I was recently contacted by a reader asking me how to take that “next step” in the web development industry. This was through my email contact form, but I feel that this would benefit you guys.

Feel free to read what I told this aspiring web designer:

—– Original Message —–

From: Aspiring Web Designer
> To: <brad@bradblogging.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 2:05 PM
> Subject: web dev
>>
>> Message Body:
>> Hey Brad,
>> I am new to web design and I absolutelty love doing it. I have been
>> checking out your stuff and it as really inspired me. I would love
>> to one day be able to create website for others, and especially
>> create themes for blogs. I feel like I’m getting decent with HTML,
>> CSS, and even a little javascript. I am at a point now where I feel
>> a little stuck, like I reached the limit of what I can teach myself
>> (which I know is not true). What advise if any could you give me?
>> Thanks alot!
>>

“Brad Ney” wrote:

> Hey Aspiring Web Designer,
>
> I know what you mean.. taking that next step is kind of difficult.
>
> Personally, I’ve found great success in creating WordPress themes. I
> usually decide on what I want it to look like and then create the
> design. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn through
> experience.
>
> If you are not at the point of creating a WordPress theme, you could
> do one of two things:
>
> 1) Take an existing theme and modify it.. Just choose something like
> taking a 2 column theme and turning it into a 3 column one. How
> about a Jquery Slideshow plugin on the sidebar? Every little thing
> you do adds up.
>
> 2) Mess around with a WordPress Theme framework such as Thematic,
> break it and see what you did that doesn’t work, noting it for the
> future. Experiment with different functions and try anything and
> everything you can think of.
>
> That’s how I got started with Web Development.
>
> Thanks for your email!
>
> Brad Ney.
>

Reader Responded With:

Brad,

Hey man, I just wanted to say thanks for the response and the advice.
I am going to start messing with wordpress themes right away. Anything
I can do to get better would be great. I have been trying to create my
own from scratch a little bit but I keep hitting some road blocks so
maybe just tweaking some that has already been create would help me.

Thanks again,
Aspiring Web Designer

You can have your questions answered too.

On anything web related. Seriously, try me out. I’m glad to answer any questions that you have. Don’t know how to modify your WordPress theme? Need help with article writing? Don’t know where to host your blog? I can answer that too

I will not publish them on this blog without your permission (which this reader did give).