About seven years ago I began my web career. I had just received my first computer and thought it would be great to write words for the world to see. My first go was with Yahoo. What a horrible interface that was. Without any experience in HTML or CSS, I resulted in using the Yahoo PageMaker. Holy smokes. Just to create a simple page took several hours: dragging, dropping, adjusting the fonts, trying to use any image. Not to mention, PageMaker was down 12 hours a day (or so it seemed).
Image by Wesley Fryer
In a way, PageMaker was a great experience. It made me realize my need to expand my knowledge. And so it began. I headed to the nearest bookstore to pick up an Elizabeth Castro HTML book. Man did I love it. Not only did it cover the very basics, but it gave a rough idea of CSS.
As I learned more, Yahoo started to sour on me. I began to look for a new free host (I didn’t even know money could be made); Angelfire was the new home. This lasted only for about two months. Their pop-ups were driving me insane. Soon, I found FreePgs. FreePgs was much different at the time. Everything was unlimited and I had access to PHP and MySQL, although I didn’t know how to use it. I could upload to files through FTP, much easier than the silly web interfaces from before.
One day while browsing the net (which I didn’t do too much since I was using dial-up until about three years ago), I read about PHP. I was amazed at the possibilities. Although I didn’t have a full grasp of it, I realized how much a simple include could help form a template. I quickly recreated my theme into a header and footer and added includes to all my pages. Phew! What a relief. Now I could easily change the sites theme without editing hundreds of pages.
As time went on, I became more interested with PHP and its capabilities. Around this time, I found WebmasterWorld, the famous Brett Tabke’s lovechild. The 26 step program was a bible (and still is to many). Exchanging links became an everyday activity, as did reading the many fine gentlemen’s posts. Through the forums I was able to learn more about PHP and internet marketing, although many would simply say ’search the library’ or ‘use PHP.net’. And so I did. Many days, weeks, and months went by trying to learn more about the inner circle of web development.
At this time, I was pulling in around $700/month using a free service. Pretty good money for someone who barely knew what he was doing. Sadly, FreePGs started going through changes. And with the advice of many, I switched to my own domain and hosting. Soon, Google went through a major update that almost killed the free service’s placements. “Oh well”, I thought and went on with the new site. The new site was first listed within ODP then Yahoo. Great news! Tons of new visitors. I then started a forum, which was added to ODP. The website was then listed in the top 10 for a major keyword phrase.
As time went by, I continued learning PHP. MySQL was the easy part. I began writing tools and scripts for visitors. Once AJAX took off, I thought everyone needed it. I started learning more about javascript.
Around this time I started reading DigitalPoint forums. Although many posts were retreads of earlier topics, the forums were much more active than WebmasterWorld; news came quickly. I learned more about how to create a successful website and keep it successful and I found blogs and more information.
Somewhere along the line FreePGs changed once again. Completely cutting off any income from the site. They switched websites from owning a directory to owning a subdomain. And they didn’t even bother to add 301s. All links from before were lost, as were any link exchanges that took place. Luckily, I had a new stream of income. I then created more websites and continued learning.
In summary, the road has been long. There are many web developers who last only one year, but the ones who are constantly learning are the successful. Don’t give up. And if there is one piece of advice that I have learned, it is don’t just listen to what others say but test it yourself.
Written: Sep 22, 2008
Tags: internet marketing, seo, Web Development
Harish
September 22, 2008 @ 9:46 am | Reply
I knew about MMO by reading articles from the news paper.And Gary dont forget to see the link back of your blog on my blog.
Gary R. Hess
September 22, 2008 @ 1:17 pm | Reply
@Harish, thanks for the link. Either your site didn’t ping me or the spam filter caught it (or I just didn’t receive the ping yet). I found it on your blog, though. Thanks again.
turnip
September 22, 2008 @ 10:23 pm | Reply
I had a website years ago before it was possible to properly monetize it. It was on tripod.com. Then I learned html and made a few for sites for myself. I gave it all up for about 7 years until I discovered WordPress. Now I have 5 websites. 2 for adsense, 1 for PPP, and 2 for blogging. No way I’me getting rich, but I can usually make $200 a month easily enough. Sure beats leveling a character in a mmorpg.
Dennis Edell
September 23, 2008 @ 1:31 am | Reply
Yahoo sucked huh. You shoulda been with us late 80’s early 90’s with Basic, Machine Language, C+, C++, and a couple others I don’t recall.
Margaret
September 23, 2008 @ 6:44 am | Reply
Gosh! I remember Yahoo Geocities! For a long time, my main website was located there and until just a year or so ago, I still had it redirecting traffic to the domain I purchased. I also remember pagemaker, but had already taught myself HTML through the tutorials at Web Monkey — it’s still a great resource for learning HTML. Then I learned about CSS (also from WEB Monkey), but it wasn’t until I discovered Sitepoint.com that I really got turned on to the power of CSS.
I know SQL from work, but have not yet wrapped my head around PHP. I keep telling myself that I’m going to take a weekend and lock myself in to learn it. Or at least get the basics of it. I’ve purchased a couple of books, but haven’t cracked the covers yet.
It’s interesting that your path to web development is so similar to my own.
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Gary R. Hess
September 23, 2008 @ 1:16 pm | Reply
@turnip I tried out tripod for a little bit, but it was only for a couple weeks. When I was there everyone had to have a popup load each pageview–annoying.
@Dennis Edell Yeah, Yahoo was a bunch of pooh. I thought it was so awesome at first. I tried out Geocities a long, long time before that but it was just for messing around. Either way, both were a disappointment. Now, the way Yahoo is with the page ads I’m surprised anyone still uses them.