and get into building a full-fledged PHP application from scratch.
Learn how to build a content management system that provides a website all the tools needed to allow basic web users to manage the website content with ease. Over 6.5 hours of tutorials over 41 videos!
Here are some details about the video tutorial:
This course is aimed at intermediate level web developers, demonstrating how to build a basic PHP based content management system that uses object oriented programming techniques and implements the MVC pattern.
Along the way, I cover a wide range of technologies, including HTML and CSS, a bit of javascript/jQuery/AJAX and PHP/MySQLi. I also show how to integrate Colorbox (a jquery plugin) and TinyMCE (for the WYSIWYG functionality.)
Not web design related but I’m a nerd and I do have both the iPad 2 and the Blackberry Playbook. Before I get into my tablet review, please let me point out that I am a big-time Apple user. I have the MacBook Air and it is hands-down, the best computer I’ve ever used.
I rate tablets on the following criteria:
1. Quality of the OS
2. Quality of the hardware
3. The tablet’s ecosystem … apps!
The Playbook has superior hardware and the OS is better. iPad’s OS is clunky by comparison. Blackberry has a smaller screen (7inch vs. iPad’s 9 inch) making the Playbook easier to hold and handle but less attractive when viewing big pages.
That said, I use the Playbook all the time to browse the web. Oh yea, Playbook runs Flash with NO problems. Finally, the Playbook’s OS is much more stable (I’ve crashed the iPad 2 three times within 4 days) and the navigation is superior.
iPad’s Ecosystem is Amazing
iPad on the other hand, has a big advantage with the Apps. There are so many cool apps for the iPad, that no one else can compete in that regard. Playbook being very new, has just a little more than none.
Conclusion – should you get iPad 2 or the Playbook?
It is really use-case specific; if you plan on casually browsing the web and watching videos etc … then the Playbook. If on the other hand, you are interested in games and maybe apps related to education etc … then iPad.
Oh yea, Playbook has MUCH better sound. For reasons unknown (drunkenness perhaps?) Apple choose to put the speaker on the BACK of the iPad!! And finally, the Playbooks screen is sharper.
I personally got the Playbook for fun and the iPad for work.
Hi I am subscribed to Killersites University. I need to add a section on my website that members only can access with a password. Can you tell me where to look to learn how to do this?
Many thanks
There are a few ways to approach this and the way you choose depends on how complex this needs to be. Your options are:
- use php
- use htaccess
- use wordpress or another cms/blog engine .. it can do this for you.
This is a question that I get put to me every so often … it goes something like:
Stef,
I noticed you get millions of pageviews a month and was wondering what SEO tricks or tips you may have .. how did you do it? How do you get Google to rank your websites so well?
I don’t have all the answers, and I doubt anyone does since Google keeps their algorithm secret. But over the years, having managed and built several high ranking websites, I can identify one key thing you can do: be honest with Google and your web site visitors.
Honest with Google .. in what way?
One of the first tips I got about websites back in the mid 1990’s was that Content is King. And all these years later, it still is.
The symbiotic relationship with Google
Google NEEDS good content to point to; their business depends on it. And we lowly web site owners need Google (all search engines) to point to us – our business probably depends on it. Keep that in mind as you build your websites and that will go a long way to successfully positioning your web site on Google.
Yes, there is a lot more you can do, but these two simple ideas form the foundation of any successful Google relationship.
I occasional use emails I get as the basis for a post … here we go again:
I have been a member of the Killersites University for a while now and a very satisfied student who is learning web design well. However, I am at a fork in the road.
I have learned from Killersites about HTML and CSS and now there is HTML 5 and CSS 3. I haven’t covered any of the other videos yet. I don’t know where to go next in relation to the newest videos you have posted. Maybe I should go to PHP next, or Java Script, or Flash, or HTML 5… i dont know.
So would you please layout a course outline, in that, tell me in which order I should learn your courses. Assume that I am going to go through all of them eventually and please include the placement of HTML 5 and CSS 3. Also, just so you know why I am learning, I am a videographer wanting supplement my programs with killer websites that display video and interacts with the user. I am using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 currently.
Thanks for all you do.
Clint
My short answer:
Hi,
I would suggest PHP next. Then maybe some Javascript and Jquery.
HTML 5 and CSS3 come later because they are still niche/mobile technologies.
Comments:
When choosing what technologies and skills you want to develop, you have to really consider your own goals and where the Web is at. So for instance, I see Flash is loosing a lot of its’ steam, and I think that it might be wise to not invest in Flash and related technologies:
- Flex
- Actionscript
- Flash Remoting
Unless of course, you are in a niche market that uses Flash a lot.
I suggested PHP next (for this student) simply because:
- PHP it is used everywhere.
- PHP is very useful in day-to-day web work.
- Unlike Flash, I don’t see PHP’s popularity dropping any time soon.
1. Don’t get caught up in nerd-theory rabbit holes, that take up all your time on things that will have little to no impact on your day-to-day web programming or designing work.
2. Learn your nerd craft by creating things that people commonly want … things like shopping carts, customizing a blog etc …
Just in case you don’t know, a video blog is just a video of my yapping about stuff. A little different than one of my video tutorials where I am showing you how to do things.
… Don’t worry though, you will never see video of me talking about what my dog did today.
