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- Recoil2k20
Anyway, I have a job, I just dont want to get raped to have a decent host, are there any that are cheap and good??
- BonSeff0
http://www.boxnix.com/hosting/pl…
super cheap
- Recoil2k20
and I can upload my Flash and other animations onto it...and they'll work??
- shellie0
i was suggest getting a DBA since you're in the US if youre going to come off like a buisness. Otherwise I think grown ups would be fairly surprised to at the end of a project, be writing a check to a 14 year old boy's saving account.
If your parents are supportive, they might help you set up a DBA and a buisness account. It will only cost you some 75 dollars. Also, I'm not sure about US law these days but you're not supposed to make over a certain amount of money without a school work permit. So, make sure you cover your ass. And, if you do end up dealing with professional people, you better believe they'll claim the website as a buisness expense for their taxes. So, make sure your claim quarterly.
You have an affiation with Ebay? Amazon? is that for real? I wouldnt suggest putting that on your site either unless its real.
You could get yourself into more than a pickle.
I would suggest just putting together a normal portfolio site, and advertising yourself that way.
overall, at least (as far as I can tell) youre not ripping off other people's sites. That's a step in the right direction. You need to brush up on your composition skills and pay attention to detail. A little style sheet action might be nice to keep text styles colors and links in order and you wont have to change a million pages to change it. there are some pages that arent showing up. You will surely loose any potential client if they see that. I would loose the poll about your layout. It doesn't seem very professional. Develop your header at the top and keep an eye on page spacing and such.
Really, you should pick up a few coding books. You can't trust dreamweaver or frontpage to spit out code for you that is cross browser and cross platform. You can't try to sell a product that doesnt work on any computer except for yours.
Next year, you'll be a freshman in HS, yes? Word to the wise, take some serious english classes. Brush up on your buisness writing, or hook up with a friend who might like copy writing. LIVE in your school computer room and get used to using both MAC and PC early on.
Don't try to sell buisness cards or anything like that unless you can actually have them printed at a professional shop. Make sure you do research to make sure youre charging enough, but not too much.
There are some great resources for freelancers and small design companies out there, but i cant remember any offhand. anyone? anyone?
Sorry, just babbling. Keep on learning. You'll be awesome by the time you graduate HS if you keep it up.
- shellie0
http://www.dreamhost.com is excellent. $9.95 buddy! anyone can afford that.
- ********0
BonSeff&shellie is a couple to be proud on! :P
excellent help there guys!
finally some constructive posts!
- Recoil2k20
Thanks Shellie. I have a code book, "Web Design In A Nutshell" and my friend's father is a professional computer programmer who is excelent at web design, so hopefully he can teach me a few things. Another thing, I want to be able to offer my own web hosting...would Windows NT Server be what I need for that? Because I have easy access to a computer with NT Server on it...
- BonSeff0
dude! you are 14!
hold up on ruling the design business and experiment a little.
- shellie0
I would suggest getting a resellers account with someone like dreamhost. You can easily resell their services through you.
I wouldnt suggest settin gup your own server unless you plan on getting a beeper/cell phone and you plan on camping out with it 24/7... if you go witha professional hosting company they provide 100% of the support which will make your life 100% easier. trust me. Also, they'll be able to register their own domain name without you so there wont be any ownership issues.
- Recoil2k20
I know I have time to learn, and I'm not trying to rule it, just trying to get some experience in early
- Recoil2k20
and I make money throught the reseller account?
- BonSeff0
believe me, you are.
- shellie0
thats what im sayin. set up a cute little portfolio site instead. if people think youre good, they'll hire you for projects here and there.
trying to set up a buisness like what your doing might be a little too lofty yet. I'd say try for that around college. You will have a hard time selling anything until you have a strong portfolio to back yourself up, anyway.
make a site for yourself.. make a site for a friend's parent. make a site for your school.. make a few sites for made up buisness'... experiement with some logo ideas. take some art classes and learn what composition and the "golden box" is all about. color theory.. beef up your skill set, and then hit the market.
also, befor eyou start saying you can offer any kind of flash work, really learn flash. Learn how to move and do things dynamicly with math.
get hip to real code. I promise you, you'll be our boss someday if you do.
- Recoil2k20
haha, I only wish. Thanks for the advice everyone
- shellie0
plus, when someone is serious about getting some work done, if they went through you, they wouldnt want their site to be your test tube baby.
Also, if youre really into it, you might want to look up some local design firms and ask if you can sit in a few days this summer. Or, you might want to try that during winter vacation. Work for firms usually slow down during those few months, so you can really get in there.. ask questions... be a little professional. they'll love you.
- rasko40
dude, leave the hosting services biz alone, bec ause you can seriously be held accountable for loss of business if your service goes down. Just dont bother unless youre prepared to deal with a legal case in the unlikely event happening.
Keep working on it though.
- joe_fritz0
i tried to do all this when i was 14 too. well, maybe not this involved, and my use of kai's power tools was a little over the top, but still...
http://www.personalsites.org
cheap, cheap host. tons of space.
- shellie0
I went to a BBQ with some old buisness buddies of my BF, and someone brought their daughter to talk to her about being a web designer. She must have been 13 or 14.. home schooled girl. Really bright little thing. It was very inspiring to talk to her about what her options are. Anyone will tell you the more code you know, the easier it will be for you later. Along with being a good designer.
It can get really fun as a designer. Now I work for http://www.65media.com and I get to work on projects like Finding Nemo and other fun movies. There are a lot of perks. I'm really young too and got a head start. But, the only way you'll become and industry mogul is to be prepared and educated. ;)
- shellie0
Also.. before you do anythign for anyone, GET A CONTRACT.. a real contract...
If your parents have a lawyer friend have him draft you up one. You have to have everything spelled out what you are liable for and most importantly, what you are not liable for. Have it so you can just fill in the blanks from the work order. Make sure everything is signed before moving forward. You can find yourself in some major legal madness down the road if you dont. your stuff is small scale now.. and it's probably not needed as long as your truthful with whoever your dealing with how old you are. But, when you get into projects that start ranging from 2,000-12,00+ if you dont deliver and your client was under the impression they were going to get something else.. or they want 1 million revisions for free and you dont want to do it, or anything.. you can end up in a legal battle that could be avoided by a good contract. Most companies have a lawyer already on retainer, so sueing aint no big deal. protect yourself :)
contracts are probably the most important part of preproject hoopla.