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Start A Coding Business

Wednesday, April 08, 2009 ~ 1:21 pm

The world has changed since I've entered the ranks of the employed. You used to be able to show up somewhere, work hard and advance in that business. That is no longer the norm. What now? How are people getting ahead?

I don't claim to have definitive answers, but I can tell you where there is amazing opportunity for growth. Coding.

That's pretty generic I know but that is sort of the point. Almost everything that is technologically exciting has some sort of code attached to it. Twitter, Facebook? Code built. iPhone apps? Them too. From Javascript to Ruby on Rails, the businesses of the world need coders.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you links to a few things to get you started. And when you've gotten up the nerve and the determination to jump off the deep end into the unknown, I want to hear about it, ok?

I'm breaking this down in sections so start where you need to.

The Only Things You'll Ever Need To Buy

Notice I said need. This is bare minimum. It's a nice minimum, but you'll no doubt want to add things later.

1. A Mac - You Can get a brand new laptop for right at $1000 straight from Apple.
2. Pixelmator - This is the everday Photoshop for $59. Image editing and creation is now way affordable. Get it here.
3. Esspresso - HTML/CSS with FTP built in and "Sugars" that offer expandability for other coding languages. About $80 from MacRabbit
4. A Good Mouse - That's a personal thing so check out what seems cool to you. Cost $35 - $65.
5. iPhone Developer Cost - This is optional but recommended if you want to build iPhone apps. $99. Check it out here.

That's $1433.30 with tax estimated at 10%.

Free Things You Should Download Right Now

These things are free so there's no reason not to have them on your machine.

1. ExpressionEngine Core - Build amazing websites with our favorite CMS. The Core version is free. Download ExpressionEngine Core.
2. Code Igniter - This is the open source framework that ExpressionEngine is built on. Download Code Igniter here.
3. Ruby on Rails - So many great web apps and sites are build on Ruby on Rails that it is just crazy. Download Ruby on Rails.
4. Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3 - It's the free version of FontExplorer. Manage your fonts! Download FontExplorer X 1.2.3 here.
5. Free Fonts - Seriously, they are everywhere. Do a search and load them into FontExplorer.

Learn To Code

This might come as a surprise to many of you, but they way we learned to code was Google. Seriously. Don't know where to start? Search for tutorials and simple example projects. You can educate yourself faster and more efficiently than going to school. Start searching and start learning.

What, no PC Love?

You've probably noticed everything here is pretty much Mac based. You can put together the same kind of system for a Windows machine, but I don't use one so I'm not up on the PC options currently available. If any of our PC using readers know of some good options, please leave them in the comments. Thanks!

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