Web designer mamas- advice needed

[MamaMonica]

OK web designers- I am a technically- illiterate but bright college-educated person. The last programming I did was Basic on a TRS 80 (graduated college before the web).

Where do I start to design a cool web page? What programs do I need? What design programs can I use/learn to translate my skills into making a beautiful page? I just have a lap top with a finger pad. Do I need a computer with a mouse and a scanner or printer? Thanks! I would really like to learn this, just need a "jumpin in" place. If I need to learn html, what's the best way for a busy mom to do it?

I know I sound like I am crawling out of the stone age. I can upload a simple web page designed in MS word, but its really basic and I want to design something more eleaborate. Don't have any web designer friends- so I must learn to be one myself.

[turquoise]

If you are just looking to build a page, MS frontpage is easy to use.

If you want to build a store, I'd try a shopping cart company like monster commerce, yahoo stores (that's who I use), or any other on the web. I know Bank of America had one, not sure if they still do. Another hint is to check out your favorite online stores and see what system they are using. You can usually tell when you get to the shopping cart (there will be a reference like "cart powered by blah blah" I might even be tempted to contact the owner of the site. Good luck!!

[Erin Pavlina]

My recommendation is to get an HTML editor like Homesite and then get a book on HTML and learn how to hard code your site. It's harder in the beginning but in the end you'll be able to do vastly more with your site than using FrontPage or DreamWeaver.

There are aspects to using a wysiwyg editor that cause problems with programming and search engines. To a programmer who looks at the code of a FrontPage written site... well let's just say it's an abomination of coding.

Not to say you shouldn't use FrontPage... I understand why people do it. But learning HTML is not nearly as difficult as you might think, and an editor like Homesite offers so much in the way of help, that it really is an extremely useful and powerful skill too have if you're going to be a web based business.

[PatchyMama]

My recommendation is to get an HTML editor like Homesite and then get a book on HTML and learn how to hard code your site. It's harder in the beginning but in the end you'll be able to do vastly more with your site than using FrontPage or DreamWeaver.

I agree! Frontpage=bad, LOL! not to mention clutters up your code... drives me nuts when i do a site for someone and they then use front page to edit stuff.. clutters up my nice clean code with crap.. :LOL

[MamaMonica]

Thanks! I will look into Homesite and an html book. I really want to do this myself. I really appreciate your information and suggestions!

[Erin Pavlina]

Yeah, I had a psychology background and one day my programmer of a husband handed me a book called, "Learn HTML in 7 days," and said, "Here, my company needs a website. Learn HTML and make us a site."

I was like, "Hey, you're the programmer. Why should I learn to program? Won't it be difficult?" He shook his head and said HTML is like a baby programming language. He downloaded Homesite for me and I went to work with the book. In 4 days, not 7, I knew HTML. And it was FUN!

A year later I was making scads of money doing websites for people. This was back in 1997 when the web was new and there weren't programmers all over the place. I enhanced my skills over time, learned tons of new things, and the rest is history.

So all I have to say to anyone out there is learn HTML. It's truly not as difficult as you might imagine. And the benefits of hard coding your site, especially in terms of marketing and search engines, will more than make up for taking the hard road.

[PatchyMama]

there are also a lot of GOOD free online resources that offer tutorials and stuff... i basically learned all my html on my own (tho i was a c++ geek in highschool/college) ... through online tutorials.. and I had one "quick reference" book .

anyway here are some good ones
http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp
http://www.webmonkey.com

[rubelin]

I've loved using Dreamweaver, it made it all much faster and I am not good at waiting for results I also learned some HTML so that I could know what was going on and could clean up the code if needed. There's a great HTML Tutorial site called DaveSite that helped me a lot with the basics.

I'm a very visual person, so code alone jsut doesn't do it for me, but the combination of DreamWeaver to lay it all out pretty and then the knowlege of what had to be written to make it look like that has worked really great for me