I am a noob and need new ideas

[greenbizkit33]

I have started to get hardcore in webdesign the last 2 months.  so far created these 3 sites:

 

nathanhaze.com

 

graveyardsdb.com

 

noobcoding.com

 

I am trying to make a few pennies off of google ads but mainly to practice web design to get a job in web design. I started the grave yard site to later find out there is one 20 times better then mine so i put that on the back burner for now. then i started the noobcoding but as always there is a hundred sites like this. any ideas to help better the grave yard site or the noob coding to get more traffic and to learn design. ....

i know this is my second post but plan to come regular 

[Orionsbelter]

How can you been into hardcore web designs when you are using a free template from www.freewebsitetemplates.com a hardcore designer would be creating and designing their own web pages by scratch. I suggest that you take a few lessons on youtube about CSS, HTML and if you wish to build a website that is dynamic and useful to your visitors you should learn PHP programming too.

 

He is my advice: get a book on CSS, PHP and HTML a for dummies is a good start, use that in order to start creating pages from scratch and start off simply.

 

You will never make any money on Google Ads when there is no reason for people to visit your site, sit down and thing about a website that is different and why people will come to it, if you can not think of a reason why people will come to it then they wont.

 

I doubt anyone is going to give you there ideas, so come up with your own.

 

Good Luck

 

[greenbizkit33]

I guess misused 'hardcore'. Just really meant that I been spending more time on it.  I did steal the template, but I just wanted to get a head start on coding php and mysql without taking forever to learn CSS. I do want to learn it, just slowly over time by tweaking it. .... Thanks for your reply

[ignace]

nathanhaze.com:

- The website is in total chaos. The image doesn't line up with the navigation. Under "Sites..." is one box longer than the other and seem attached to the footer. The ads then suddenly jump left..

- Your HTML is invalid. If you want to stick to pure design then this won't be a problem as you won't be writing any HTML anyway. However if you want to become a front-end engineer you'll need to start focusing on writing valid HTML don't bother learning XHTML but take note of it's rules: lowercase tags, closing tags (and in the correct order), ..

 

graveyardsdb.com:

- Same as the previous: chaos! Your ads are overlapped by the Google map. Updates overlaps your content making the content below unreadable.

- Properly name your links. Instead of: "I grab this free template from this site check them out!" use: "Free template by free website templates" or "Free template by freewebsitetemplates.com"

 

noobcoding.com:

- Same as before but I also want to point out that the provided content contains lies, for example:

 

# Program

A series of instructions that the hardware executes one after another. Examples of this would be like the calculator that comes with windows or winzip. Fairly small in size and works alone.

 

So, every program is small in size?

 

# Software

Software is more of complex version of a program. It uses data in different locations and greater in size. It may use numerous of programs. Examples: Microsoft Word, Google Picasa, ITunes, and Photoshop.

 

Thus a program is not only small it's also not complex and does not use data from different sources.. interesting..

 

#  Application

This is referred to as an "app." after the smart phone boom. Typical a very small program

 

Even smaller??? Is that possible?

 

# Firmware

Code built into the hardware and is read-only. This is like an old cell phone, a fuel pump or a house thermostat . More of your simpler devices use them.

 

So a computer does not contain firmware? Equally interesting..

 

But the best part of it all:

 

How to remember this for a test?

 

If you can remember the order of size application -> program -> software will get you through almost all question. If you took the first letter of each it would be APS which is alphabetical order and order by size. I know it is stupid but think about an apple, pear and sausage.  Firmware is easy cause it is "firm" just like a chip. Operating system is operating many programs and software.

 

Using this information will get you a Z-

[ignace]

Furthermore:

 

#  Compiler

Turn your code that you wrote in an editior into ones and zeros so your computer can read it.

 

# Interpreter

This reads the ones and zeros and does the action

 

Is also false as an interpreter is the same as a compiler it only uses a different approach. PHP and JavaScript are interpreted languages where-as Java and C++ are compiled languages.

 

noobcoding.com is the worst a start-up programmer can come across as it contains more lies then truth. Please direct all traffic from noobcoding.com to a website with more reliable, researched and verified content (like this one for example) rather then just your assumptions. Thank you!

[greenbizkit33]

Thanks for your reply  ignace. I should not have been talking about something i was not 100% confident about. For the time being I will remove most of the java information. I toss the graveyard site and my own site up fairly fast, so i think i am going to start working on those more now. thanks again for taking the time to look at them

[ignace]

A few hints for your personal website and graveyard:

 

Personal Website:

- Think about what you want to achieve with your personal website? Do you want to attract possible employers? And think about which information they will be looking for. In the example they may be interested in your CV (remember that you are possibly one of many candidates so naming your CV file properly is a good habit, example: cv-nathan-haze-webdesigner) they may also be interested in other information like: how to contact you, blog articles, portfolio, ..

 

The most important information should come on your frontpage as this will be your visitor's main entry point (or landing page) SE optimize your website: your text should reflect what they will most likely be searching for.

 

Graveyard website:

- In some way I believe this may have a future altough I'm not entirely sure why you keep such information (tourist sites? possible burying ground?)

[greenbizkit33]

thanks again ignace. my personal site really has no more than a myspace page, so i do need to add more to it and fix these silly alignment issues and other issues.

 

yeah the gravesite is not much and doesnt really show the route i wanted to go. suppose to be more an appreciation of interesting graveyards and hopefully get big enough one day so i can user submitted material. 

[ignace]

What was then the original route you wanted to go?

[greenbizkit33]

a site for interesting grave yards and information like examples of symbolism and history in general. then hopes it would grow or i would come up with more ideas. even though i am farthest away from an photographer, just would like to try to add better pictures in future. when i was taking the photos, i had no plans to add them to a website..... i am just curious ignace, can i see some sites you worked on

[ignace]

What do you mean by symbolism? If you get more in-depth with the Google API you'll be able to add history information when someone clicks an arrow on the map. About what kind of grave yards do you store? Old, forgotten grave yards or existing grave yards?

 

I am no designer nor a front-end engineer so it will be quit hard to show you websites I created as I didn't design them, SE optimized nor wrote any HTML, CSS or JS. I only write and optimize PHP and SQL code or some regular project analysis or -design. I also happen to know Java, VB.NET, Assembler, COBOL, .. but PHP is IMO by far the most intriguing language.

[greenbizkit33]

symbolism in tombstones mainly.... yeah i have looked into google api many times. i started to use the picasa api, but nothing came over it

[thewooleymammoth]

if you want to practice coding, just dont create a site for it. Blank pages is what i use. No funky html /css errors to get in the way of your programming.

 

http://w3schools.com is your best friend. Or should be. HTML > CSS > Photo Shop > PHP (find photoshop tutorials on google.)

 

My suggestion for photoshop is to find a site that looks cool and try to recreate an image of that site in photoshop. (no print screens.)

 

your pages are also very chaotic as previously mentioned. Try creating a page template and naming it site.php. Drop it into your document root. inside the page where the content goes: echo $content. Then in your individual pages, instead of echo use this, $content .= 'some page content'; Then at the bottom of the page include your site.php. Here are some examples:

 

Site.php

<html>
<head>
  <title>Hello World Site</title>
</head>
<body>
   <?php if(isset($content)) echo $content; ?>
</body>
</html>

 

anypage/index.php

<?php
$content .= 'Hello World!<br />';
$content .= 'I will be in the same place as all the other content';
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/site.php') or die('There was an internal Error, please try again Later');
?>

 

(all my code is subject to typos)

 

This will create a very consistent site appearance.

If you feel the need to get complicated include the site.php via .htaccess Then you basically have a simple framework.

[greenbizkit33]

thanks for your reply... reminds me of the require() php function. i am sure that is not what you are talking about... with the whole photoshop idea, i am just not big about the graphic aspect. i enjoy more about the functionality and the layout. i guess should be worrying about it, if i want appealing site.

[thewooleymammoth]

dude photoshop is the key to anything good looking. Learn to love it!

[ignace]

dude photoshop is the key to anything good looking. Learn to love it!

 

If you aspire to be a designer, sure. If on the other hand you want to become a front-end engineer or back-end engineer why bother?

[thewooleymammoth]

if you aspire to do those things, its good to have at least a basic knowledge (advanced compared to the average person). so you know what your graphic designer is doing and going through.

[ignace]

So you know what your graphic designer is doing and going through.

 

Should I care? Does he know or even care about what I do?

[thewooleymammoth]

i mean i guess you dont have to care at all. you dont even have to speak the same language. but it helps...

[zobadof]

Well there's a lot to be said.

 

You should sort out your layout

Color scheme

----AND----

Some link's dont work

 

[greenbizkit33]

i just had a 6pak so i hope i make sense. i been debating getting into photoshop and flash, but that is really only important if your doing front end work or freelancing.

 

i am reamping my site tomorrow (the personal one) . hopefully i will get it get it done. i just not have posted my site till it was done. i guess i got too cocky and thought i was done. i see now that i just had like 25 percent done. 

[thewooleymammoth]

you could just buy a really old version of ps... pretty cheap.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000063EMG/ref=sr_1_olp_3?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1265654228&sr=8-3&condition=used

 

95$

 

im sure you could probably find it even cheaper other places.

[greenbizkit33]

I have photoshop. I am going to start toying with it, so i can at least do the basics. Going to try to take a stab at flash also. just want to get the basic down

[thewooleymammoth]

not really a fan of flash, but you can use it if you want.

 

Most things you can do with flash you can do with js now. Scriptaculous makes it easy. a little more search engine friendlier and loads faster.

[greenbizkit33]

javaScript?... i been hearing that flash is not that great anyways