How long have you been a webmaster?

I started building my first site in the summer of '97 I guess it was so about 4 years for me too. I remember the day I downloaded Navigator Gold and realized I could make my own web page! Wow! I was so excited. I got frustruated with Composer pretty quick though and started getting into the code not too long after I started using it. I was on Geocities too at first - I wish I still had a copy of that first site!

I still remembered about 4 years ago. I used Netscape composer and was excited to create my first home page online.

Then I started learning seriously and bought books on html, javascript, etc. and looking at other peoples' source code and surfing the web for whatever information/tutorials that I could get to broaden my knowledge.

Looking back, it was well worth the time and effort and it's now benefiting me financially and providing a stable source of income.

Regards,
NSS

I have been building sites now for about 18 months (so I'm still a baby at it really!) I started messing about with Pagemill that someone lent me while I was unemployed for something to do & I built a site for the company my husband worked for and thought "that looked ok, I can make money out of this!"

Now both he & I work full time for ourselves, he sells them & I build them

Hmmm, I guess it's about 4 years for me too. I started out on Geocities back when they were the best option for freebie hosts. At the time they were offering a whopping 1MB of storage space while their competitors only gave 200k-500k. As my site grew and I needed more storage space I started opening up hotmail accounts and gettings a new website through each. Then I used those for file storage for things that couldn't fit on the main site. The first few designs were laughably bad, bud I learned a bit and started to get more serious. In the first 6 months I got maybe 2000 hits total. In the next 6 months my site went from nowhere to being a "Featured Page" to being a "Landmark Site" (one of only 12 at the time out of 4 million+ sites) to being gone entirely. I left when they instituted that watermark thing. From there it was on to VirtualAve which was a giant leap forward from Geocities as they offered more space and CGI access. I stayed there about a year and moved on to my own domain about 2 years ago.

I learned HTML in 9th grade -- everyone at my high school did. We used some editor with the letters H, T, M, and L in its name, I think (not HoTMetaL, though). It wasn't WSYIWYG, which is a good thing -- I think that a GUI for HTML can be a severe detriment.

Halfway through 10th grade, I started picking up JavaScript. It was "useful" -- I made mouse-over image changers, and changing gradient backgrounds. All the gimmicky stuff you saw online 4 years ago. But it wasn't good enough -- I needed to read and write files and such.

So I learned Perl. I spent a good amount of time sitting my local Barnes & Noble, reading the Camel ("Programming Perl", ed. 2). I also spent time online in the #perl channel on EFnet IRC.

A couple months ago, I got a job in NYC, doing Perl programming 5 days a week. But I also got exposed quite a bit to cascading stylesheets, so I'm learning to use them. I've spruced up my web site quite a bit with them.

So I guess I've been a "webmaster" for 6 years or so.

I don't remember... there wasn't a point in time where I just started and haven't stopped. True for everyone else?

I would say 4-6 years ago. I went through phases. I would spend weeks of none stop HTMLing and then run myself out of juice. Then I wouldn't touch it for a few months, and be back at it hard core again.

I still have that problem. I have many personal projects that I have started and then suddenly stopped because I was working at them so long and hard I began to hate it. I just can't handle that. I'm starting to learn to pace myself. One way is by stopping to come here and read and answer posts. This is thearapy! LOL!

So do most of you guys build websites in your spare time or as full time jobs for design companies??

Quote: Originally posted by The Webmistress
So do most of you guys build websites in your spare time or as full time jobs for design companies??

I do mine in my spare time, provides a little pocket change here and there.

I do both really. My job right now doesn't really involve a lot of design or coding work actually. I'm working on online courses, so I edit audio files and then create Flash presentations to go with them. Then the Flash gets streamed with the audio using SMIL.

well, i was employee all the time, tried some stuff at home (at about four years ago too). then, 1 1/2 year ago i changed my job to webmaster.

i'm not doing a lot of stuff at home (there are other things than computers ) but i work quite a lot of hours in my office... my work changes between html/css-design-stuff and perl-programming (don't like java that much).

I built my first site for the company my husband worked for 18 months ago whilst unemployed, it turned out ok so built one for a friend who had a shop then decided to make it into our business. So now we build sites and do the search engine promotion work for small businesses in our local area.

The only trouble with working for yourself and from home is that you never leave work!!

I started out with Netscape Composer and then moved on to Microsoft FrontPage Express when Internet Explorer 4 came out. I had a lot of fun downloading corporate sites and looking at how they were built in a WYSISYG editor. Towards my 15th birthday I designed my first site for my mother (guineapigpub.com). I built a couple sites over the next couple of years and dabbled in intranet development for a few local businesses. I then started AIS Internet Solutions and began growing a client base. My goal was to have a business that would support me through college and allow me to keep very flexible hours. So far it's worked quite well. I work 3-4 hours a day on average (though it's not uncommon for me to spend a good 10 hours on occasion) and work with some really exciting clients.

About 6 years ago, using EMACS on a Sun at college. Was exposed to the joys of keyboard shortcuts, let me tell you =)Went on to start a semi-successful design firm doing work for the school and high-bandwidth stuff for the Road Runner roll-out in the area back in 1997. Nothing like getting broadband back then!

Company has since disbanded as everybody either flocked to medical school or went to work for the government or non-profits.

Currently webmaster for a few domains of my own creation, and a government agency. Learning all about the joys of NT and working for the government, tehe. Looking forward to management the large-scale aspects of the site though, and will probably be diving into the realm of XML before the year is up.

-Beanboy

Nice topic, Marc!
I've been on the Internet for about 6 years, and started doing web sites in 1996. My first web page was very simple, and I started out by uploading the pages to my AOL account. Honestly, there weren't very many good free web space providers around back then, so when Hypermart came out with a package offering a subdomain and CGI access I jumped on the opportunity. From Hypermart, I got on a paid host, started reselling hosting, switched between a few different paid hosts and finally ended up getting my own server.

I've been on the web for 4 or 5 years and doing sites for 3 years.

You got the good money then Megan ! I never spent any time working with Flash. I was looking for somebody last year to do some Flash works for me even if I'm a webmaster and I'm good with scripts like CGI and PHP

Welcome to TWF billtown! Stick around and enjoy the atmosphere...

Hi,
Nice to know a bit about everyone else here, I have been a web****** for about 4 months so I don't use the "m" word yet.
I really have learnt alot from everyone so thanks alot & keep up the good advice

Tony

I've been online since 1998 but did nothing about webmaster stuff. So all just started about a year ago.

I sold my first website in late '94.
Things were far easier back then.

I never did webdesign as a fulltime job,
but I financed my university years with a few sites.

Nowadays I only play around and do some scripting if someone needs it.
You still can get rich, but it's too much hassle.
Having a permanent contract and playing the stock market is much less strainfull to your body and the risks are so much lower.

Wow, when I read the first few responses I was rather shocked by how new many of you are (not that newness seems to have too much correlation with skill level).

PErsonally I've been doing web development for about 7 years although the first year or two was nothing major. As for the type of development, I work full time, part time, or by contract depending on my work load and the rest of my life, so yes, web development is a 'full time' job.

Quote: Originally posted by Ted Sindzinski
Wow, when I read the first few responses I was rather shocked by how new many of you are (not that newness seems to have too much correlation with skill level).

PErsonally I've been doing web development for about 7 years although the first year or two was nothing major. As for the type of development, I work full time, part time, or by contract depending on my work load and the rest of my life, so yes, web development is a 'full time' job.

Well, Ted, some of us are still young and so we of course haven't been in the business for as many years as adults. I am now 15 and doing this for 4 years is quite a long time.

Ive been designing sites for about 2-3 years. Started my 8th grade year. I had a geocities site about battletech.

I then made a small game chet site, that lasted about a month, then i made ultimate web, ohh baby, what a site. About that time I made a battletech site, it was very nice, had alot of info, and for a geocities site, it got about 80 uniques a day. It was a nice site, i made using a old program, MGI Photosuite.

I then bought 21studios.com. I started making it, and currently the 3rd design is up there now. I also made a bunch of fun sites, like graphic-forums.com, and xtutorials.com, and this is were i am now, sitting at my computer, waiting for a basketball game..