I was chatting to an entrepeneur early this evening who has some really interesting ideas. He knows his business area very well. He’s familiar with his target market and he has managed to win recognition at various levels for his business acumen and marketing skills.
However, when it came to the slightly more technical aspects of his online business I realised that he was relying on 3rd parties to make even the “simplest” of changes to his website. Of course these changes were not free, so his potential profit was being eaten up as was his desire to “go with the flow” and make changes when he wanted to.
I wouldn’t pretend to be a developer or designer, but I do know enough HTML etc., to manage websites and make changes to scripts etc., to suit my needs.
How did I learn?
Trial and a lot of error 🙂
I’ve probably broken more HTML rules than I’ve ever been able to follow, but I did learn something along the way. I’d like to see other people embracing the web, but where can they start? You can’t sit them down in front of a computer and expect them to produce beautiful websites overnight.
You could say “Go to site X and look at the tutorials”. That may work for some people, but for a lot of people it simply won’t. A nice old-fashioned book is a much better alternative. So here’s a few that I think might make a good starting point. If anyone knows of better ones please feel free to let me know:
HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS: Visual Quickstart Guide Susan Castro’s guide is written in clear, easy to understand English and walks you through most of the common HTML, XHTML and CSS tags and tricks you’ll need to get started producing websites
Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity – Jakob Nielsen may not be popular with some web designers and developers but a lot of what he says makes sense. The book is packed with clear examples of websites that work and ones that don’t.
Dreamweaver MX Bible – Dreamweaver seems to be one of the most popular software applications for many professionals. The problem with any software like this is that there are so many options and tools that you can use. The “bible” doesn’t presume that you are an expert, nor does it treat you like an idiot, and will give you a lot of useful tips to really get value out of your Dreamweaver license fees
PHP and MySQL Bible – So I like this series of books, what can I say?
I’ve probably forgotten something really obvious.. ..
Just remember – if you are going to play with a “live” site – make sure you have a backup 🙂
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