What computer languages and techniques should I learn in order to create a highly profitable website?

Question

The website, would have members, host audio and video files, make transactions, and probably more. Basically I want to learn how to construct a professional website in my garage, all the setups required, all knowledge that needs to be learned ect…. Where is a good place to start? I am already learning HTML and purchased Dreamweaver. I think I’m going to need to learn some computer programming languages as well. What are the popular programming languages that create small software applications for the web?? What knowledge needs to be learned to start up a computer server in your garage?? Please don’t respond with going to college and getting a degree, I know there is plenty of information on the internet and in books for the knowledge to be learned

Answer 1

You should focus on the following:

a) XHTML and CSS. Coding a site using these makes it more searchable. You can learn these at http://www.w3schools.com/ or go to the www standards web site at http://www.w3.org/ (this may be lil complex reading but the best indeed).

b) How to optimize your site for search engines. Look at http://www.google.com/webmasters Consider making a google site map & submit to google. The customers reach to your web site from search engines.

c) Get a UI done from a professional, who understand usability. Or possibily learn it yourself.

d) To run a e-commerce site or even a normal site, choose a good hosting service. I would recommend Yahoo Samll Business. Look at http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com This will simplify a lot things for you. You dont need to learn complex programming languages to create & run your site. It makes online transactions a simple affair.

e) Create a startegy to promote your site. You may like to understand & try Google AdWrods for the same. THis can really drive some cool traffic to your site.

f) For e-commerce, the least that you will need is a paypal account or tie-up with a credit card. Again Yahoo Small Business can be of great help.

Best wishes for your new venture...

Answer 2

There are some really good books out there. Search Amazon for a book on building professional quality websites. CSS is a must.

The other important thing is what platform you want to go with, while you can mix and match a lot of stuff, if you go with windows or Linux as your server base will dictate some of what you will want to learn, like IIS Web server for windows, or Apache for Linux.

As far as languages, ASP.net with C# or VB, PHP, Javascript, and if you are going to use a database, you might want to look at some SQL, you should need only the basics as Dreamweaver will handle a lot of it for you.

Answer 3

Right now, you are going to hear a lot about "AJAX". But, don't worry about AJAX.

What you need is member logins, sessions, etc. What you will need is a server-side scripting laungage and a database. HTML and CSS is only the end, what the user sees.

You have a choice of what langauge and database to go with. But if you want to do it yourself, you will have to learn some real database and website programming. This goes a ways beyond HTML with like Dreamweaver. One plus is, all the langauges are very simula in how they are used and, for the most part, even syntax. Once you have a good grasp of one, you can handle the others.

Which langauge and DB you choose, depends entirely on what your host is running. A good stable host with the right support and DB is going to cost money (unless you want ot host yourself, but then you gotta handle the server, db admin, etc. yourself aswell as bandwidth.) Also, sounds like you want a lot of webspace...that's oging to cost more.

Anyways, In conclusion i'm going to link to the top langauges used for programming websites.

First, Microsoft. Programming ASP Web Applications with the .Net framework, in Visual Basic or C# syntax. Microsoft has it's own SQL Server. This is most expensive hosting, but pretty high-end.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx

Java! Another langauge, kindof simular to C in syntax. Java programmers consider it by far the best for web apps. Might be more difficult to find a host, but you probably could get it for a little cheaper than .net.
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/

PHP is the freeware way to go. Linux + Apache Server + PHP + MySQL hosts are also the cheapest. This is also the way you'd go if you were to setup your own server for free. PHP is designed to be very simular in syntax with C/ASP.
http://www.php.net/
http://www.mysql.com/

I oughta mension PERL. A very popular more oldschool style of scripting. It can give you a lot of control though. Hosting will cost a little more than PHP usually.
http://www.perl.com/.