New Member Introductions

**MsBre** · 08-09-2008, 11:07 PM

Hi All... have been reading posts off and on for a few weeks. I thought that since I plan to start posting and learning more that a brief introduction would be good.

I have/had been an online website retail owner for almost 9 yrs (started on ebay selling funny bumper stickers) then moved on to Amazon and my own website. I always paid $$$ to have others build my sites for me and not to be mean, but I have learned the HARD way that "I don't know what I don't know" and over the last 5 years have lost over $100K by trusting that others would build me and provide what the contracts said. Needless, to say that whether they were local, in the neighboring state or in India or Spain, I never got what they promised. I wanted something similiar to www.bluecotton.com or zazzle.com. I had all the right equipment but not the site that would help bring in the business. I had hired a local guy to work full time for me and he was doing really well but it was just too little to late at that point, so, I had to close the business. For now!

So, I decided to take this unforseen vacation and learn the web design, coding, SEO, etc on my own. Big challenge but I figure, it can't be as expensive as losing all my employees and the $$ I have lost. Not to be whining but just wanted to provide a background so if I tend to ask a lot of questions it is because I want to make sure I am going to build this site right or at least build it to where I can change it when I need to without having to scrap it as most of my past 'designers' ended up doing for me.

I want to also build a couple other 'companion' sites that I think would work well with my t-shirt business and just can't wait to get started.

I am excited. I have Dreamweaver, photoshop, flash and fireworks (all CS3) so I hope that once I learn I can contribute to these forums as well.
I want to say, thanks for letting me be a part of these forums and I look forward to learning and sharing with you all!

**Moxxnixx** · 08-09-2008, 11:17 PM

Hey Bre, Welcome to WT. Hope you enjoy your stay here.

You've come to the right place to learn about web design. Lots of knowledge can be found here.

**jv17** · 08-10-2008, 08:21 AM

hi bre its nice to meet you..anyway i just hope you are the girl who lives in my next door..LOL

**homebizseo** · 08-18-2008, 01:18 AM

Welcome to WT Bre .

**eautocad** · 08-18-2008, 03:18 AM

haha awesome profile image thats what this board needs... pulse check

**harris** · 08-18-2008, 03:23 AM

Hi, new gal, Warm welcome to the webmaster. You came right place to learn and share the knowledge. You enjoy your upcoming day on the forum.

**TheGeekyOne** · 08-22-2008, 02:54 AM

Hey Msbre,

Welcome to webmaster talk. Its a great place. Hope you like it

**johnlloyd** · 08-22-2008, 07:18 AM

Hi there and welcome to WT community, enjoy your stay here and Good Luck!

**wchua24** · 08-22-2008, 08:29 AM

hello there welcome to the forum..

**thehuskybear** · 01:43 PM

Welcome...

The quote rings true.. "If you want something done right, some times you have to do it yourself!"

There are many designers out there who are only in it for the money and really take no pride in their work. Its unfortunate, bur very common that designers will not do what they say. Most of the time, its due to their own inexperience.

Im sure you will learn a lot here... there are a lot of helpful people here. Just make sure to ask lots of questions!

Here are some resources to get you started:

Good Tutorials - (Great tutorials..esp on Photoshop)

Web Design From Scratch - (Great articles on design concepts)

Design Meltdown -(Articles on design theory)

A List Apart - (Some of the most helpful articles)

Also, hit up your local library. There are a lot of great books out there. Make sure to research (in this order):

- (X)HTMl (Hyper Text Markup Lanuage)
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
- Javascript ( client-side language)
- A Server site language (php or asp)

This will of course take some time, so take baby steps and take in a much as you can. Make sure you fully understand one before you move on to the next (the exception being javascript and your server-side language of choice, since you will never FULLY understand either! lol). Soon, you will be making professional quality websites.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Sam

**tripy** · 08-22-2008, 04:20 PM

I'll add my welcome too MsBree.
Like many have said before, you have come to the right place.

You will find plenty of qualified peoples here, that will be happy to help you learning.