Updating Web design skills to 2005-2006 standards, help

[Chacala_Nayarit]

Here's the deal.

I worked at a Newspaper as a Web Editor in 2003, with skills learned in 2001. The job was basic and the pay was scat (8.50 an hour). The job entailed rasterizing PDF print advertisments to JPEG for the Web site and uploading them to a server, and editing the HTML link on the marketing section of the Newspaper site. Woot!

The most "complicated" duty was updating and cleaning up code ( vanillia HTML) on third-party sites. Woot!

So, I have been out of school and not finished with the Info Sys degree due to lack of funding. Although I have a seasonal job processing fish on a boat that pays about 20k in six months - enough to get back into school.

I was searching jobs on craigslist and seeing what was in the Web programming info design market. To my surprise, lots of 12.00 to 50.00 an hour jobs.

So, I feel comfortable with XHTML and CSS, which I use for my personal site (adult content).

Skills I lack:

PHP MySQL

ASP

Flash

Java Script

DHTML / DOM

ASP tutorials make ASP scripting look really straightforward. Where should I begin? Thanks for suggestions, critizisms, and support!

 

[mnkeybsness]

XHTML and CSS can go a long way if you can also do great design.

php.net has a crapload of information on it. I would start there.

 

[angelneo]

I should think php mysql should be good starting point if you intend to go into server-side scripting unless you intends to work in big organization, for which maybe ASP.net or JSP/Java would be better. I think you would be better off without ASP, try ASP.net instead

 

[Oryan]

I'll second using ASP.net over ASP for server-side scripting. A great help site is 4 Guys From Rolla. Like angelneo said, this is probably more useful for corporate work. I'd focus on JavaScript and PHP/MySql for small projects.

 

[radiantm3]

I'll second using ASP.net over ASP for server-side scripting. A great help site is 4 Guys From Rolla. Like angelneo said, this is probably more useful for corporate work. I'd focus on JavaScript and PHP/MySql for small projects.

Here's a good article on why asp.net might be a bad choice if you are a Standards-aware developer: http://www.webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2004_10.html#a000458

 

[Chacala_Nayarit]

Here's a good article on why asp.net might be a bad choice if you are a Standards-aware developer: http://www.webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2004_10.html#a000458

With my choice of using XHTML and CSS, yeap .Net is out of the question. Looks like I should focus to PHP.

 

[Doozy]

I agree, learn php and mySQL. I would also take a design class, that will give you an advantage over most code only developers.