Keep IT Simple

I remember a few years ago when a friend of mine in Australia was starting out his business. He was into selling t-shirts, toys and other accessories which he gets from suppliers in China. He wanted asked me for advice on how to contact a firm to make his website so he can advertise his ware.

Being a good friend that I have always been, I advised him that if he really wanted to get the most of the website, why not try making the website himself. The points I was driving at were that first, he need more money for his capital on goods purchases; second, if he hires a webmaster, then every now and then, he will have to hire the person for updates; and third, I have known my friend to have an artistic flare and I have seen tinker Adobe Photoshop with his limited skill. So here were the advices I gave him:

Learn HTML. I told him that HTML is not difficult and it would be possible to get himself familiar first with graphical HTML environments like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. I personally learned to do HTML in 1 week and started publishing my webpages immediately.

Initially look for free hosting sites. There are thousands of sites offering free web hosting. My point here was that he was just starting his business anyway and so he will not need too much space. And he said he only wanted static pages and no e-commerce functionalities so I figured free web hosting for his initial website would do just to establish his business’ presence.

Learn photo editing software. He already had basic skills with Adobe Photoshop so for sure it wont be difficult for him to learn some more. Although I personally admit that it was quite a steep curve for me learning Adobe Photoshop, I believe that the more artistically-inclined would not experience the same steepness. Learning photo editing software can give tremendous benefits not just to an individual’s career life but to his personal life as well because he can create many artistic stuff that will surely delight his family. For instance, Adobe Photoshop can make picture of you child in a fairy land fantasy setting.

That’s it – three simple basic tasks. I know some of you may think it is not as simple as it seems but I am telling it really is that simple. One you start on a simple web page, you will want to do more and then when you see your work published on the internet and your friends start seeing them, you will feel good. Your new skills will build on top of another until you learn more complex techniques. And for your reference, don’t worry, you don’t need to buy expensive books even if you can afford it. There are thousands of website tutorial and you can have Google as your friend in looking for these tutorial sites. So, start signing up for you free web hosting sites now and start publishing your work!