I’ll tell you a little secret about learning how to make websites. You don’t have to take classes. You don’t have to buy books. The truth is, I’ve put in very little conscious effort into learning CSS, HTML, PHP, Photoshop, and all that good stuff. The fact of the matter is, everything you need to know can be found on the internet… for free. I’d estimate that 90% of everything I know I’ve learned from reading forums. You’d be surprised how much you can learn just by reading other peoples questions.
Here is a list of the forums (and a few other sites) that I read on a regular basis:
Sitepoint.com - Good forum with the “best” members. Well moderated. Quick responses.
9rules.com - A very interesting site. Web design with a social networking element added.
Digitalpoint.com - Large user base but geared more towards marketing and SEO.
Ozzu.com - Large user base but a little rough. Seems like newbs leading the newbs at times. Good for learning what not to do.
Devshed.com - Largely a coding forum. Go here if you’re looking to learn more about PHP aspects as opposed to CSS/HTML (there are CSS/HTML forums however).
PHPFreaks - Obviously a PHP based site. Surprisingly though, they have HTML/CSS/Javascript boards as well. This site helped a lot when I started learning PHP.
PHP.net - Everything you need to know about PHP.
V7n.com - A web development forum. A quality board, albeit in smaller scale.
WebDevForums.com - A little on the slow side. I only read this board occasionally.
WebmasterWorld.com - Huge forum with tons of sub-forums. Cluttered and hard to navigate but lots of info.
Pixel2Life - A huge tutorial site with tutorials in everything imaginable. Good PHP and Photoshop lessons.
Good-Tutorials - Photoshop tutorials.
And the best of them all…
Google.com - Google is the best resource in the history of mankind. Don’t ask a question unless you’ve googled it first.
Most of these forums have a Review My Site section. One of my favorite things to do is check out some of the sites people are submitting for critique. More often then not, the site will be some type of gimmick or spam site but occasionally you’ll run into someone that is truly trying. This is a good way to see what kind of mistakes people commonly make and also see what other people think about the person’s design. Sometimes I’m shocked that people like the site when I think it looks dreadful. However, info like that (the fact that people like what you don’t) can prove to be useful when designing for clients or other people.
Just lurk on these forums for a week or two and you’ll be surprised how much knowledge rubs off.
Color Schemer - An awesome app for creating complex (and simple if you want) color schemes. Let’s you export the color scheme to a Photoshop pallet as well as several other formats. The most useful part of the program is the PhotoSchemer feature. This feature lets you import a photo and the program will automatically generate a balanced scheme based on colors in the photo.