pearljamming

I clicked the first website I found with a forum about PHP. So here I am. So far it seems that there is an active community here and I am to be a part of it for a long time. Here's to making my life better.

I've coded a bit of PHP in the past, but it was all very general. Being able to make websites have been a big interest of mine ever since the Netscape and Yahoo's Geocities days. Since then I've learned both CSS HTML but never really got much further than that because I felt like it was a lost cause. The reason I feel like this is because it seems that web developers are a dime a dozen and trying to make a few extra dollars here and there would be difficult. But maybe I'm wrong, that's why I've decided to join this community and hopefully get some positive feedback not only about the industry but also on what would be the best move for me. I want to create a site to publish online but I'm not sure what the best way to go about doing is. I've tried doing a blog with a blog/website application provided by host gator but it really fell through because there were many other websites blogging about the same exact thing and I couldn't even get on the top 100 pages of any of the top search engines, even after months. Now I'm thinking about just coding everything my own since I have strong CSS/HTML skills, but I don't want to publish anything with out some JS and PHP/MYSQL. The problems I face is that I don't know what drive into this again with out knowing that I can get to the front pages on the top search engines. Furthermore, I don't know much JS and PHP/MYSQL. So maybe my best option is to make random nonsense websites locally until proficient and then moving forward to understanding SEO? I appreciate any comments regarding my situation. Just to clarify I care more about being on the front pages of the search engines than I do making any money. Being at the top will give me a greater since of accomplishment and keep me going. I despise websites that riddle themselves with adds everywhere and I don't want to be like that. At the same time having some sort of income somehow would be cool.