Career-related questions

Greetings! I am currently experiencing a (voluntary and intentional) ending of one career that is prompting a search for a new one. One option that is standing out to me is (freelance) web design, development, or possibly both. To that end, I have a few questions for which I am hoping some of you may provide insight:

-What languages do I need to learn, for design, development, or both? I'm guessing HTML/XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, at the very least. Likely PHP. But, what else?

-What kinds of software? Dreamweaver, perhaps?

-For learning, how do you feel about w3schools? I've heard that it is outdated, doesn't cover enough, etc., but I've also heard good things about it, too.

-Take classes or be self-taught? I do tend to be good at learning things own my own, but I also recognize the value of a teacher or mentor.

-In general, what seems to be the learning curve for these technologies? While it naturally differs for each person, perhaps there are some similarities or generalities?

-Do you recommend Mac, PC, or Linux? My ideal would be Linux because it is less pricey and is non-Microsoft, but ideals must defer to realities and the things that a web designer/developer would need.

-On the business end of things, is there anything that can be done about difficult (or just plain dumb) clients? Anything to mitigate the stress of dealing with such individuals?

-More generally, are there ways to maintain ones own boundaries and limits when work entails dealing with others?

-I'm also interested in other related stuff, like helping write web content, develop e-zines, and maybe some marketing. Any thoughts on how those could be combined with the aforementioned?

Any advice or input anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

P.S. I put this thread here because, of all the possibilities, this seemed like the most appropriate forum for it.

 

-What languages do I need to learn, for design, development, or both? I'm guessing HTML/XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, at the very least. Likely PHP. But, what else?

MySQL, JQuery, AJAX

-What kinds of software? Dreamweaver, perhaps?

Photoshop for designing, I prefer Dreamweaver for programming (for the colors and alignment), but if you don't have the cash there are free options like notepad or Textpad.

-For learning, how do you feel about w3schools? I've heard that it is outdated, doesn't cover enough, etc., but I've also heard good things about it, too.

W3Schools is a good free option. The O'Reilly books are really amazing too.

-Take classes or be self-taught? I do tend to be good at learning things own my own, but I also recognize the value of a teacher or mentor.

Classes are a waste of time. If you have the drive you can easily learn from books for a fraction of the cost. You already found this forum and seem resourceful. You can ask questions on here. The process might take a bit longer, but it will be cheaper and you will learn more.

-In general, what seems to be the learning curve for these technologies? While it naturally differs for each person, perhaps there are some similarities or generalities?

It honestly depends if you have programming experience and if you do what language(s).

-Do you recommend Mac, PC, or Linux? My ideal would be Linux because it is less pricey and is non-Microsoft, but ideals must defer to realities and the things that a web designer/developer would need.

It really depends on what platform you prefer to work on. Note however a lot of development is tested in IE 7 & 8, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. You can get all of these for Windows. There are Windows 7 machines by Dell that are very reasonable.

-On the business end of things, is there anything that can be done about difficult (or just plain dumb) clients? Anything to mitigate the stress of dealing with such individuals?

Try working with someone you know who is good with clients. They can be a project/sales manager and take a cut for every job they bring in/manage.

-More generally, are there ways to maintain ones own boundaries and limits when work entails dealing with others?

Make sure you always set the guidelines and have everything in writing. Also, verify they agree to all of the terms.

-I'm also interested in other related stuff, like helping write web content, develop e-zines, and maybe some marketing. Any thoughts on how those could be combined with the aforementioned?

You can create your own business and site that shows you do all of the above and you can outsource different types of work.

 

First i'd like to say that I don't recommend becoming a freelance web designer/developer/whatever your wanting to do on the web if you don't have a background in something similar already (programming at least, or designing if thats what your into).

There are so many people on forums like this one (which is where I assume you think you are going to gain your clients) who will compete for jobs and often do them for much less than they are really worth.

It also takes a good amount of time to learn how to do in the first place. Well, if you want to do it properly and make good money out of it then it takes a long time. And if your looking to sell your services for pennies then you may as well stop now because your not going to make a living out of it.

With that said I will answer these questions:

MySQL is a databasse (not a language), JQuery is a JavaScript library (not a language) and touching AJAX before even attempting JavaScript and XML is a disaster waiting to happen.

I would recommend Learning HTML and CSS first (but stick to the w3c standards). Then move on to JavaSript.
Then after that it really depends what your wanting to do. PHP is a good language for server side scripting (e.g. creating a database driven site), or you could go down the client side route and look into things like AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, etc.

If you want to get into designing properly then Photoshop is your best bet, but it takes time to learn how to use properly. GIMP is a free alternative that I would still highly recommend.

For coding all you really need is a text editor. Notepad 2 or PSPad are good open source ones for web languages.

If your wanting to learn online then there are hundreds (if not thousands) of sites out there to help. W3schools is a good place to start. Another site I would highly recommend is HTML Dog:
http://htmldog.com/

Classes are not a waste of time. It really just depends how you best learn. Some people like classes more as it makes them actually learn (instead of getting distracted by something).

Well, personally I learned enough HTML and CSS in a month to say I was fairly good at it, but now after 6+ years I would say I'm still learning.
That isn't even mentioning the other languages I program in.

It honestly doesn't matter. As long as you have access to a machine that you can test websites on in different browsers, thats enough.

For some of the software for designing I wouldn't recommend using Linux though. Windows is probably your best bet at the moment.

No, theres nothing that can be done. "The client is always right" comes to mind. In reality they aren't. You'll learn how to dismiss clients ideas that are not feasable (usually the "I could, but I will have the re-evaluate the price" line gets them thinking if they actually want the idea on the site or if it would just be a nice extra).

A contract is always a great idea. If you cannot get one signed in person then be wary of any transaction.

It won't pay much for the amount of work you put into it, but thats up to you.

 

LeetPCUser, thank you for your tips and suggestions above. I particularly appreciate your comments about the learning aspect of it, which I found very helpful.

Thank you for reminding me of this point, as it's a factor I have to take into consideration. I definitely won't be getting started unless and until I've developed a respectable level of skill and have had others review my "practice" work, made critiques and suggestions, and optimized accordingly. If I find it to be work that I'd enjoy, then I'll just have to learn to do it well.

Truth be told, it never occurred to me to seek clients through web design forums. My plans include things like identifying 2-3 viable target markets, investigating them and their needs, and working out a game plan for getting to know them and developing relationships. In fact, to that effect, I am currently researching small business marketing and networking. In the meantime, I'm also engaged in a search for a regular 9-5 job to help facilitate such a transition.

Will definitely check that one out, too!

That sounds like a useful statement. Also, in general, do you feel free to turn down or terminate transactions that you find frustrating and/or troublesome? Like, how willing are you to tell the client-from-hell "I'm sorry, but I don't think we should work/continue working together"?

I would definitely put a lot of emphasis on contracts. Two questions: First, to what extent do you feel it's necessary to seek the counsel of a professional (such as an attorney) to optimize a contract? Second, from what I've read and heard, one cannot always assume that a contract will be honored, and enforcing it legally may take more time and money than one wishes to expend. To that end, what options exist for addressing a breach of contract besides taking it to court?

Thank you, as well, for helping me with my discernment process!

 

Generally I would try not to do that as they may go off and say bad things to other (potential) clients about you/your business. But sometimes it might be neccessary in which case you might want to point them in the direction of someone else who could probably help them complete what they are looking for.

If you have the money to get a lawyer to look over your contract and improve it (or even make it for you in the first place) then I'd say it'd be very useful. It also means that you can keep them on hand as your "go to" lawyer incase someone breaches the contract - they would be able to tell you what would be the best course of action.

It also depends where your from. There could be other courses of action that you can take before going to court (generally a letter from your lawyer will do the trick).

I've found that a contract is more used to set rules like "if the client chooses to change the specification after it has been signed off as the final version then the price agreed upon may be increased". If you don't specify things like this beforehand then clients may (and probably will) take advantage of it.

Saying that, for just starting out you probably won't need a contract. It's more when you start doing bigger jobs that you will want to use one. Also, if your good at choosing your clients then they shouldn't cause much problems.