Coding know-how required?

Status
Not open for further replies.
brianpaxton

brianpaxton

New member
Aug 18, 2006
347
5
0
In order to start building some sites, and making some money online, do you need to have a strong background in coding? website developement? etc?

I have so many ideas, but so little technical know-how.

As I'm reading these threads, I'm beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. Is there anyone making $2-10K+ every month, that had little or no web experience 6-12 months ago?

I've had very limited experience in terms of building a site, I've been able to set up a blog at blogger, one in typepad, and I've built a few amateur sites with Godaddy's website tonight, and 1and1's dynamic website creator.

I'm scared to even spell Dreamweaver, but Adobe Go-live looks a little friendlier. Am I focusing on the wrong thing?

(ps) my background is on the business side.

Very nice and informative site, with friendly helpful members.

I've already learned a lot, thanks.
 


required? not really.
helpful? definitely.

the more you know the easier your work will be. the quicker you will be able to accomplish things. and the more power you will have when it comes to tweaking your sites to have them look the way you want them to.

but there's plenty of people here and elsewhere that build half their sites using wordpress or dreamweaver, and they're not doing so bad at all.

make sure you at least learn how to use dreamweaver, and when you grow more comfortable with it, learn html, css and maybe php.
 
I've been labled an "extreme newbie" on this site, so keep that in mind listening to me!

I'm in your boat! I do think its wise to learn the codes. While I learn the ways of the coder, it would be nice to earn some money. I think you agree.

One partner project I have is to write and research (my strength-his weakness) for 2-50 page sites. My partner will design and do the SEO (his strength-my weakness) for two sites. We both host and register one site. When all is done....we both own one site and go our seperate ways or choose to stay put and repeat!
 
Coding is not really required (problogger.net claims he is not a coder yet makes a very good living) but it definitely helps.

I am no coder per se, but I can pilfer other people's code and incorporate it on my blogs or sites.
 
Contrary to what others have said, I think knowing how to code is completely necessary. Unless you're using a CMS (e.g. Wordpress, Textpattern, Drupal, etc.) you're going to need to know how to code if you want to build a site. If you're looking to monetize your site, you need to know how to position elements on a page to get higher CTR. Although I'm saying you need to know how to code, your knowledge can be limited to basic HTML. It shouldn't take you longer than a week to get a basic understanding of HTML and how things work. Personally, I learned HTML by viewing the source on many of my favorite websites and picking apart the tags and learning what each one does. If you search Google you'll find tons of resources as well.

Using a WYSIWYG editor may help, but I've never used Dreamweaver or anything similar. I write code using Notepad, but to each their own.
 
ConceptualMind said:
Contrary to what others have said, I think knowing how to code is completely necessary. Unless you're using a CMS (e.g. Wordpress, Textpattern, Drupal, etc.) you're going to need to know how to code if you want to build a site. If you're looking to monetize your site, you need to know how to position elements on a page to get higher CTR. Although I'm saying you need to know how to code, your knowledge can be limited to basic HTML. It shouldn't take you longer than a week to get a basic understanding of HTML and how things work. Personally, I learned HTML by viewing the source on many of my favorite websites and picking apart the tags and learning what each one does. If you search Google you'll find tons of resources as well.

Using a WYSIWYG editor may help, but I've never used Dreamweaver or anything similar. I write code using Notepad, but to each their own.
Click to expand...


I would agree with ConceptualMind here. I think that coding no how is a might. Do I think you have to be the end all know all html guru by all means no. You do how ever need to know html tags and how they effect your website. People look at html and just shutter. It really isnt all that hard once you get the tags down and get web editing software to help.

I have used go live myself and still think dreamweaver is a better product. I have to say though for most simple editing notepad is all that is required once you get tags down. I would highly recommend for you to learn css/html. To me it is the most powerful layout along with being the simplest and cleanest. All you have to do when surfing is when you find a site you like view the source and start manipulating it in dreamweaver see what tags do to the site. There are tons of howto's out there. Then once you get them two down learn php :) Good luck.
 
As stated above, you or a partner need to know some code to get the ads where you want, and how you want them to look. Wordpress could get you off the ground without knowing code, but if you want to customize anything you'll be screwed.

I don't think dreamweaver is an alternative to knowing code. It makes it faster and easier, but you still have to know the basics. If you do a search for "free html tutorials" or something like that there are some really good sites out there. You should be able to learn the basics in a week or so. I always keep a html book around because I forget the code names a lot.

Then you definitely want to learn CSS, it is amazing what you can do with it.

After that maybe PHP, but I've just learned the simple stuff like includes.
 
Thanks a lot everyone, very inspiring, and the answers I expected.

I'm no slouch, so I'll probably delve into the HTML world in the near future.
But until then, I may find a more knowledgeable partner to do the coding part
of my projects., as I have done a couple of times before.

I'm thinking about tinkering with Wordpress a little, learn the ins and outs, and by using it, become a little more familiar with HTML. Then I'll start to learn by "studying" and "doing" some modifications to the Wordpress sites I'll build, and later venture into CSS. It all seems so overwhelming and difficult at the first glance, but I know it gets easier, as with everything else in life that is a challenge.

As they say, there are many ways to skin a cat. :)

Do you all think it's reasonable to expect to make $2-5k/month in 12 months, putting in 10-15 hours a week in work and studying?

If any of you have done any joint ventures, how do you set them up? Do you form legal partnerships, or do you prefer more of a virtual handshake kind of deal? It seems to me that it'd be easy for someone with ulterior motives to potentially take advantage of someone absent some type of legal arrangement. I.e. the "non-coder" leaving town with the website coding after the coder finishes his work, or vice versa, the coder stealing an idea and "setting up shop" using his/her own domain?
 
I wouldn't set up a partnership. Just pay someone to do what you want. There are kids everywhere that will do what you need for cheap.
 
brianpaxton said:
Thanks jdog - any suggestions?

i.e. rent-a-coder?
Click to expand...

Check other forums like Sitepoint, Digitalpoint, etc. There may be some people on WickedFire that you could pay to code a site as well. Just look around on different forums to see what people have to offer and what their rates are.
 
There is also a site where you set up a project that you need done and coders will bid on the project with costs and timelines. I can't think of it right now, but I'll let you know if I remember.
 
I always get quailty coders when I need them at sitepoint. I have yet to find a place where you can post jobs lie that for people to bid on for free. Most require a set up fee when joining or everytime you post.

As per I said earlier I was not saying dreamweaver is in anyway a good way to leapfrog the system in learnign tags and coding. It is ony a resource and a tool.

As per making 5k a month in 12 months. That is really up to you. I would say that is a good goal to set. You have a lot of growing to do til then but if you really apply yourself the sky is the limit right now. I will say it isnt a cake walk and a long road t oget stable. Good Luck though.
 
Keep in mind things like blogger. You could have a blog/site up today with adsense that is making you money. All you have to do is write content.

If you are wanting to set up a site you can look around for templates too. This way the bulk of the coding is done and a lot of them are well commented and is more of a fill in the blanks than anything.

Good luck.
 
Learn as you go, thats what I did. When I started I knew nothing. Now I am good with HTML, PHP, and a little perl. I have also learned VB.net so I can build my own tools in visual studio to make my life easier. I also outsource projects that are way over my head on getafreelancer.com.
 
tangem2 said:
Learn as you go, thats what I did. When I started I knew nothing. Now I am good with HTML, PHP, and a little perl. I have also learned VB.net so I can build my own tools in visual studio to make my life easier. I also outsource projects that are way over my head on getafreelancer.com.
Click to expand...

That was the website I was trying to remember.

I did a lot of learning as I went too. I learned as much html as I could and made a couple sites. Then I bought a myspace script, so I had to learn some php. Then I started working on an oscommerce site that made me learn a lot of css (won't design without it now).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back