… The sad truth

Recently, I was challenged with some tech problem, and to be honest about it, I forgot the specific steps to solve it!!

This always bothers me – when you forget how to do something you once knew so well.

I am now resigned to the fact that I’ve probably forgotten more than I now remember. I guess there is only so much room in your brain ..?

You can’t know it all

This brings me to my larger point: as a professional nerd, it is not realistic to think you will learn everything that is out there. There is simply too much and you have to pick your battles.

That said, that doesn’t mean you should learn one or two things and then just rest on your laurels. No, you have to keep learning otherwise you will fall behind and you won’t stay competitive.

Focus on your specialty

It is wise to decide where you want to go in your nerd career, and then focus in that area.

For instance, if you want to be a web designer (I’m talking design centric stuff) you should learn all that you can about the front-end of web design:

• HTML
• CSS
• Basic design principles
• A touch of PHP … just a touch!
• Javascript
• Maybe some Flash

You probably shouldn’t be so concerned about learning how to set up Apache or how to configure a Linux server. These skills may come in handy once in a while, but these really are the skills that system administrators should worry about.

Play to your strengths

Just because you like something, or are attracted to it, it doesn’t mean you will be any good at it!

… Although sometimes, what you like is often what you will be good at.

What works out for me, is to forget about the things I suck at and instead, concentrate on my talents.

I (for example) am at best a moderate designer. Sure, I can build a professional looking website, but it ain’t going to win any awards! Instead, I rely on the skills of the truly talented web designers (using web templates or simply hire them) and then concentrate on those things that I can do pretty well.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

When I was working on the redesign of the killersites.com, I found (as a starting point) that the templates that ship with Dreamweaver CS3 useful.

Dreamweaver CS3 starter templates

Dreamweaver has a nice collection of bare-bones web templates. One thing I found cool about these templates, is that they contain a lot of notes that describe why they (the web-nerds at Adobe) have certain things in place – like the specific code they used to deal with a given CSS layout issue.

… This is another good way to learn more about CSS.

An added bonus: tested layouts

The templates are solid, in that you can be sure that they have been tested to work in the major browsers.

… This beats having to tinker with this yourself! That way, you can concentrate on the design.

The killersites.com facelift

For my redesign of killersites.com, I used one of the Dreamweaver templates as a starting point. I found that it was well structured, such that it could withstand the changes I needed to make to it.

… Many CSS layouts are fragile, in that if you change just a little bit about it, the whole thing can start to fall apart.

How to find the Dreamweaver CS3 templates

Dreamweaver CS3 ships with many templates that you can access either by the ‘Welcome Screen’ or by going into:

File > New

.. This will open up the ‘New Document’ window where you will be able to choose from four categories:

1. Blank Page
2. Blank Template
3. Page from Template
4. Page from Sample

In ‘Blank Page’, I used a template called: ‘2 column liquid, left sidebar, header and footer’. Not the most exciting name, but it does tell you what you’re getting.

If you are a Dreamweaver CS3 user, or someone just interested in exploring quality CSS templates, I would suggest taking a look at the Dreamweaver templates.

PS: you can download a free 30 trial of Dreamweaver CS3 if you don’t have it already.

And if you are interested in learning Dreamweaver, you can view my free Dreamweaver video tutorials.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

I just released more of my Dreamweaver MX video tutorials.

Thought Dreamweaver MX was released in 2004, not much in Dreamweaver has changed since that time … especially when it comes to the basics.

Anyway, for those new to Dreamweaver, these videos should be useful.

PS: I also have Dreamweaver CS3 videos for those who need the cutting edge stuff.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Killersites.com is an old site, nearly 12 years old now!

Over that time (as we added more articles and tutorials), our directory structures and file naming styles changed as conventions changed. So now I have a huge mess to clean up.

… There is a lot of information buried in killersites.com that people just don’t find.

Fortunately, over the last 12-13 years of building websites and web applications, I’ve been able to figure out the best way to organize a website:

In this article, I discuss how to create an easier to maintain, more user friendly website by way of using intelligent paths.

-

So what are ‘intelligent paths’?

I’m talking about URL structures of course! So that means a few things:

1. Building a SENSIBLE website directory structure.
2. Using meaningful words in page names and directories.
3. Using lower case text for page and directory names.
4. Using dashes between words in both page and directory names.

… Let’s go over the details.

Sensible website directory structures

I am talking about being logical (in the hierarchy of your website) so that it should be easy for people to find content in your site. So for example, on killersites.com I now have major sections for Wordpress, Dreamweaver and soon Flash. So when someone comes to my web site and finds themselves in the Dreamweaver section:

http://www.killersites.com/dreamweaver/

That same person, an enterprising nerd, might think that given the above Dreamweaver address/URL, that the Wordpress URL could be found at:

http://www.killersites.com/wordpress/

… And thankfully, they would be correct!

And since killersites.com has plenty of free video tutorials to offer, it only makes sense that the videos be kept in a ‘videos’ sub-directory:

http://www.killersites.com/wordpress/videos/

Wanting to be consistent (and logical) we should do the same thing for our Dreamweaver videos as well:

http://www.killersites.com/dreamweaver/videos/

Later on, as I add new content (and reorganize the old content) I should remember to keep my directory/URL structures consistent. This will make the web site easier to navigate (users perspective) and easier to manage for us web designers.

Using meaningful words in page names and directories

I think this point is self describing …

As people are getting more web savvy, they will tend to look at page names and URLs more and more. Good (self describing) URLs give the surfer (and search engines) information about the content of the page they are visiting:

www.killersites.com/dreamweaver/videos/

… I think that it is pretty clear what they will find on this page!

Consider a bad URL:

www.killerdreamweaver.com/dw/vt/2008.html

… how are people (and search engines) supposed to figure out that the above page is filled with Dreamweaver (dw) video tutorials (vt) made in 2008?

Using lower case text for page and directory names

This is more of an aesthetic thing – lower case text across the URL text is just nicer to look at. Consider an old (soon to be retired) URL:

http://www.killersites.com/videoTutorials/Tutorial_WebDesign/webDesign.jsp

Yikes! I describe the content well enough but the text just looks ugly! This would be nicer:

http://www.killersites.com/video-tutorials/tutorial-webdesign/web-design.jsp

Easier to read, but some of the combined names will not make Google happy and the URL is kinda long. How about this:

http://www.killersites.com/web-design/videos/

… Now that’s a sensible URL!

Using dashes between words in both page and directory names

I know for a fact that search engines have an easier time discerning the subject of a page when words are separated by dashes as in:

web-design

.. rather than:

webdesign.

Besides the search engine advantage, the use of a dash makes it just a lot easier to read.

Conclusion

Just by following these few simple rules, you can make your web sites easier to maintain, easier to navigate and friendlier to the search engines.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

I just released a new video tutorial on Dreamweaver CS3. In this video (part 1 of 3) I walk you through the process of building your first web page with Dreamweaver CS3.

This video targets people new to Dreamweaver and people new to web design.

The video: Build a web page with Dreamweaver

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

… But, to be fair to myself, I wasn’t in a hurry to upgrade my Dreamweaver MX videos since the differences between CS3 and MX are really minimal … most of the changes are ‘under the hood’.

What is new about Dreamweaver CS3?

Dreamweaver CS3 is Adobe’s first official release of the software (Adobe just bought Macromedia) and so Dreamweaver CS3 now has the Adobe look and feel that is consistent across all their products including, Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3 etc …

Beyond that, the following things stand out:

• Better CSS support.
• Better FTP and site management tools.
• Ajax support with the Spry framework.

… There’s more for sure, but those are the things that stand out for me.

About the Videos

My first set of videos will be a beginners course designed for total beginners to Dreamweaver and web design. I will be giving away nearly half that course in the new Dreamweaver section in killersites.com:

www.killersites.com/dreamweaver/

You can check out the videos I have up so far directly:

1. Setting up a website in Dreamweaver CS3 (Part 1)
2. Setting up a website in Dreamweaver CS3 (Part 2)

-

Later on, I will start exploring more advanced features found in Dreamweaver:

• Ajax and the Spry framework.
• Dynamic websites .. data-binding.

CIAO,

Stefan

www.killersites.com

I’ve talked about the web design profession in other articles. Yet, as you will see in the following email I recently got, I haven’t dealt with all the issues regarding web design and education:

Hi Stefan,

Anyway, I am interested in web design. I am in the middle of trying to figure out whether I should go to my local community colleges for courses in HTML, photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc … or an actual art school for graphic art/ web design. Of course cost is a factor.

I am a mother of two, and my work schedule needs to be flexible. I am very creative and have a great eye for design.

My question is, which course of action you recommend? How much education is necessary? Is a degree necessary, if so, what type? associate, bachelors, certificate?

What are the salary potentials in web design working for yourself and for outside companies (I have research outside company positions advertising 40k – 50k, is that realistic?)

I’m not young, (a youthful 44) and I really need to do something in the form of a career for myself, other than taking care of everyone else.

Thank you so much for your time-

Sandy

-

First, let me begin by saying that college degrees always help when looking to get hired as an employee. This is especially true in larger companies, where they have strict rules (in their HR departments) that have to be followed.

On the other hand, if you are looking to become an independent contractor, degrees from college won’t help much … if at all.

How much education is necessary? Is a degree necessary, if so, what type? associate, bachelors, certificate?

The most important thing to have in the web design field is skill and experience. If you have a solid portfolio, where you showcase your talents as a web designer or web developer; that will go a long way to securing a job.

… When I hire people, I look at their past work and skills before their degrees.

I would argue that if you have say, a bachelors in some other field (art, history) and then you supplement that with a certificate in web design, you would be better off than if you just had a tech certificate only. I have found that companies tend to like university graduates more than tech school grades.

Web Design Salaries

I can’t speak to exact salaries, as this will change from state to state or country to country. But I know that in large companies, degrees play a big role in terms of your earning potential. But again, more important than a college degree, is your skills.

Web Design’s Most Valuable Skills

Typically, the more technically advanced your skills are, the more money you will make. And this applies to both freelancers and employees.

So unless your a fantastic artist (in the top 1%) I would be working towards learning more and more advanced skills like PHP, Javascript, Flash and AJAX. Not only will you be able to command a higher wage, you will be opening yourself up to many more job opportunities.

Case in point .. me!

When I was a really active contractor, I found myself more and more busy as I learned new languages.

Over the years, I have done commercial work with around 9 programming languages! When you have that kind of flexibility and experience … it’s hard NOT finding work.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com