I would like to get an advice from those who are working as freelancers.Witch are the best themes to make a portfolio to attract clients, and what are the first steps to success?

The first thing you should do is learn how to code. Successful freelancers are not just cherry-picking themes, they design and build a solution that is tailored for that specific client. Like any profession it takes lots of hard work to build up the required skillset. Web development is not something you can just pick up over a weekend.

 

If you want to get involved and are not just looking for a fast buck then a resource like Treehouse will be a good place to start.

 

Word of warning - Wordpress is a Content Management System, not a website builder.

I would like to get an advice from those who are working as freelancers.Witch are the best themes to make a portfolio to attract clients, and what are the first steps to success?

 

The first steps to success is....

 

Stay away from WordPress, then do what rbrtsmith suggested.

Edited October 29, 201510 yr by richardmountain

How much coding do I need to know?I have been studying these codes in the past, and it is not easy.As i started to work with Wordpress I found it is possible to make great sites without coding, and I found one website witch is giving a 8 week course about building pages in Wordpress all without coding.So you have confused me.Do i really need to know thousands of codes for this?

It's not possible to build a great site without coding. I think your definition of great is very skewed. At best you can make an adequate site using a sitebuilder like squarespace for your local florist or very small business. But it will just be run of the mill at best.

 

Like I said WordPress is a content management system not a site builder. Selecting a theme is not building a website. It's like me buying a tv and plugging it in and saying I built it..

 

Most people find learning to code difficult because they try to learn everything all while trying to run before they can walk. A surgeon didn't begin his or her career by operating on people, they did the necessary theory and practice first. It is similar here.

 

It offends me in a way that people outside of the industry assume building websites is easy and theres some sort of fast track to success - there isn't. You have to work hard, study and persevere just like any other vocation. Nothing worth doing - especially those that are very well paid are easy.

Cowboys who like to brand themselves as professional web designers / developers and just hack away at prebuilt themes and throw plugins at every given opportunity are not at all professional, and I actually see them as a virus to the industry, giving those who do things properly a bad name.

There is nothing wrong with being a beginner, but do the necessary ground work and be patient. Your time will come if you put in the effort. Marathon not a sprint - to finish off with yet another analogy

Edited October 29, 201510 yr by rbrtsmith

I can only agree with the others here. Wordpress is a CMS, not a shortcut to build designs. I understand why you are tempted though.

Many of the Themes you can purchase are very aestetic and beautiful but they are also extremely resource-intensive because they are build with so many options and features that you might, or might not, use.

Here is what your users browsers will have to load and process in order to see your site if it is build with a typical ThemeForest template:

• 3-4 font-libraries with support for every character ever made up in the western world.
• The entire Font Awesome icon library
• The entire Bootstrap CSS
• jQuery (reference to the WP install when the theme activates WPs plugin support, it will not be loaded from the CDN)
• jQuery UI
• jQuery migrate
• Modernizr.js
• CSS and JS from 5-10 plugins (that you might not even choose to use)
• A few thousand lines of CSS for the theme itself (many of these for classes you will never use)

It is extremely hard to get rid of, or trim, any of these resources if you want to be able to update your theme. All you can do is to override styles and functions from a child theme.

Edited October 29, 201510 yr by Nillervision

I can only agree with the others here. Wordpress is a CMS, not a shortcut to build designs. I understand why you are tempted though.

Many of the Themes you can purchase are very aestetic and beautiful but they are also extremely resource-intensive because they are build with so many options and features that you might, or might not, use.

Here is what your users browsers will have to load and process in order to see your site if it is build with a typical ThemeForest template:

• 3-4 font-libraries with support for every character ever made up in the western world.
• The entire Font Awesome icon library
• The entire Bootstrap CSS
• jQuery (reference to the WP install when the theme activates WPs plugin support, it will not be loaded from the CDN)
• jQuery UI
• jQuery migrate
• Modernizr.js
• CSS and JS from 5-10 plugins (that you might not even choose to use)
• A few thousand lines of CSS for the theme itself (many of these for classes you will never use)

It is extremely hard to get rid of, or trim, any of these resources if you want to be able to update your theme. All you can do is to override styles and functions from a child theme.

 

A good summary of why template hacking !== a professional website.

themeforest.com is the best for themes.

 

Or just check out these guys: top10bestwebsitebuilders.com

You can decide something else other than wordpress, and some come with a complete design.

Wordpress is perfect for your purpose, it is very easy to create your desired web site. I like to use pre-made templates, like those from http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes.php they save my time. I usually install additional plugins to improve my web site. I recommend to use WordPress, it is an excellent system!

Hey guys new here,

 

I'm personally looking into building a website, I actually headed over the treehouse (which seems pretty good at first glance), just wondering out of these topics which ones should I be learning the most and which ones can I leave to the end? I only have a 14 day trial and want to get through as much content as I can. https://gyazo.com/56e1955f40587d43cc276d1c090515ce

 

Thanks

Hey guys new here,

 

I'm personally looking into building a website, I actually headed over the treehouse (which seems pretty good at first glance), just wondering out of these topics which ones should I be learning the most and which ones can I leave to the end? I only have a 14 day trial and want to get through as much content as I can. https://gyazo.com/56e1955f40587d43cc276d1c090515ce

 

Thanks

 

Totally depends on what your goals are. You wanna be a backend developer, front-end dev or designer? Or mobile app dev?

 

If you are serious about this don't expect to get far in 14 days. More like 6 months to a year of solid focused study.

Edited December 6, 201510 yr by rbrtsmith

Yeah I figured the 14 days would be a tough thing to do and wasn't expecting to be a expert in that amount of time, my goal is to learn how to build and run/maintain a website, but the website I have in mind maybe a little to complicated as a 1st website.

 

I think I might be out of my limits as I think I need the site to be up and running soon so this will mean I need to learn a ton of stuff in a short amount of time + understanding them, like you said I will need a lot of time. So I think it would be better to try and find someone to build it for me, then I can learn at my own pace.

 

Is there a good place you would recommend to get someone to build a website for someone?

Wordpress can work well for you, nevertheless you need to know how to use it and change it. If you don't I'd recommend first to start coding(html,css), maybe some PHP and later on try Wordpress or any other CMS.

 

Stay away from WordPress

Can I ask why?

 

Like all open-source products wordpress has it's problems but once a site is delivered it is easy for the owner to manage. Which means support is easy for me. I can just point them in the right direction and off they go.

 

I do agree however that just about anything on themeforest is bloated and resource hungry. Build your own themes and plugins and you can have a really lightweight, fast and responsive site.

Can I ask why?

 

Like all open-source products wordpress has it's problems but once a site is delivered it is easy for the owner to manage. Which means support is easy for me. I can just point them in the right direction and off they go.

 

I do agree however that just about anything on themeforest is bloated and resource hungry. Build your own themes and plugins and you can have a really lightweight, fast and responsive site.

 

Because in 90+% of cases there are better alternatives.

For example?

 

Which ones allow the site owner to edit, update and manage with the range of features Wordpress offers out the box?

 

I agree there are lots of alternatives but few are as easy to use as Wordpress. My mum can use Wordpress.

Edited January 23, 201610 yr by fisicx