[greling]

Hi. I am 19, a sophmore in college and interested in starting a web development and marketing firm (long-term goal). The thing is, my programming skills are virutally nil (e.g. the market advanced faster than I did) and I'm starting to feel like I don't even know anything anymore.

Does anybody have any tips on refreshing my skills, where I can get a solid primer on HTML, Javascript, and PHP that won't cost me a fortune (I only have about $150 in start-up capital), and know of any tools that might aid in getting me back into this rapidly advancing market? Files? Books? Software? Videos? Anything?

So far, all I have is a registered domain name (www.understreet.com), which I have ownership over until October 8, 2005. It really sucks having a domain name and nothing to do with it.

I could look and see if I can staff others who have the skills I lack, but I'm afraid that I'll be giving them the impression that I'm there for no real reason. You see, I'm a business major, but my the only real skills that I've developed so far are in small project management, accounting (mostly register auditing), and desktop publishing. Futher, why would some old joe wanna break a deal with me when he could go work for someone else for $80/hr or walk away with my idea (which I haven't revealed to anyone yet) and make it into his dream?

If you have any pointers that might steer me in the right direction, please so respond, ASAP.

[insomnia]

Well, I would suggest that you take it one langauge at a time. I would do it in this order:
HTML (Super easy, even kids know it)
PHP (A little more advanced, very powerful)
Java (This would probably be most difficult, but learnable)

Like all skills, programming will take time, you wont be able to master it within 1 or even 2 years time. If you have other programming experience in older languages, it'll help a lot since they are quite alike.

To make the best the most of it, once you have learned the languages, you can do free work. It gives good practice and a lot of students volunteer time to small companies and such.

Whichever way you choose, Good Luck! It woudln't hurt to pickup a PHP or JAVA book though, I don't suggest a book for HTML since its so basic.

[guitarizt]

http://www.sitepointforums.com/showt...threadid=47900

[ericesquire]

To get your business started you could think about outsourcing all difficult programming tasks to people overseas - they are VERY affordable and you can use the downpayment for the site to pay them for 100% of the project in most cases.

Just a suggestion so that you don't have to wait 2-5 years to master things before you can start doing what you really love, which is starting a business.

[greling]

Thanks. You have all been a great help.