He called to ask about my video tutorial courses; he saw that we were covering much of the same material in about $80-$100 worth of videos!

… He was wondering what the heck was going on here? Do you really only need just a few video tutorials and perhaps a book or two? Could you get the same value as a college program, that cost tens of thousands … for so little?

Short answer: easily.

With a good set of videos as your base, a road-map and occasional help from a good web design forum, you can indeed develop marketable web design skills.

… I’ll be talking much more on that in soon to come videos, podcast and articles.

The Dubious Advantages of a Web Design Degree

The one thing that the college will talk about, is the nice piece of paper (degree) they will hand you after you’ve spent years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars (possibly), of your cash.

If you’ll remember anything, remember this:

The fact of the matter is that YOU WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE ASKED IF YOU HAVE A DEGREE in web design or web programming.

… The one exception is, if you are dying to work for a really large company where HR red-tape and bureaucracy rule. Other than that, your portfolio and work experience is all prospective employers (clients) will want to know about.

When I hire web designers, the last thing I look at are degrees and certificates. Instead, I look for talent and ability.

Are all schools bad?

Not at all. I am sure there are some great classes out there on web design and web programming. For some people, the structure and schedule that the college class provides, is what they need. Personally, I’ve always preferred the freedom of being able to learn when I was in the mood.

Final comment:

I would strongly advise that you think not twice, but ten times before you get yourself into big student loan debt. Student loans can easily become onerous, evil shackles about your neck.

There is a whole generation of student/slaves who have huge student loan debts that can never be forgiven (unlike a business that can go bankrupt) that are forever working to pay off massive debts – with interest!

In the middle ages, there was a class of slave called the serf, they were technically not owned by the Lord, but they were considered part of the land and could not leave.

… Today, students with unforgivable student debts, are not owned by the land … just by the banks who hold the loans.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

… Let’s face it, some people just don’t have that artistic/designers eye.

Play to your Strengths

A long time ago, in a sport far, far away … I once had a coach who one day pulled me aside and said:

“Stef, you’re good at playing to the outside and you can move, but your inside game is really pathetic. So, stop trying to play inside and concentrate on what you’re good at!”

My coach’s advice is to be heeded by all and applies to all professions … web design/programming is no exception.

The key to success is to figure out WHAT YOU’RE GOOD AT (design, code, structure, programming …) and then develop those skills to the point where you’re so good, that a shine will begin to radiate off you, and in time, your brilliance will cause people to have to look away … and (more importantly) pay you more money for your work!!

Final comment: yes I know this is a really short post … but sometimes that’s all you need to make a point.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

This fast-paced nature of the Web is considered good by some (because it opens up opportunity) while others hate it because you have to be ready to learn new web design skills regularly.

… Personally, I see it as an opportunity with a headache!

The following list details what you CURRENTLY need to know to be become a professional web designer.

Basic elements of the Web:

• Domain names
• Hosting
• FTP and HTTP

Web design skills

HTML

• The core tags
• Basic HTML concepts – properly formatted tags, doctypes etc.
• What tags to NOT use.
• HTML tables
• HTML forms
• Proper page and web site structure

CSS

• The core CSS properties – margins, floats, padding, z-index …etc.
• Basic CSS principles
• Adding CSS to pages.
• The cascade in CSS
• CSS page layout
• Getting around CSS cross browser conflicts – IE conditional comments
• Understanding CSS limitations

Misc. Skills

• Basic design principles – white space, fonts, alignment
• Image types used on the Web (JPG, GIF, PNG). The pro’s and cons’.
• Basic image editing/creation for the websites – sizes and optimization. Photoshop is a good place to start.
• Web site usability – how to make websites more user friendly.
• SEO – making websites more search engine friendly.
• Basic PHP
• Basic Javascript – Jquery
• Web design software: Dreamweaver or Expression Web .
• Understand the web design work flow.

Optional Skills

• Flash for Web animation and web application development.
• Get to know a blog or CMS engine. For example: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla.

I will be fleshing this list out with podcasts and videos over the next little while.

Thanks for reading!

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

I wrote a quick article today on what to expect in the web design business now that we are in a recession.

I’ve seen this before (in the last recession) and I also see what’s going on now … so I got some answers! I also give you some clues as to how to position yourself so you can actually profit in this environment.

The link:

Web Design in a Recession

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

In the following podcast, I walk you through some of my basic rules of money management.

Managing your money.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

I just released a new video tutorial that introduces the new CSS option in the properties panel.

In a nutshell, Dreamweaver CS4 has made it even easier to add and modify CSS code in your web pages.

You can view my growing collection of Dreamweaver CS4 in the Dreamweaver section of killersites.com.

PS: Firefox on the Mac sucks bad.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

I wanted to announce that I just released a 6 page article on Dreamweaver CS4 … concentrating on it’s PHP and database features.

Check it out: Dreamweaver CS4 Introduction to the PHP toolset.

I also plan on creating a bunch of supporting dreamweaver CS4 video tutorials to help fill in the details not covered in this chapter. I hope you find it useful.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

In this session of the Business of Web Design, I teach you a few tricks that you can use to get an glimpse into the character of people you deal with.

This may seem like a strange thing to talk about in a business course, but it is actually very important because who you deal with, will have a huge impact on the success or failure of your web design business.

My four tips to judging character:

1. Look for lies or exaggerations.
2. Pay attention to how they treat other people.
3. Trust your first impressions.
4. Look at what they’ve done in the past.

Listen the to podcast for all the details: Judging Character.

In this podcast, I go over a bunch of details about how to collect from and bill clients.

… And a bunch of other stuff too.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

This time around, I’m answering a question from someone just looking to learn web design, that wanted to know if they needed traditional pen-and-paper drawing skills in web design.

Along the way, I explore a few other similar questions about web design related design skills.

The podcast: Web Design and Drawing (MP3 running time: 4:40)

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com