Ok, new and need some advice on pages!

[killafawk]

Hey whats up,

im currently seeking to become a web designer/maker who will either build webpages to sell or to build webpages for people. I know its gonna be hard but with some help hopefully it wont be as hard. currently im working on two sites.

Ive been working on them off and on because of time i have. they are...

www.advertisefor.com
and
www.rgreviews.com

The only one i seem satisfied with is the second one but i need to redesign the first 3 pages on it. ive put off advertisefor.com for later, im not to happy with the design but ive learned some new things past few days which i can easily update the look and make it look better.

what i need help with is what i should do to make the sites look more professional. I currently know HTML, i cant make an exact website on my own, i might have to look up a few code lines every know and then, i wanna learn php but i dont know where to start. books? web tutorials?

also i'd like to know what exactly makes a buyer want to purchase a website? i know someone in real life who is only 16 and he makes about 1,000$ per website he makes, hes 16 and already has 36,000$ in his bank. now what exactly do you think he is doing? making full websites in a few days and then selling the content along with the domain name?

dunno but i just would love to make websites, and get some sort of money out of them. im not money hungry or anything but i wanna make websites and the time it takes to make them, i wish i could get some sort of income out of it. any suggestions? thanks.

[boron]

What makes a site good for selling is either:
- a good domain (as both of yours are, especially the first one), with a basic site set up on a good hosting.
- domain age (1 year+ old domains are looked for , because they won't undergo Google's waiting period (SandBox) in search engines
- established attractive content with a lot of visitors/active members

For the last, you need a lot of effort and time,a lot more then a month...
I guess, your intention is to go with the first method.

Your sites need design change. I wouldn't care about professional look, but about simple look, user friendly where visitor wil get an idea about the site in 5 seconds.

For PHP learning you can start on W3schools.com (http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp) to learn basics of PHP and other programs. Check also PHP Home page (http://www.php.net/) and Google: "PHP...".

[Reckless]

Did you design those sites? or do you have to redesign them?

if you made those site's (they look like crap), and want to start designing templates for money, get some experience first, make a portfolio, and then just tell people what you can do

[boron]

If you want to impress people with design, you should really learn something, I agree.
But you can learn how to upload nice free templates on. You can also use a forums script (SMF, phpBB) or a free blog script (WordPress or b2evolution).

[killafawk]

yea i designed them, but only in photoshop. i dont know how to make fancy templates, where can i get some good ones? i wouldnt mind knowing the secrets on how to make them look good so i dont have to rely on looking for them if i want to start new sites...

[killafawk]

ok did some remodeling, on the advertisefor.com i changed it compelety, im gonna keep it basic till i decide what to do with it, and the rgreviews.com site i changed the first 3 pages, and left the consol pages.

any suggestions on the new changes? like it? hate it?

[boron]

@ AdveriseFor.com: .Com in the title should be .com The title itself should go to the very left or in the middle. Subtitle with 2-3 words saying exactly what's your site about wouldn't hurt. Logo is not a must but will give a personal look of a site. Blue/white is just OK, but as it is now, looks as a site in a millions of the same ones. Introduction text doesn't need duplicate welcome and so...Use larger font there also.

Next (or prior) to the design is SEO: exact using of keywords.