Learn To Make Websites

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

I can only speculate what the skill level in website creation of anyone on this forum is, but over the past few weeks I have been developing a website (called Website Homework) containing material with regard to creating websites from scratch.

When you have spent so much time learning how to design websites and write code it is easy to take for granted what you already know. What I learned over the past few years is that it never seems that what you already know could be important to others. I find myself writing tutorials about things I find challenging, because I learn something from them as I write and discover new information by experimenting.

Recently it occurred to me that all this knowledge I have gained after years of trial and error has resulted in some sort of mastery of website development as well as website design. I decided to share this information with others by starting Website Homework.

The tutorials are very primitive in nature, but I once heard someone say that most people who search for information on the Internet are "beginners". Whether it is true or not I don't know (it seems to be) but it makes sense to start writing tutorials at the very basic level.

Here are some of the most popular articles:

How to register a domain name
How much does it cost to build a website
How to create a website from scratch (using Notepad, Komodo Edit, Aptana Studio, Bluefish, Eclipse, SeaMonkey, Amaya, Kompozer, Nvu or TextWrangler)

and of my older ones:

How to write content for your website

One of the criticism you may have for this website is that it has a lot of ads. Well, this is a site created for the web developer community and usually the CTR is very low, possibly because people who are interested in making websites know what Google AdSense ads look like. However, I have experimented with different placements and the ads are necessary at this time. I may remove or re-position them in the future when there is an increase in traffic.

This is my most successful website to date in regard to every single aspect of website making process. I pay attention to all of the following: The name of the website. Is it easy to recall from memory for returning visitors? It uses its own dedicated database for storing articles. It is targeted at a certain group of people. It has a navigation bar that will organize information in a clear way as I write more content for it. The way pages are linked is optimized for search engines and all content is original and is being constantly updated (thank god for my custom content-editor I have written in PHP, Javascript and MySQL) which allows me to edit content directly on the page I am viewing (ideal for correcting typos or rephrasing sentences wysiwyg-style).

I am also working on a website builder that is pretty much built on top of the framework I use for starting new websites, including Website Homework. It has saved me a lot of time and it is easy to deploy (copy files to your server host, and it usually works out of the box).

[MiBeloved]

You are doing great work.

Push on!!!

[High Priest]

Why should someone leave insanely simple to set up and use content managements systems like wordpress and learn from the sratch?? Your website will be useful to people who are aiming to become developers but not the ones who just want to set up a good website.

[ragtag]

And there is nothing wrong with that.

If you want to get the most out of WordPress, and don't want to use outside help, you need to know some HTML and CSS, and maybe a bit of PHP. You can still manage a WordPress site perfectly fine, but how you can tweak it will be more limited.

I think both beginners, and more advanced users search the internet for solutions, though beginners are more likely looking for tutorials on how to do stuff, while more advanced users are more likely to be looking for documentation and reference material on how a specific command works, and what parameters it supports.

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Originally Posted by High Priest

Your website will be useful to people who are aiming to become developers but not the ones who just want to set up a good website.

People search for all kinds of information on the Internet. It's difficult to really know what their reasons are, there is no point in trying to predict what type of people search for which information. Perhaps I will add Wordpress articles in the future, the traffic adds up

As to further answer your question, what you are saying is not that simple. Some specific niches are easier to get in on Google. Would you rather write about Car Insurance and never get into top search results or write about "military vehicle insurance" and have a much higher chance of traffic conversions... When you are starting a new website you are looking to use any type of traffic you can get.

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Originally Posted by ragtag

And there is nothing wrong with that.

If you want to get the most out of WordPress, and don't want to use outside help, you need to know some HTML and CSS, and maybe a bit of PHP. You can still manage a WordPress site perfectly fine, but how you can tweak it will be more limited.

I think both beginners, and more advanced users search the internet for solutions, though beginners are more likely looking for tutorials on how to do stuff, while more advanced users are more likely to be looking for documentation and reference material on how a specific command works, and what parameters it supports.

Exactly. There are people who look for all types of information. It was simply a choice to write about that subject. Why would someone be interested in? Well I guess that's a question for them and not me.

When you start a website it usually helps to think of what your niche is. I chose beginners, and well.. maybe I will write about Wordpress later. There is no limit as to what your choices are when you start a new article.

[TinkerTantrum]

You're website look really good. I'm assuming you had no formal training or class courses. I got interested in web development as well about a year ago. The hardest thing for me was concentrating on one subject at a time. I went from HTML, to Python, to Linux OS etc. But you are doing great and keep up the good work.

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Originally Posted by TinkerTantrum

You're website look really good. I'm assuming you had no formal training or class courses. I got interested in web development as well about a year ago. The hardest thing for me was concentrating on one subject at a time. I went from HTML, to Python, to Linux OS etc. But you are doing great and keep up the good work.

Thanks, I appreciate your feedback.

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Wow, it's been a while...

Recently I experienced a burst in productivity with regard to my Website Homework website. Which has been gaining traffic, and is now making a decent amount of money each month (and growing by about $50+ every 30 days)

Today I sat down at the word processor for literally the entire day spewing content left and right. I was able to write 20 MS Word pages of content for this Website Homework site. The subjects were mostly to do with building websites, things like what the difference is between a static and a dynamic site, how to start a business site, how to write content for a website, etc.

That was today.

What's more, yesterday I experienced a similar burst of productivity which lasted between 5 to 6 hours. During this time I wrote about 16 pages for my other website called Starcraft Homework (for which I decided to write a bunch of articles about the multiplayer game Starcraft 2 and strategy ideas for players). I have been playing this game in the recent months and thought it was an interesting subject to write about. In Starcraft 2 players use strategy logic reminiscent to those used in real-life combat situations.

Writing articles takes a long time, but putting articles online is also actually laborious. So I was only able to upload the new articles to my Starcraft site. Tomorrow I will continue adding new articles to the Website Homework site. Perhaps I can write a few more after that.

[kevinjones]

Thanks for sharing your guidelines it is very helpful. It could be a stepping stone to people who needs a good outline on how to make a website.

[Sypyres]

Originally Posted by GrigoriySidelnikov

Wow, it's been a while...

Recently I experienced a burst in productivity with regard to my Website Homework website. Which has been gaining traffic, and is now making a decent amount of money each month (and growing by about $50+ every 30 days)

Today I sat down at the word processor for literally the entire day spewing content left and right. I was able to write 20 MS Word pages of content for this Website Homework site. The subjects were mostly to do with building websites, things like what the difference is between a static and a dynamic site, how to start a business site, how to write content for a website, etc.

That was today.

What's more, yesterday I experienced a similar burst of productivity which lasted between 5 to 6 hours. During this time I wrote about 16 pages for my other website called Starcraft Homework (for which I decided to write a bunch of articles about the multiplayer game Starcraft 2 and strategy ideas for players). I have been playing this game in the recent months and thought it was an interesting subject to write about. In Starcraft 2 players use strategy logic reminiscent to those used in real-life combat situations.

Writing articles takes a long time, but putting articles online is also actually laborious. So I was only able to upload the new articles to my Starcraft site. Tomorrow I will continue adding new articles to the Website Homework site. Perhaps I can write a few more after that.

Haven't checked your sites but I will. Few questions;
Are your docs E-books and if not, why not?
So, if you use wordpad and such, I assume it's all from scratch and runs basic HTML and XTML. Yes I do include CSS in that but what i'm getting at is schools now hardly teach the basics but only brush upon it. Since we have Adobe everything is and can be done for us without the extensive work.
I like what you are doing and to provide it for free is honorable while others make millions selling it. good luck to you and hope to see more work..Thanks..

[Criseyde]

Cool site, Grigoriy. I like it.

[newmark]

A useful website - thanks.

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Originally Posted by Sypyres

Are your docs E-books and if not, why not?

I have considered creating e-books before. But perhaps I didn't feel like I had enough material, and because I have no experience selling Website-construction related e-books I have no idea what the actual results going to be.

The results of my work are highly important for me to understand. I want to know, if not exactly, but at least approximately very close numbers as to what type of profit a certain amount of work will result in.

I am not exactly sitting there with my legs crossed on the desk, having dollar bills landing into my lap At this point I have to be a little more aware of the exact output of my work.

e-Books take time to write and I usually focus on the quality of my writing. But if I upload the content I have just written to my site, it gets indexed by Google in less than a week, and it's ready to generate traffic.

I am actually considering writing an e-book in addition to the other material available for free. And I am also planning on creating a newsletter. So yes, the major bottleneck is that I work alone, and well... it's difficult work. But certainly in the near future I'd like to see how an e-book can perform on my site.

Originally Posted by Sypyres

So, if you use wordpad and such, I assume it's all from scratch and runs basic HTML and XTML.

I discovered this great IDE tool called IntelliJ IDEA. This is my swiss army knife for programming. It is far more superior to Eclipse, yet it is not free. I think I bought a license for $300 2 years ago.

Originally Posted by Sypyres

Yes I do include CSS in that but what i'm getting at is schools now hardly teach the basics but only brush upon it. Since we have Adobe everything is and can be done for us without the extensive work.

Oh man, don't even get me started on schools. Especially after I realized for myself what type of things I did in order to increase my own productivity (and I am the sole witness to it), I developed a contrasting view of what being in school is like. Problem solving is what they need to teach. . . But the question is, do the people who are in control of these questions care about it? The only way is really to do things by yourself. Yes it is difficult, but there are also actually very many valuable things and lessons that can be found there, that can be later applied to many different aspects of your life. For example, developing the habit of organizing my website content, I also developed the habit to organize my grocery shopping list and my experience in thinking about optimizing AdSense ads resulted in new thoughts about "optimizing" my grocery lists! I get a certain type of groceries delivered to me every 2 weeks from local grocery store. . . and I try to use ingredients wisely.

[SleepBro]

I appreciate the information! Thanks!