Do It Yourself? Not Without Some Direction….
ByWhen I started doing “web design” by in 1997, you had HTML. It was fairly easy to learn. If you used any graphics, you were pushing the envelope. There really was not very much to learn. Since my friend and I had started a web design company—Web Age Services, Inc.—I learned a little bit about HTML/Web Design and learned a bit about running a dedicated web server, web server, and DNS server/Nameserver. We had a few clients, learned a bit about business as well as the Internet, and quietly folded after a year and a half of losing money. We were young, the Internet was young and no one wanted to do business with “kids”. My point is, back then, you didn't have to learn very much.
Times have changed. We're getting ready to move into HTML5—which is a far cry from early versions, heck we even get NATIVE video tags in this one—and it's starting to get tricky. You could feasibly build a website using just HTML, but it's so easy to do so much more with a little bit of guidance these days. That's where IMTC comes in. IMTC will let you know what you need to know, what you need to focus on and avoid all the fluff. Cut to the chase.
A LOT goes into making a website these days. I mentioned HTML5, but this is just the structure of a webpage. This is saying, “this is a graphic.”, “this is a paragraph”. To format and position elements, you should be using styles—Cascading Style Sheets or CSS. Styles interact with elements individually or in groups. CSS starts to get a little confusing, but not nearly as confusing as a scripting language. Javascript, PHP, ASP…. these are languages that start to do complex functions. In all likelihood, you won't be working directly with any scripting languages, but you should know how to interact with things that do.
Search Engine Optimization? When I started, there were a handful of directories. Now, not only has the search game changed completely but there's a whole “science” behind it all. You want your site to be found if people are looking for your product or service. Let IMTC teach you.
IMTC covers basics to get your started, and then focuses on the aspects you will need that will help you create successful websites and bring traffic to those sites. Marketing has always been a challenge, and the Internet is no different. IMTC helps you define the tools to help conquer that challenge.
The Internet is always evolving. In the past 15 years it's seen some enormous changes. Don't get left behind and don't try to tackle this monster on your own. There's lots of places to get lost. Visit IMTC today and talk to an advisor to see if could take advantage of the Internet.
