Archives
November 7, 2007
I’ve been asked many times (by web designers) about what programming language they should learn so that they can build database driven websites. My short answer is of course: PHP.
That said, I felt a little more detail was required: why do the competing technologies (ASP, ASP.NET, Ruby etc …) suck compared to PHP … in that regard?
From the article:
The article’s title (I admit,) will get some people little miffed at me. But, what can I say, the truth hurts!
Seriously, this statement is valid and is worth talking about because there are a lot of web designers out there who are considering the leap into building dynamic (database driven) web applications. And with so many choices (ASP, ASP.NET, Ruby etc …) it can be very frustrating when trying to make that choice.
Of course, I believe (and know) that PHP is the choice language/technology for web designers. But why are the other technologies not a good choice for web designers?
You can read the rest at killerphp.com:
Why ASP, JSP and Ruby suck for web designers
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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November 3, 2007
Back in about 1906, Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the not so equal distribution of wealth in his country; he figured out that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.
I’m sure Pareto thought that sucked pretty bad, needless to say, he had no idea how good they had it back then!
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November 2, 2007
Many of my best articles come from email questions put to me by readers.
In this case, we have someone asking what to charge for private web design training.
The email:
i’ve been a member of your newsletter for years .. BIG FAN!
i recently met a guy that owns/founded an SEO company here in New York that works from home and is VERY successful/wealthy… he asked that i teach him photoshop and flash cs3.
i have NO IDEA what to quote him.
He wants to learn basic image manipulation in photoshop and then learn buttons, headers, and small PowerPoint like presentations in flash.
So minimal actionscript, tweening, and movie clip galore!
I assume i would charge him hourly….
i have an associates degree from WEA in interactive media about 5 years web design experience, and have been a flash developer for a fortune 500 company for just over 2 years now…
Can you help me come up with a good price to quote…keep in mind he may outsource work to me in the future so i need a strong price now so i can make real money later on, but not scare him away..
PLEASE!
THANK YOU!
Tina
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October 31, 2007
Recently someone asked me a bunch of questions related to getting their first web design job as an independent contractor – and so I figured an article was a good idea.
Tim asked:
Stefan,
With me being a newbie in the web design business, I have some questions. Long story short, I was talking with my friends wife one day and mentioned to her that I had thought about doing some web design on the side to make some extra money.
I live in a small town, with a lot of small businesses and I figure these businesses would have a use for a simple web site to help promote their business.
… So I’m thinking this would be something I could start within the next year or so, … two days ago I receive a call from my friends wife and she asks if I’m interested in doing a web site for her brother, who is a dentist in our town.
So, I say sure and she tells me that he will probably contact me soon to set up a meeting to discuss.
Now, this is great but I haven’t got a clue where to start. Hers’s my thought:
1. Meet with the client to discuss the site. How many pages, the content, etc. Maybe show some of my work.
2. Take the info from the meeting and come up with a quote.
3. Present my idea’s and the quote.
4. If he agree’s and accepts the quote, draw up a contract for him to sign.
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October 16, 2007
A major question that many Windows users are facing (who are considering the move to a Mac,) is whether or not they will have the choice of software on the Mac, that they have on Windows.
For web designers, this is typically a no-brainer since all the commonly used programs in web design:
- Dreamweaver
- Flash
- Photoshop
… have Mac versions.
That said, there are still some great programs that are simply not made for the Mac.
Runnings Windows on your Mac
Fortunately, there are a few options out there that allow you to run Windows only programs on your Mac. Actually, there are even a couple of options that allow you to run Windows itself on your Mac! This is all made possible because the Mac now runs on the Intel chip (which is the same processor that Windows uses,) so it is much easier to ‘translate’ between Windows and Mac.
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October 9, 2007
In the following article, using a question and answer format, I try to answer some of the common questions about how blogs fit within a business.
1. Can you describe your introduction to blogging, how you became interested how has it impacted you personally?
I first heard about blogging in about 2001 and dismissed it as another tool for people who didn’t want to learn HTML. A year or so later, I realized the significance of blogging and blogging software:
… it was going allow for the original vision of the Web to actually materialize, where anyone could easily get a website on the Web.
Blogs and the blog phenomenon, made me rethink my whole approach to web design as a web professional: blogs, CMS and other similar content formatting tools where the future of web design.
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October 8, 2007
Hi,
In my continued attempts to teach web designers how to program with PHP (now an essential web design skill,) I’ve just released part 1 of 3, of my video series on creating custom functions in PHP.
We cover the very basics and learn about one of the key advantages of creating functions in php versus just write straight PHP code to your pages.
The Video: Custom PHP Functions
Part 2 and 3 will be out soon.
Thanks,
Stefan
www.killersites.com
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October 4, 2007
Hi,
I just released three videos on PHP functions that targets total beginners to programming and PHP.
The Videos:
I cover basic topics like how to spot and use functions, what are functions ‘returns’ and what are function ‘arguments’.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
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September 20, 2007
I’ve been asked on many occasions: how can you take a Photoshop layout and turn it into a web page?
Actually, here is a snippet of an email from a reader:
“I would love to see an example of taking a psd file, which is how I usually start. And then go to Step One, Step Two, etc to turn it into a web page.”
You have a few options … let’s start with the option you should avoid: slicing images.
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September 19, 2007
Preamble:
I’ve mentioned several times in the past 2 years, that web designers should learn how to use/edit at least one blog or CMS. Some popular choices:
- WordPress – a blog.
- Drupal – a CMS.
- Mambo – a CMS
.. And there are many, many more.
Why should web designers be concerned?
I won’t go into all the details here, but in a nutshell, a lot of web sites can use the features/functionality provided by blogs or CMS packages. Why reinvent the wheel?
That said, what is the difference between a blog and a CMS?
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