Your First Site

I designed my first site when I was 13. It was for my web design company that I called "YeahBuddy, Inc." I've had some better ideas since then.

Great question, Jimmy!

The first site I built was actually a blog. I built a personal blog with PHP back in 1999 (posting, editing, and showing posts) to get a feel for how it would be to work with PHP, and also to learn HTML and CSS. It was probably horrible code, but I really wish I still had a copy of that site lying around somewhere. It certainly got me hooked, and I've pretty much been a web developer since then!

Hey Jimmy,

I made my first website when I was 11 years old. It was where I recorded all of my strategies for my favorite video games and shared them with the world. My interest in video games has not changed. :) In other words, I think your best bet is to go with something that you're interested in; that will make the frustrating parts of learning a little bit easier, because you'll keep sight of the big picture and your passion.

Have you tried one of our Learning Adventures? They're a great way to get up to speed quickly.

What did you learn first Alan? PHP or HTML and CSS?

Would PHP still be worth learning today?

My first foray into websites was http://v1.ericdodds.com/. I was studying computer science in school, but wanted to learn about front-end web development, and this website was my first playground for HTML/CSS/JS.

I kind of learned them simultaneously - I'm a big believer in doing what Nick mentioned and learning things as you need them to build a project.

I definitely think PHP is worth learning today, but if I'm honest I code in Ruby and Rails every day. Regardless of what you pick, though, it's super ideal to stick with it a little while and give it a good solid chance. The core knowledge of how to do web development translates well across pretty much any language.

No, Nick I haven't I will check them out!!!

Also Nick the reason I got in to web design was by watching a Making of the God of War

video games, then figuring out that theres way more opportunities in Central IL in web

than there was in video games, so my interest hasn't changed either :)

Believe it or not my first site was a Flash site :P

Thanks Alan I will keep that in mind, so what your saying is you use ruby and ruby on rails everyday, what would you recommend learning first? I just got done taking a class about programming logic, I learned about Decision Making, Methods, Arrays, a little about Object Oriented Programming, are these the same building blocks for ruby and ruby on rails?

Jimmy - I'd probably start out with the Rails content on Treehouse since we've got it way more built out. You can work through the Web Developer Learning Adventure and get a really great start.

Years ago before taking a real interest in web design with no experience I managed to make a Oscommerce site for my business, I just had little html knowledge and zilch Css skill's and all I was doing was googling for answers or solutions how to make things work lol.

Awesome I will check those out right now!!! Also I love the layout and feel of the new forum!!! Awesome job and Thank you!!!!

Thanks Jimmy! We'd love to hear updates on how the Learning Adventure goes for you.

My first site is on archive.org, no, I won't link to it. :-D

I definitely will!!!

I've worked on a few smaller projects but my first proper personal site is going to be a film review site using Wordpress. I figure that way as Nick/Alan said ill be learning as I go doing it for something I'm really interested in!

My first site that I made was a portfolio for my work in ICT about 7 years ago. I decided to avoid using the horrendous visual tools (I think it was called Serif Web Pro Plus or something?) the rest of my classmates used because it didn't challenge me enough, and started to learn HTML/CSS from there.

Pretty sure it was around then I knew that's what I wanted to do for a living too and I'm lucky enough to be doing exactly that today.

Joshua - That's really exciting. I love reading really well written film reviews. Definitely show it off once you've got the project up on the web!

Yeah will do! I'm still getting to grips with WP (going through the WP content on Treehouse atm) but I figure once i make a start i can build on it and develop it over time, but better to start somewhere then nowhere at all!

My first site was a resume site, taking the word version of my resume converting it to HTML & CSS. I added in a landing page and a contact form.

My first site was built on Geocities and promoted the short films my friend and I made in college. It was fun to figure things out on my own... even made a Flash navigation menu and everything. :) Later on, working in Wordpress was a great learning experience since it was a real Content Management System.

<marquee>I remember making extensive use of the marquee tag.</marquee>

I built my first site back in 2004 when I was living in Germany for about eight months. It was a personal site written in PHP that I used to post photos and "blog" entries, books I was reading, and other random things I thought would be interesting all in an effort to keep people stateside up to date on my travels.

I slugged through HTML/CSS and PHP all simultaneously as I just tried to figure out how things worked. It was a fantastic learning experience and was the major event that got me interested in doing web work full-time.

Best of luck figuring out what to build, Jimmy! Let us know when it's done. I'm sure we'd all love to see it!

I also made a site when I was 11, but it was a site dedicated to a character from Sailor Moon. I really enjoyed making the images from scratch, and putting everything together. I'd definitely suggest for your first site, build something you love, or about a subject you love. Or, if you're into writing, try making yourself a blog. Any sort of creative project like that will be sure to spark your interest and keep you motivated. And it makes a first time project--which, sometimes can be a bit frustrating when you're trying to get a hold on the new concepts you've learned--a lot more enjoyable to do.

Also, for a book, I recommend The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird. It'll show you many of the things you might be looking for, as well as many examples of effective web design.

The best of luck!

Does making custom blogs for sites like Xanga, BloopDiary, and OpenDiary count? :) That's how I got started in web design. Sometime during middle school.

My favorite books are by Dan Cederholm... Bulletproof Web Design and Handcrafted CSS. Two that will never leave my bookshelf.

Allison

I built for my first site in 1998 for my father's company. The layout was "table" with some flash animation on homepage that my younger brother had created.

The first website I built was for a little business I had whilst at school that sold custom PCs and components. I spent the whole Easter break working on the site instead of revising for my business exam (which I then failed miserably).

Thankfully this thing is no longer on the internet but in the interest of hilarity I dug out some screenshots. These may make your eyes bleed. You have been warned.

Home Page Catalog Page Product Page

I made my first site when I was 12 with a software called Rapidweaver, and started learning basic HTML/CSS from there.
When I was 14, I started making websites for local businesses under the name "Captain Penguin Web Design." It was a great learning experience - for one because I was running my own business, and two because I was learning lots of new skills related to web design/development that I wouldn't have learned otherwise.

lol Ryan Carson ... My first site was built - before flash - in HTML in 3 languages with an animated gif. I built it on a Mac with BBEdit so I'd have to run over to my friends house who had a PC to test and run back to change. Lots of running ;-)

My first website was for a client and I started off with a template.

Here my personal website http://www.ericsonluciano.me/ but I'm planning to switch that into Drupal CMS since that is only HTML5/CSS3 :(