Web industry/business course?

Cianos

Hey,
I would be interested in doing some kind of web orientated business course, where I would be able to learn more about running a successful web based business, or gaining skills and knowledge to work for other companies. I really have no clue if anything like this exists, so I'm just hoping to get some info from anyone who may know.

Any help appreciated.

pauldiv

Why don't you just Google "web based business course" and start from there?
I did it just now and there are lots of them advertised.

It depends on what type of person you are and how hard you are prepared to work. It would be much easier to give you a longer answer if you were to mention what you've done in the past and what you want to be doing in two years time.

With the economy being the way it is and lots of people out of work and chasing the same jobs you are wise to look into this. You can end up being successfully self employed if you can identify your strengths and work with them.

There is a multitude of ways to do business on the internet: selling on ebay; blogging and writing; selling products and providing services and so on.

There's no easy answer and it can take time to find your feet.

Cianos

pauldiv wrote: »

Why don't you just Google "web based business course" and start from there?
I did it just now and there are lots of them advertised.

It depends on what type of person you are and how hard you are prepared to work. It would be much easier to give you a longer answer if you were to mention what you've done in the past and what you want to be doing in two years time.

With the economy being the way it is and lots of people out of work and chasing the same jobs you are wise to look into this. You can end up being successfully self employed if you can identify your strengths and work with them.

There is a multitude of ways to do business on the internet: selling on ebay; blogging and writing; selling products and providing services and so on.

There's no easy answer and it can take time to find your feet.

Thanks for the post. I am not a developer or designer, but rather I have strengths when it comes to concept and innovation and marketing to an extent. I have worked on a number of my own projects over the past few years as part time ventures, but it's been a steep learning curve when facing the realities of the business end of things.

Thus I think it'd be interesting to learn more about how the industry works, how to actually get stuck in and get myself positioned.

My ideal job would be along the lines of either running my own successful project where I would have the resources to implement new ideas and concepts, or working for another company as a 'creative director' or some such similar title.

CuLT

Cianos wrote: »

My ideal job would be along the lines of either running my own successful project where I would have the resources to implement new ideas and concepts, or working for another company as a 'creative director' or some such similar title.

I'm pretty sure that's everyone's dream job, ie, come up with ideas and have lackeys to do the actual work and implement them

I'm not sure there are any legitimate courses in this, or jobs (people who start businesses tend to have ideas, the mad feckers), though you'll find and endless supply of snakeoil merchants willing to let you pay them for seminars on the subject

My advice: figure out a problem to solve and work from there.

sticker

Cianos wrote: »

My ideal job would be along the lines of either running my own successful project where I would have the resources to implement new ideas and concepts, or working for another company as a 'creative director' or some such similar title.

I think your post is a little vague and overly optomistic. It's like post enwuiries for an "Alan Sugar" course...

As the previous poster states, find a problem the world hasn't fixed if you're looking for such success - there's no course for that...

By the way - what creative talents do you current hold? you're already positioning yourself as a 'Creative Director'

Dades

Cianos wrote: »

My ideal job would be along the lines of either running my own successful project where I would have the resources to implement new ideas and concepts, or working for another company as a 'creative director' or some such similar title.

I'm "Creative Director" of my web development business (it's even on my business cards). Of course there's only one person in the business, which gives me full control.

My opinion is you'd need some web development skills before you position yourself where you want to be. You need to know what can be done, how can it be done, and what's involved before you take the role of someone telling other people what to do.

sticker

Dades wrote: »

My opinion is you'd need some web development skills before you position yourself where you want to be. You need to know what can be done, how can it be done, and what's involved before you take the role of someone telling other people what to do.

...Absolutely!

From what I read OP, you're a complete novice to the web trade, yet you're already positioning yourself in a high level position of comfort in an industry that you know little or nothing about.

You've a long road ahead of hard work before assuming such a position. A "course" alone isn't going to do it...

It's that simple...

CuLT

Dades wrote: »

I'm "Creative Director" of my web development business (it's even on my business cards). Of course there's only one person in the business, which gives me full control.

My opinion is you'd need some web development skills before you position yourself where you want to be. You need to know what can be done, how can it be done, and what's involved before you take the role of someone telling other people what to do.

I'm the creative director of my pants, this is also printed on my business cards

Dades

I love the "I just used a biro" theme. Very 2003.

My self-awarded title was "Head of Lettuce" for a while.

Shaneod21

Cianos wrote: »

Hey,
I would be interested in doing some kind of web orientated business course, where I would be able to learn more about running a successful web based business, or gaining skills and knowledge to work for other companies. I really have no clue if anything like this exists, so I'm just hoping to get some info from anyone who may know.

Any help appreciated.

Hi,

There are many people making money from the internet. There are so many ways to start. Affiliate marketing can be a very profitable business you just need to know where to start. All that basically is involved is marketing other products that are out there and earning commission from sales. Selling on ebay is a great way to get into business online. Thats how I began. Now I own my own website and help others to sell on ebay.

You need to spend a lot of time researching yourself. Cotinuous learning is key. There is so much free information on the internet that you don't really need to sign up and pay an excessive amount for a course. Once you get started its all about how much work your prepared to put in.

Cianos

Thanks for the replies. I recognise that I have very limited technical experience in the industry, and I don't expect to walk in to a prominent position just because I feel I have a good understanding of creative and usability elements of web design. That's why I was asking whether there was a course in these things so I could put in the work and learn more about how the industry functions and how to set up and run a successful web venture.

It is the conceptual, creative side of the industry that interests me but I have no knowledge beyond what experience I have in running a couple of projects in the past and learning things the hard way. I know that I have good ideas and good concepts, but it will take one of them to be a success to get myself established and in to a good position. But that is more likely to happen if I have a good understanding of the industry as a whole. So it's a catch 22 in that sense.

pauldiv

People sometimes just need a heads up and it doesn't cost too much for more experienced computer users to be good guys and give a helpful and useful response to a question. You never get discouraged if you believe in yourself and always take everything you hear with a pinch of salt.

Because you don't understand the technical stuff that is required to professionally design, build, test, publish and run a website, it doesn't follow that you can't be a success. You can't perfect all the technical nuts and bolts of the web because it is too much for one person to take in. Most of that stuff is a mess and was created by different companies with competing interests. Divide and rule is an old technique used by clever sods to deceive the majority of the population. In Ireland we know this.

All this technical confusion is a drag and gets in the way of doing real work. Because a guy or girl doesn't understand nonsense like the internet explorer 3 pixel dot bug it does not mean they have no place in a business that makes creative websites. For people like yourself using tools like Joomla or Drupal takes care of all the little stuff that should be a hidden formality in this day and age. This lets you focus on what matters : the bigger picture and its future direction while you can pick up essential snippets of technical info as you progress.

An understanding of conceptual design and usability is very useful.
Having done a course on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) I found it interesting although in the end it boiled down to common sense. What it really taught me though was that people like order and things that are simple because we can only keep a few pieces of information in our heads at any one time.

Applying common sense to web technologies can be hard work and it takes years to become a savvy left and right brained operator with a creative mind and the technical skills to drive ideas forward. Its a bit like fine art because you need to be prepared to spend years patiently working to become very good at it and learn about all it's quirks and oddities.

Re how the web works. Your question about courses says it all really.
There is no limit to how the web can be used and you are the person who best knows what you are aiming for. You would be far more productive in my opinion if you take more direct action and instead planned what you are going to teach yourself in the next year.

That would mean having to find a few personal projects and work at them just like you would be if you were in a job. The question is how much self motivation and discipline can you muster?

The possibilities for User Interface(UI) design alone are huge (YUI and Mootools anyone?)and web technologies make it possible to build fast highly interactive on-line multimedia experiences.

You sound like you still think like an employee and that might be your big handicap. It's hard to break old repeating thought patterns and trying to fit into someone else's organisation might be too risky in the long run.

If you want real independence surely with broadband and the web you can see that you don't need to work for anyone again if you have practical skills.

It is productive to is to get to know other people who have similar interests to yourself, become pals with them and work with them sometimes. If you build friendly relationships and a network of contacts then you will never look back.

When you are working on projects and having say a php problem then you get one of your propeller head buddies to fix you up. Many hands can make light work if a project leader has clear vision and knows where his ship is headed.

It is a good idea to identify what you don't need. For example I ditched windows because I hated it and it just made me feel like a schmuck. Now I use Linux, open source software and standards. The difference in my productivity has been huge and I feel as though I have been freed from confusion.

After getting the MS culture and mayhem out of my life I can think ten times more clearly simply because I made a decision that brought more order and clarity to the way I understand and use computers.

If you know what you want to create then you need to find the tools to do it with: good tools and Linux has some of the best multimedia applications available like Ubuntu Studio.

Keep the Faith

sticker

pauldiv wrote: »

People sometimes just need a heads up and it doesn't cost too much for more experienced computer users to be good guys and give a helpful and useful response to a question. You never get discouraged if you believe in yourself and always take everything you hear with a pinch of salt.

Because you don't understand the technical stuff that is required to professionally design, build, test, publish and run a website, it doesn't follow that you can't be a success. You can't perfect all the technical nuts and bolts of the web because it is too much for one person to take in. Most of that stuff is a mess and was created by different companies with competing interests. Divide and rule is an old technique used by clever sods to deceive the majority of the population. In Ireland we know this.

All this technical confusion is a drag and gets in the way of doing real work. Because a guy or girl doesn't understand nonsense like the internet explorer 3 pixel dot bug it does not mean they have no place in a business that makes creative websites. For people like yourself using tools like Joomla or Drupal takes care of all the little stuff that should be a hidden formality in this day and age. This lets you focus on what matters : the bigger picture and its future direction while you can pick up essential snippets of technical info as you progress.

An understanding of conceptual design and usability is very useful.
Having done a course on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) I found it interesting although in the end it boiled down to common sense. What it really taught me though was that people like order and things that are simple because we can only keep a few pieces of information in our heads at any one time.

Applying common sense to web technologies can be hard work and it takes years to become a savvy left and right brained operator with a creative mind and the technical skills to drive ideas forward. Its a bit like fine art because you need to be prepared to spend years patiently working to become very good at it and learn about all it's quirks and oddities.

Re how the web works. Your question about courses says it all really.
There is no limit to how the web can be used and you are the person who best knows what you are aiming for. You would be far more productive in my opinion if you take more direct action and instead planned what you are going to teach yourself in the next year.

That would mean having to find a few personal projects and work at them just like you would be if you were in a job. The question is how much self motivation and discipline can you muster?

The possibilities for User Interface(UI) design alone are huge (YUI and Mootools anyone?)and web technologies make it possible to build fast highly interactive on-line multimedia experiences.

You sound like you still think like an employee and that might be your big handicap. It's hard to break old repeating thought patterns and trying to fit into someone else's organisation might be too risky in the long run.

If you want real independence surely with broadband and the web you can see that you don't need to work for anyone again if you have practical skills.

It is productive to is to get to know other people who have similar interests to yourself, become pals with them and work with them sometimes. If you build friendly relationships and a network of contacts then you will never look back.

When you are working on projects and having say a php problem then you get one of your propeller head buddies to fix you up. Many hands can make light work if a project leader has clear vision and knows where his ship is headed.

It is a good idea to identify what you don't need. For example I ditched windows because I hated it and it just made me feel like a schmuck. Now I use Linux, open source software and standards. The difference in my productivity has been huge and I feel as though I have been freed from confusion.

After getting the MS culture and mayhem out of my life I can think ten times more clearly simply because I made a decision that brought more order and clarity to the way I understand and use computers.

If you know what you want to create then you need to find the tools to do it with: good tools and Linux has some of the best multimedia applications available like Ubuntu Studio.

Keep the Faith

...Well said.

Shaneod21

Very well said!

Cianos

Definitely Thanks very much.

gollem_1975

i am just finishing up the 12 month Msc E-Commerce(business) program in DCU.

course fees are funded by the NDP.

In 2008/9 the fees for EU-students were €1,750.

don't let the full-time nature of the course scare you off.

while i think in order to comfortably manage the coursework it is advisable that you don't work fulltime there were some people on the course who worked in full-time , though not 9-5, jobs.

there are no lectures on weekends or fridays ( though there might be an occasional seminar and you may be required to come into college to work on projects by your fellow group members )

I think this course could be what you are looking for ?

take a look at the blurb on the DCU website and if you have any other specific questions I will try my best to answer them.

if you don't have a primary degree, still check with the course admins to see if you are eligible, if you have good industry experience you might be accepted.