Webupon

So you want to become a web developer eh? Be it creating php scripts, entire web sites for a company, or just site templates to earn a little extra cash. Learning everything that you will need to do such things is a simple task if you have the mindset and the right tools.

Getting Started

There are a few things that you need to get started such as a text editor. You could use the standard notepad/wordpad but that lacks some real nice features. Below is a list of some tools that will help you out while web developing.

1. Dreamweaver - Although quite costly, it is a great WYSIWYG, it has very nice features such as live view, InContext Editing, code hinting and more. There are also discounts for students or educators.
2. Notepad++ - Another nice editor, it is nice and easy to use, free, search and replace, able to edit many documents at once, and much more.
3. Intype – Yet another code editor, this one is also free although still in development, it seems like it will be a real good editor once its done.
4. Coda – This is a code editor for the Mac. I have never used it but it seems like it would be a good editor. It looks sleek and seems to have some good features
5. Firebug - A nice addon for FireFox. It allows you to view your source code in browser and make changes to it and see it update almost instantly.
6. WAMP (windows) or MAMP (mac) – Both are web development environments which allow you to create web applications with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database. This allows you to test your applications on your computer without having to upload them to a web server.
7. Browsers – Last but not least, browsers. Get all the main ones, Safari, IE, FireFox, and also Chrome. Those are some the the main browsers that people use and that you should be testing on.
8. mage editor – You should also get a program were you can create images and edit them such as photoshop. This is so you can create the images to make your applications look nice.

Learning a language

Learning a new language can be hard. But all that you have to do is keep focused and read lots of material covering what you are learning, be it HTML, PHP, etc. Just read tutorials, articles, books, or whatever else you can find. Here is a list of some info that will help you along.

1. w3schools.com - This site is great to start learning HTML, that have some good information that shows you what the code is, what it does, and gives you a chance to try it out. They also have a quiz at the end to see how much you learned.
2. kirupa.com – For many different web development tutorials check out what is at kirupa.com he really makes sure to explain it in detail and guides you along.
3. netTuts+ – Here is an amazing site, it contains articles and tutorials written by web developers themselves. There are so many different kinds of things that you can learn here. And for just a few bucks you can gain access to even more information.
4. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive guide – Here is what Amazon says about this book:

“Plenty of books can teach you HTML quickly, getting you up to speed and hacking out Web pages in no time. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide offers a more comprehensive and pragmatic look at the de facto markup language of today, as well as the emerging next step…”

Check out the link for more detail on the book and how you can buy it.

Showing Off Your Work

Now who doesn’t like showing off to others? That is what you need to do to get better. You will never learn anything if you are the only person to critique your work. Have a friend, coworker, spouse, neighbor, kid, just whoever you can find look at what you have made and have them tell you what is good and what you should change. Also go to forums and post it and ask people to tell you what you did good and what needs improvement. 

Keep Practicing

This is another must, you should always be practicing, getting better, learning new material. If you don’t practice your skills will get rusty and you will lose whatever improvements you might of made. Just go and google some html tutorials and follow them, create sites for the Coca-Cola company, create sits for a fake company. Read a book. Just keep learning and improving your skills. You can even improve your own skills by helping others out. You can even try making a few bucks out of it.

$$$

And here is the best part right? Making the big bucks. Web development is a big business, people all over the world are seeking web developers. There are also many sites that will allow you to sell your works such as Themeforest.net. Go and check out that site and you will see hundreds of different items for sale such as HTML templates, PSD templates, PHP scripts, and much more. Just know that they only except high quality stuff. Also check out http://jobs.freelanceswitch.com/jobs for some job listings for web developers. It costs money to be able to fully apply to the listings but it is a small price to pay for a big payoff.

Must Read Articles

Here is a list of what I believe should be read by those who wish to learn how to become a web developer.

20 Tools to Make the Life of a Web Developer Easier
18 Wonderful IDEs for Windows, Mac, and Linux
22 Neat Code Editors for Windows
50 Must-read Books on Web Development
How to Become a Freelance Web Developer
15 CSS Tricks That Must Be Learned
6 Firefox Extensions That Will Massively Improve Your Productivity

A side note

Thank you for reading my article and I hope that I helped you out even a tiny bit get started in web development. Good luck to you all!

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