A lot of my friends ask me how did I learn Photoshop and web development (HTML, CSS and other languages). It is not an easy process to master something. I have to admit, I still haven’t consider myself a master in Photoshop, HTML/CSS or programming languages that I had dabble with these past few years. However, I am knowledgeable enough to give my friends advice or help them whenever they are struggling with these stuff.

Learning by Doing
My favorite way of learning, ever! You can’t master something quickly by just reading theories and not trying it. I learn Photoshop by searching tutorials on the net and applying them. It is how I learn HTML/CSS as well. Trying tutorials from reputable websites and applying what I had learn by actually doing it. If you really want to be good at something, reading tutorials and memorizing it will not be enough. You should look at the tutorial and follow the instructions and apply the tricks that they are teaching . I had taken an info-graphic class this semester and it is a good class since it force me to be comfortable with Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator. I need to be extremely comfortable with these two softwares in order to make sure I produced orgasmic info-graphic and the only way for me to be comfortable with it is to do it.

Experiment
Experimenting is always the next step after you had learn something. When I was learning Photoshop, I experiment multiple ways of manipulating a certain trick in order to make sure that the graphic produced fits my style. Experimenting is also a way that can make you understand a trick even more. Especially in programming or coding HTML & CSS, I relied on experimenting in order to make sure I am comfortable with certain tricks that I had learn.

Don’t Rely on Others
Especially in coding or programming, do not rely on others when you are facing a problem. What I meant here is that you should not quickly call out to a friend or a teacher for help if you have a problem. Consult them only when you have been stuck for more than an hour (not calling out for help if you have been stuck for so long is just butt stupid)! Try and solve that problem on your own by Googling or searching around the web. Look at your code properly and see if you have make a spelling mistake or there are certain variables that you had capitalize by mistake. I consider relying on a friend/teacher as spoon-feeding. One of the things that I hate when it comes to learning. I hate being spoon fed and I don’t like spoon feeding other people but sometimes I have to because they are friends! Oh nooooo! I think I should not help them until they are really stuck or something. I need to be cruel in order to be kind. haa~ Besides, the ultimate decision to help them is in my hands. I can choose not to. I had always try to solve my own problems and see my professor only when I am really stuck. It makes me more independent and more productive. I don’t need to wait for somebody in order to solve something.

Don’t Live in a Bubble
Follow reputable blogs and websites in order to know what is the latest trend and the current best practices in web designing, web development and programming. Don’t live in a bubble and assume that you know every other things perfectly. There are always room for improvement. Learning is a continuous process. You can’t really stop halfway. There are a few blogs that I follow myself in order to enhance my knowledge in the web development field. These blogs have been helpful and it teaches me everything that I need to know up until now. You can look at my blog and see how it changes from the year of 2009 to 2011. 2009 was the year when my coding practices was still horrendous and bad. This year, my codings are not that perfect but it is much much better than when I first launch my blog.

This is my personal take on how learning should be like. Of course you do not have to follow everything that I say and do what is best for you. In the end, it is all about our personal taste. What suits us best is the one we should follow. However, you should take my advices and follow it religiously because I am like Black Mamba meets Oren Ishii meets Dumbledore when it comes to web designing and development! haaaa!~

If I have to share a word of wisdom with you guys, it would be asking you to backup your database! Before this, I saw a lot of people putting their site on a hiatus since they had lost all their posts and contents. They need to start from scratch without all those previous posts/contents since they never backup their database before. Backing up your database isn’t hard especially if you are using WordPress. One word people: PLUGINS! Those orgasmic plugins! I demand you to use it! What if you are not using WordPress? You can backup and restore your database using PhpMyAdmin. I’ll be sharing with you on ways that I used in order to backup my database pre and post-WordPress.  Lets talk about what should you do post-WordPress first!

Backing up your database if you are using WordPress
There is a reason why WordPress is a sexy CMS. You have those awesome plugins you can use. There are two plugins that I can suggest for you if you want your database to be automatically backed up for you.

• WP-DB-Backup
• WP-DBManager

My blog is backed up with the WP-DBManager and it works by emailing me my SQL file every week. You can set up the backup date in the plugin options. You can also restore your database using the plugin since it will also save an SQL file in your server. This works for the WP-DBManager. I am not sure how the WP-DB-Backup works but it is also highly recommended by other WordPress user. I am pretty sure it is as easy to use as the one that I am using now.

Backup and restore using PhpMyAdmin
It is not that tedious when it comes to backing up with PhpMyAdmin. The drawback is that you can’t really restore an extremely large database since it has a file size limit. I suppose you can use PhpMyAdmin when it comes to restoring blog posts or web site content. Check out the simple tutorial below.

(How to Backup/Restore using PhpMyAdmin…)

I remembered the days when I was new to all these website launching processes. I was not sure how can I get a site up and running as I was not familiar with web hosting services, FTP Client, CMS and all this geeky mumbo jumbo stuff. I wanted a site so that I can showcase all my resources and graphics and made them available for downloads but I have no idea how to do that. I remembered the times when I thought that registering for a hosting services will give you an account like MySpace and they would provide you a page where you can add or edit your layout or posts easily. Sounds funny and silly but this was true! Thanks to Maya, I get to learn the basics in launching a website. I have to admit that I am still learning and I am not a pro when it comes to launching a website. Prove is that I only learned about SEO (search engine optimization) only this year after Rogue-Dolls turned one years old. I am not ashamed to admit it as learning is a gradual process. It never stops and here I am to share some useful tips that you can follow if you opt to launch your first website. I wanted to write this article so that you guys will not make the same mistakes that I did when I first launched my website.

#1: Get a good host
When you’re just starting out, you need to get yourself a good hosting company. Doesn’t matter whether you are looking for free hosting services or not. I had heard a lot of cases where people ended up getting frustrated over bad services that they received from various hosting companies. Your best bet is to do your homework and do some research about the hosting company that you are interested in. Research, research and read reviews about the hosting companies that you are interested in. Do not just read the reviews on their website. Of course, all the reviews are great and seem to be singing a lot of praises about the hosting company’s services. There is a high chance that the review might be fake or that the company filters out all the reviews and the bad and honest reviews might get deleted. Google is your friend. Use it! Use it to research about that hosting service that you are interested in!

Another different approach that you can do if you are not keen on researching is to check out your favorite blogger and find out which hosting company are they currently using. Email them and ask them if it is good or not. Sometimes, these bloggers  might advertise that hosting company for free. For example, they would include this line somewhere on their blog: Proudly hosted by [Hosting Company Here]

Here are two of the web hosting companies that you should stay away from! I have included the reviews from their past customers so that you can read them. You wouldn’t want troubles when it comes to your very first website.

1and1 Hosting: Bad review at Sohtanaka
Dreamhost.be: Bad review at Eternalised

On the other hand, if you are looking forward to just start a small website with free hosting services, here are a few f the free hosting services that I find very reliable. I never try their services personally but I saw few friends that are hosting under them and it seems that they are doing good.

Bubble.nu
Chanlu Designs
Ravissant.org

These are just a few of the free hosting services that I find reliable since I saw a lot of my friends getting hosted by them.

#2: Get a good and reliable CMS
What is a CMS? In other words, it is called Content Management Systems. It is a system that you use to post new entries, edit entries, delete entries, delete comments, ban IPs, etc. And no, it doesn’t work like MySpace. There are loads of CMS out there but the best ones are only a few. Do not follow traditions! Just because your affiliates are using Cutenews, doesn’t mean you have to follow them. This is one of my mistake when I launched Rogue-Dolls. I had opted for Cutenews because I am a sucker for traditions and the fact that Rogue-Dolls is my first website.

Stay away from Cutenews. It is so insecure and your site will be very prone to spam! I had used it and had tried it with reCaptcha once. Unfortunately, spams still managed to get through and leave their smelly farts on my site! I agree that Cutenews is easy to use but that doesn’t mean that it is secure. It doesn’t help you when it comes to optimizing your pages and posts for the search engines either. Meaning, search engine will not locate you easily and you will not get listed in their search engines. A better option for you is FanUpdate. It is more secure and reliable but I am not entirely sure if it will make it easy for you to optimize your pages since I never use it personally.

I am currently using WordPress and it is very good and it help me when it comes to optimizing my pages and posts. For example, it help me create permalinks and unique titles for each posts and pages. The plugins that the users wrote are helpful as well. I am satisfied with WordPress and I don’t think I would ever look back and cheat on WordPress with another CMS. Besides, WordPress is not really that hard to use. You can install it automatically using Fantastico if you wish or ask your host to install it for you (this is if you are using free hosting services). Good CMS + good content = Addictive blogs!

#3: Get Social Media Accounts
Get your social media accounts! Whore yourself out! Nobody is going to know about your website if you are not advertising. Register on Twitter and Facebook and promote your website there. It is also important for you to submit your site to social bookmarking site such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc. Some people may feel that this is a shameless way of advertising. I see it differently. Nobody is going to promote you if you do not promote yourself first.

I had used DeviantArt in order to promote my site. I had published all my brushes there and I am also using LiveJournal to promote my resources. So far, business have been going very well. I just need to put more insightful article that will help people in order to retain my visitors and gain more. Do not be afraid of self-promotion. Embraced it! That is how you are going to get hired by a big company as well. Job Interviews: Self-Promotion.

#4: Set Up Google Webmasters tools and Submit your Sitemap
Be good friends with Google. There is a high chance that your site will be visible on Google and it will help you gain more visitors. Do not forget to submit your sitemap to Google! You can submit it via Google Webmasters tools. Sitemap makes it easier for Google to know each and every page on your website. It makes it easier for the Google bots to crawl on your site. This will be a good step in order to get your site visible on search engines. Do not wait until the last minute to do this! Build your pages, set up all your links and submit that sitemap of yours! Google webmasters tools will make it easier for you to discover the errors that you have on your website (discovering dead links, for example) and it can make you improve your site visibility on search engines.

Being a friend with Google is not a waste of time. In fact, you will benefit from it. Set up Google webmasters tools and submit your sitemap. This is a useful link where you can generate your sitemap easily and submit it to Google straight away. Get use to Google Webmasters tool and learn how to use it. It is important especially if you are launching your first website.

#5: Update Often
Be serious when it comes to launching your first website. Don’t just update once in every three months and expect your site to be popular. Post insightful articles that can actually benefit people and not just some sappy, sad lyrics where we can find it on LetsSingIt.com (this is SO LAME, by the way. Posting lyrics? What can people gain from it, seriously? Yet I see a lot of people doing it).

I am not asking you to update EVERY SINGLE DAY. Update when you have something insightful to say! Updating every single day is no longer cool unless if you have awesome insights you want to share with your visitors. If you are planning to have a website just because your neighbor have one and will not going to update it at all, then don’t even bother yourself in creating one. You will lose visitors rapidly and you are just wasting your money on that domain and hosting plan fees that you are paying. Save your money and buy some ice cream instead if you are planning to go inactive for more than 3 months. You are pretty much dead for your visitors as well. Be serious when it comes to launching your website.

Conclusion
How I wished that I had did more research before I launched my first website. I would probably get more visitors and readers compared to what I have now. The aim of this article is to prevent you guys from making the mistakes that I did and make you guys more prepared in launching your first website. Do more research on how to properly launch your website and don’t wait until the last minute! Good luck! Here is another useful link: How To Make A Website.