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How to build a website from scratch - for dummies like me

by goindeep
14 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hello was just wanting some recommendations on some good online dynamic and interactive courses that can walk a non techie like me through the process of building a website from scratch.

I'm not after a wordpress installation guide, that's fairly straight forward now a days.

I regularly hire web developers to work for me but the problem is that if they screw something up and they have finished their contractual duties I really don't like going back to them and paying just so that they can make a minor change, essentially I still want to hire web developers but I want to be able to stand on my own two feet and not be at the mercy of the developers.

There are a few great free and paid courses online but the problem is knowing which one works well and can teach a dummy like me.
#build #dummies #scratch #website
  • Profile picture of the author NetSensei
    Hi goingdeep. There really is no short cut. You may be able to purchase some good course on the topic, but you can also get a very comperhensive course by going to W3Schools Online Web Tutorials

    You will want to learn both html and css. Of course once you are comfortable with those, then you should consider learning basic php and javascript.

    These are the fundamentals that you will need. If you complete their courses you will have the tools to build sites for yourself and clients as well as update them with any changes you need or desire.

    Best of luck.

    Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author Doug
    Might seem a bit to basic of a suggestion, how about get one last developer to build you a set of templates to your specs. From there just start new adding fresh content, etc. Like I said basic idea, fundamentally sound however.

    What I did to learn HTML, copied the code on sites I liked and then made changes to that code just to see what happened. Copy your template code and play around, see what you learn. I call it reverse engineering 1st grade style!

    Doug
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  • Profile picture of the author digitalairships
    For technical skills courses I like to look on Udemy.com. You can usually find really comprehensive courses that are both free and paid. I try to stick to those courses with nearly 5 stars and over a hundred or more reviews. Read through the reviews and see what look good. The free courses you can always try and see how easy they are to use, but I find that they are more often outdated.

    https://www.udemy.com/courses/Develo...b-Development/


    Here's the best one I could find based on ratings. 28 hours of video lessons. Seems pretty comprehensive and well reviewed.
    https://www.udemy.com/complete-web-d...e=V9L1UJX1OqMV

    I hope that helps!
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Originally Posted by NetSensei View Post

      Hi goingdeep. There really is no short cut. You may be able to purchase some good course on the topic, but you can also get a very comperhensive course by going to W3Schools Online Web Tutorials

      You will want to learn both html and css. Of course once you are comfortable with those, then you should consider learning basic php and javascript.

      These are the fundamentals that you will need. If you complete their courses you will have the tools to build sites for yourself and clients as well as update them with any changes you need or desire.

      Best of luck.

      Mark
      Yeah W3 schools seems pretty good but I dont really like their format.

      Originally Posted by Doug View Post

      Might seem a bit to basic of a suggestion, how about get one last developer to build you a set of templates to your specs. From there just start new adding fresh content, etc. Like I said basic idea, fundamentally sound however.

      What I did to learn HTML, copied the code on sites I liked and then made changes to that code just to see what happened. Copy your template code and play around, see what you learn. I call it reverse engineering 1st grade style!

      Doug
      That is the way I have learned the HTML that I do know, problem is I am talking about complete web development from beginning to end. This only works on sites already up and running.

      And the templates are a great idea however I flip sites so almost every site is different to the last, or has been so far anyway.

      Originally Posted by digitalairships View Post

      For technical skills courses I like to look on Udemy.com. You can usually find really comprehensive courses that are both free and paid. I try to stick to those courses with 5 stars and over a hundred or more reviews. Read through the reviews and see what look good. The free courses you can always try and see how easy they are to use, but I find that they are more often outdated.

      https://www.udemy.com/courses/Develo...b-Development/
      I'll look into that, I remember using one of their free tutorials once and enjoyed it. Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author goindeep
        Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot View Post

        Good paid sources of structured material are Lynda.com, tutsplus.com and TeamTreehouse.com

        There are numerous books on Amazon. All of the publishers have their own flavor. Take a look at the previews. O'Reilly is very popular, but I personally don't care for it. A lot of people do though.

        There's a lot of web tutorials. These are the most authoritative, but a lot of it lacks structure and assumes you know what you are looking for:
        https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web
        Your Web, documented · WebPlatform.org
        PHP: PHP Manual - Manual
        MySQL :: MySQL 5.6 Reference Manual
        Thank you will look at those.

        Originally Posted by WillR View Post

        Myself and a few of the guys I work with have just learnt everything as we go along... by doing.

        I think that's the best way.

        When you need to do something, go and search Google and find the answer. If you do this everytime then before you know it you'll be able to edit and manipulate code with ease.

        I've never had a coding lesson in my life.
        Yeah thanks will, I have mostly done this in the past and it usually works for simple things but the problem with that is unless I know what I want or how to look for it then im stuffed.

        For example one problem I always seem to have is understanding how things work together like. mysql, html, css all of the files, where they are kept, how they are loaded, or when there is a problem and the site just crashes how to find what is wrong with it, what caused it and how to fix it etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    Good paid sources of structured material are Lynda.com, tutsplus.com and TeamTreehouse.com

    There are numerous books on Amazon. All of the publishers have their own flavor. Take a look at the previews. O'Reilly is very popular, but I personally don't care for it. A lot of people do though.

    There's a lot of web tutorials. These are the most authoritative, but a lot of it lacks structure and assumes you know what you are looking for:
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web
    Your Web, documented · WebPlatform.org
    PHP: PHP Manual - Manual
    MySQL :: MySQL 5.6 Reference Manual
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Myself and a few of the guys I work with have just learnt everything as we go along... by doing.

    I think that's the best way.

    When you need to do something, go and search Google and find the answer. If you do this everytime then before you know it you'll be able to edit and manipulate code with ease.

    I've never had a coding lesson in my life.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
    Find a copy of HTML 4.0 by Elizabeth Castro. Start on page 1 and by the time you are at page 30 or so you'll have a good grip of HTML. This is a very easy book to use. It is old but still relevant and you can buy a used copy off Amazon for a few dollars. I don't know of any good css books, sorry.

    Almost forgot. Don't call yourself a dummy, even as a joke. You aren't dumb.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ghoster
    If you're intent on doing it from scratch, you're talking about learning HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. Udemy would be a good place to start.

    WordPress can do pretty much anything you want these days. Just a thought.
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    On the whole, you get what you pay for.

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    • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
      I wouldn't trust Udemy at this stage. It was a good idea when it launched, but the instructors are generally of questionable authority nowadays.

      Originally Posted by Ghoster View Post

      WordPress can do pretty much anything you want these days. Just a thought.
      ^^^ This. I just don't understand why companies like Facebook have so many programmers. There are obviously WordPress plugins for everything those guys are doing. Seems like such a waste.
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Originally Posted by Ghoster View Post

      If you're intent on doing it from scratch, you're talking about learning HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. Udemy would be a good place to start.

      WordPress can do pretty much anything you want these days. Just a thought.
      I really, really don't like WordPress... lol
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyharte
    I like Youtube as a school. Get the outline of a course that looks pretty standard and then search for those topics on Youtube and watch several videos. Sometimes you will find someone you really like how they teach and you can consume other free or paid material by them. Best of Luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author sunnykgupta
    I would recommend start with a free course online, highly Recommend Learn to code | Codecademy

    That been said, I'd like to point out that I started out with websites by playing around with them. Google helped a lot on the way.
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  • Profile picture of the author CellClinicVancouver
    If you not to savvy with building a website i would suggest wix. we have done ours with it and it was done very quickly and looks great. It has its downfalls but overall its a good platform
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