Technical Help

[Jaktau]

I have a great idea for some content for a blog or a website that is a huge mainstream problem and that I am connected personally to. I am a self starter and have no experience whatsoever in develping websites or coding and I want to learn how to first develop my own site/blog and later monetize it. I am extremely determined and goal oriented. I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn. I am not expecting to make millions tomorrow, but I am expecting to make millions in ten years from now. This site is obviously full of people who have been there done that. Does anyone have advice or would anyone be willing to mentor someone like me? I have a small amount of start up capital and I have the determination to figure this out. I also have the work ethic and patience. I just would like some help in avoiding the pitfalls I am sure many of you have already run into. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I realize most people here are probably past this basic stage, but you have to start some where.

[TheBull]

Well Jaktau, I'm sure someone would be willing to help (possibly even me), but you leave it kind of vague as to what you want to do. Without giving away your idea too much, can be a bit more specific?

Software development can take a lot of effort, so before someone is willing to put in that effort they might want to see what is involved.

[Lil Chris]

Hey Jaktau,
W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
This is a great place to start, not knowing how much you know or what you want to learn...

[kthdsn]

I prefer HTML and CSS Tutorials, References, and Articles | HTML Dog to w3school.

If you just want to get your content online in a blog format, then you could go for something like wordpress instead of learning to build a website, it really depends on what you want to achieve.

[Jaktau]

I want to put together a blog with my personal experience and then open a community based on others. Very similar to how Steve got going. Blog with his own experience then into these forums. I really need to learn the nuts and bolts. So I have questions that are probably easy for most people here like. Should I host my site on my computer in the beginning or get a webhost. At what point will it be too big to host myself? What is the best shopping cart out there? How expensive is it to get started? Those types of questions. The links provided are a great start. I would like to either e-mail someone or talk to someone concerning the really basic stuff. I have the business side of business strategy, planning, and analysis, I just don't have the technical side and the online model knowledge. I am a true beginner, but I really want to learn. I think it is the future and want to get in now before any more time passes me by.

[someone]

This might not be the answer you're looking for but I find that I can learn a lot about different technical topics by just trying them out. In your case, I would probably just download some software like wordpress or whatever and play around with it. Create some html/css/javascript/etc. files on your computer and try some coding (but start small...with "Hello World" or something). I might also get Apache or IIS as a server and play around with some server side scripting and maintenance.

This won't directly contribute to your plan, but the knowledge you gain from doing this will definitely help you troubleshoot problems(like I want this link to pop up in a new page, or I want this text to be blue) and make good decisions about which technology to use for your plan(like SSL, databases, the server OS, etc.). The benefit with this approach is that you can learn from the pitfalls you make in the "sandbox" so you wouldn't make them again when you're actually running your business.

[birger]

Originally Posted by Jaktau

So I have questions that are probably easy for most people here like. Should I host my site on my computer in the beginning or get a webhost. At what point will it be too big to host myself? What is the best shopping cart out there? How expensive is it to get started? Those types of questions.

Most of those types of questions all have the same answer; it depends. Except for number one perhaps, you definitely should not host it yourself, specially not if you lack the technical knowledge.

But, what you basically want is to start a blog, at least in the first place?

There are numerous places where you can get one for free. Try for example Blogger. It's a free and fast registration, and you can use your own domain name if you wish. You can also connect it with Google AdSense, and start earning ad revenue from day one. (Starting to sound like I work for Google now...)

[Caveman Joe]

Seconding what Birger said about trying to host on your own computer. You should never, ever do that.
There are lots of different blogging engines and content management systems available out there. My favourite is GeekLog, as it's a nice medium between being a blog and a proper community portal, and by enabling/disabling the various options (and with the installation of a couple of plugins here and there), you can make it swing either way.
You can test drive a bunch of blogs and content management systems at OpenSourceCMS - Home, before deciding which one to install in your web space.
Here's where I'd plug my own hosting company a little bit, but I've already done that twice today, so I won't.

[Adam Sargant]

Personal choice... I would get some server space and a suitable domain name and use an open source blog script such as that available from word press (see Spirit of NLP for one that I have created in this way with wordpress)... you will learn a lot in the process and will have the flexibility to change as things develop in the future

In love and light

Adam

[tobyhede]

I would setup a Dreamhost account ($7.95/month). You get one free domain registration as well. I just set up a promo code to use that will give you the maximum discount possible: FORUM_MAX. Enter this at the sign-up.

Once you're setup, you the Dreamhost management system to install WordPress.

And you're done.

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Dreamhost, but I use their hosting service and have found it excellent. The promo code supplied does not provide me with any financial reward - the maximum discount has been passed on.

[kthdsn]

I don't see why everyone is so against hosting on your own computer, I took this approach for a couple of years while I learnt and played with different ideas and designs. I found it really helped me to learn what I was doing.

[tobyhede]

kthdsn: for learning, there is not a whole wrong with running server on your own machine ... that's how I develop all my software.

But given the cheap cost of hosting these days, it's much easier to just pay for hosting and get backup and all those ancillary services, than worrying about running a static IP address on a decent connection & etc & etc & etc.