Building a web prescence.

Bryse Eayo

So I think it's time for me to start trying to build a website.

Unfortunately I'm in no way a coder and I'm poor. So I'm looking for a book that basically covers the various languages, scripts, wordpress and everything else that I'd need. Something like a college course in a textbook? I have experience with the image editing/design software just not the structural side of things.

Where do I start?

Heir

www.w3schools.com will be a resource that you should use often. Heck I still use it every now and then for some XSL stuff or random javascript functions that I can't remember.

Jasconius

There's very little that Wordpress can't do for you, or be modified to do with not much code. It's a good place to start.

The Sitepoint website itself is pretty crappy but they write very good mid-level books on HTML and web design which can sometimes be found at Barnes and Noble and are a solid alternative to O'reilly which tends to be more advanced, and Visual Quickstart which has declined in quality of late.

http://www.sitepoint.com/

Bryse Eayo

Well the thing is what I want is a "How you do Wordpress" help device. I'm at square one.

Jasconius

Any amount of googling will give you that. Wordpress is the most pervasive blogging software on the planet. There's a lot of shit written about it for free.

I don't have any links for you, but it should be pretty easy to find some. Just go to Wordpress.org.

Black Ice

If you're just trying to get a web presence as opposed to building a new set of skills, check out some WYSIWYG programs (What you see is what you get). Examples: RapidWeaver, Goldfish (just an example, don't get that program - zero support!), or if you have a Mac, it came with iWeb.

Bryse Eayo

Jasconius wrote: »

Any amount of googling will give you that. Wordpress is the most pervasive blogging software on the planet. There's a lot of shit written about it for free.

I don't have any links for you, but it should be pretty easy to find some. Just go to Wordpress.org.

I understand the untold amounts of info available, but they all have varying levels of assumed knowledge and because of the immense level of choice I have, the best isn't always apparent.

What I'm also asking to see if there's some sort of accepted 'best resource' or bible that covers every aspect. And also I would sorta rather something physical because I still learn better from books then I do on the web.

Black Ice wrote: »

If you're just trying to get a web presence as opposed to building a new set of skills, check out some WYSIWYG programs (What you see is what you get). Examples: RapidWeaver, Goldfish (just an example, don't get that program - zero support!), or if you have a Mac, it came with iWeb.

I do want the skills as well. It's a way better looking world out there job-wise when you can write, make pretty pictures and code.

Morinoko

Bryse: if you are going the Wordpress route, take a look at this site: http://wordpress.tv/

My first advise would be, learn a little of HTML. You will need it, no matter what you plan to build, either using a WYSIWYG, Wordpress, Blogger or another CMS like Joomla or Drupal. The thing is, there will be a time when you will need to edit a post, or a page, add a link or change the alignment of some picture, and you will need to understand a little of HTML.

My second advise would be to try out both Blogger.com (as a blogging platform or to publish your articles or whatever), and Google Sites (http://sites.google.com). Both tools are very simple to use, let you publish several types of content (text, link to documents, videos, photos, audio, etc) and will give you good results. Also, you could take a look into Tumblr.com.

Another alternative would be to use a combination of sites to use as your online presence. I have seen several people in the technology area that redirect their domain names (something like FirstnameLastname.com) to their LinkedIn profile page. Weird, I know, but seen it and it works for them. Others use their Twitter page as their personal destination page.

Have you looked into Life Casting? A service or script that receives the feeds from all of your online presence (blog, twitter, flickr, youtube, facebook, etc) and displays it on one page. You could then modify the look & feel of that page, so it looks like you want it, and people will get an update of everything you do.

Any decision you make, please take into consideration that you can use Google Apps for your domain, and have your email, calendar, documents, Google Sites and chat under your personal domain name, and even upload your logo, so it appears instead of Google's.

References:
I saw this today in Twitter:
http://interactiveblend.com/blog/online/50-websites-to-follow-if-you%E2%80%99re-into-web-design/

http://w3schools.com

http://alistapart.com

http://sitepoint.com

http://webmonkey.com

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/
(don't be scared by it's ugliness or verbose, it's a good CSS reference)

http://www.w3.org/html/
(same, but for HTML)


If you want a beginner's book that cover must of the topics in an introductory level, get this fast:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596009878/

It's like following a course, it gives you step by step and an introduction to every topic.


And maybe this other one:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003579/?CMP=AFC-ak_book&ATT=Webmaster+in+a+Nutshell%2c+Third+Edition%2c

It's more of a reference you can go back and check when you encounter a problem.


This one looks fun:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101091/?CMP=AFC-ak_book&ATT=Web+Site+Cookbook%2c



Hope this helps. If you have a specific question, feel free to ask.