I will suppose the first thing you will require is the drive and motivation. Do not get bored or tired along the way. You can check for good video tutorials on lynda.com with your 7 day free trial, tutorials from lynda.com seem to be very detailed and in-dept. Also youtube will give you a lot of knowledge, that will be asides sharing knowledge with pros here in this forum
Least expensive way. Explore first, if you have not already. Check out the various theme for websites, download and look at the PHP, also, go to http://www.php.net and see if the programming looks like something you want to bit in to. Look at the PHP help threads here and see what it is all about. Then explore all the free tutorials that you can find, as there are a lot out there. Then, if you are really interested in continuing on, you might think about buying in to a site like mentioned above. I've known a few self taught PHP programmers that only used free tuts and the php.net site to get going, heck, I am, to a small degree. I know enough PHP to be a danger to myself and society, but crafting up a forum like this, not so much, lol. The self taught people that I know had the drive and desire to learn programming as a means to better their lives, and did, learning PHP, .NET, C++, and other languages. Good luck on learning it, it is pretty fun. I remember when I was hand coding pages, when CMSs were bulky and limited, and I learned how to include a menu, man, that cut my time way down.
How much do you already know? You can start with html (not necessary but helpful). I learnt php using the php for dummies book. Currently the best method would be to learn it online through a site like w3schools and join a web designer/web developer forum.
The best way to learn ANYTHING in programming is to build stuff. Master the basics, think of something you want to build, then dive and start working on it every single day. After you've finished your project, you'll realize that you know WAY more than you did when you started. At that point, you think of something larger and more complex that you want to build. Then dive straight into that. Once you've completed a handful of projects like this, you'll start to realize that you actually know a lot and can build some amazing stuff. During the building process Stack Overflow and YouTube will be your best friend. YouTube is great for learning new concepts and how to accomplish certain tasks. Stack Overflow is great for troubleshooting and figuring out how to solve detailed problems in your application. I recently started a YouTube channel and have been working hard to pump out some high quality tutorials. What sort of projects are you interested in building with PHP? If it sounds like a cool idea then I'll be happy to create a tutorial series on how to build it.
Yes, this is a great idea as well. Learn through youtube channels (or a site like udemy). Your task now is to find the right channel for you. Best of luck!
I might be late on this, but Ill help a bit. My tip on learning programming for php is to start with udemy. I took about 3 courses on it on how to make a couple of CMS websites, some basics some advanced. On top of that I've learned how to make html/css with php from udemy. I also got some references from w3schools to learn more on the server side of things with some Bootstrap on hand. I also purchased a couple of books on php programming they are kinda a couple of years old, but they are still relevant. To make the story short to learn php programming (from my perspective/self learning) 1:Udemy(Some are free/pay, I mostly took the free courses with 2 paid. I took a course from Edwin Diaz, and some other guy) 2: PHP books(Free/paid) 3:W3schools/Bootstrap references (Free) 4:Some youtube videos on php tutortials (Free) 5:School Library (But to be honest they most likely don't have the proper resources to have advanced programing tutorials, hopefully you wont have that same problem as my school haha) I hope this helps a bit!
Another tip, is to have xampp, and brackets. I use them all the time and I have no issues with them so far. Xampp might require you to change ports, however the solution is quite easy to fix. Besides that it will be a smooth sailing. I hope this helps a bit and good luck sagaa001!
I've only just started learning PHP. I needed a search option for my site. So, I've started by following these tutorial vids. youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_QXkBHy8yVrA5cPsVh2JcU1Cj4q8iORN just to try to get my search to work. But copying and pasting is not a sensible way to go, so to learn the basics of PHP I'm working through these tutorial vids. youtube.com/watch?v=dJfjVK56Bmk&list If you're new to PHP then I recommend trying the above videos, or others on YouTube like them. (As for HTML, CSS, FLash, etc., I used to watch a lot of Lynda.com videos. The rest I ask in forums and search online.)
I recently figured out @kenbrace idea work best, learn the basics and start building something, if you keep learning without building, it will be difficult to build later.. the more you build the more you learn!
I learnt the old fashioned way with a book and going though examples which is still a decent way to learn imo but if ou don't want to do that a good starting point is https://www.codecademy.com/learn/php they have a lot of well explained examples and start from the real basics