It’s time to get over the idea that coding is nerdy.
Why is it cool to use Instagram but not to make Instagram? That’s just stupid.
Coding is hot. Coding empowers you. Think of all the incredible things you can do with code. Your whole online world is built on it.
Coding gives you POWER.
- The power to control your site.
- The power to change anything you want.
- The power to create your own features and layouts.
- The power to stand out.
The best part about coding is not having to “settle”.
- You don’t have to live with those quirks on your site that have annoyed you for ages.
You have the power to fix them. - You don’t have to think about hiring someone to fix them for you.
You can do it yourself. - You don’t have to “just live with” all those things that don’t quite work the way you want.
You can make your site perfect.
Coding gives you INDEPENDENCE.
Imagine being able to tweak all those small things on your site that have annoyed you. Imagine being able to figure out any problem on your site.
…all without needing to hire someone.
- You don’t need a developer on call.
- You don’t need 100 plugins that all do really simple things.
Your site is YOURS and you know exactly how to take care of it.
That’s an awesome feeling.
Coding helps you think LOGICALLY.
There’s a reason that programming classes often go hand in hand with math. Coding is about thinking logically. It’s about finding the best and most efficient way to do something. It’s very detail oriented.
Logical thinking is a valuable skill that can carry over into other areas of your life.
- Problem solving. This makes me think of Scandal because I’m binge watching it right now. Want to be a badass fixer like Olivia Pope? She can’t code for this, but the point is seeing the details and making connections. A coder has those kinds of skills.
- Efficiency. Don’t waste time or resources. Do things the best way and the fastest way. That’s a big part of programming. Imagine a WordPress plugin. You can code one in such a way that slows down your whole site, or you can code it in a way that’s efficient and keeps your site blazingly fast. How can you apply this to other parts of your life?
Coding turns you into a CREATOR.
You can create something that’s never been done before. This “something” could be in the form of:
- A unique feature on your website.
- A plugin or theme that you release out into the world.
- A SaaS (Software as a Service) that you let others use (think Facebook, Asana, MailChimp, etc).
Do you want to be a powerful, independent, logical creator?
I’ve created an e-course that helps you gain POWER and INDEPENDENCE over your site. This course isn’t about fluffy shortcuts or page builders. It’s about code.
Even if your dream is to become a designer or just have a nicer looking blog, code will help you get there. An understanding of code helps you blow past boundaries and take full control over your site.
I’m not going to make you dependant on any one framework or platform—I’ll give you the power of CHOICE.
I teach you how to do things RIGHT and “manually” because that is what gives you true power and flexibility.
I’m not going to make you become dependent on a page builder or a framework (like those courses on “how to create your own theme” … “using {framework}” in the fine print), because those go in and out of fashion. When you take a course like that, you know how to use a certain TOOL. But what happens when a different tool becomes popular?
I’m going to give you real, raw skills that you can use on ANY framework and ANY platform. I’m not teaching you a platform; I’m teaching you the underlying skills so you can apply them to ANY platform.
- Take control of your website.
- Get a solid understanding of how your site works, because that understanding is the key to success.
- Learn how to customize any pre-made theme (even without a settings panel).
- Make coding changes directly in your browser. This way you can preview them privately before they go live!
- Gain knowledge of CSS, what it does, and how you use it to change the style, fonts, and colours of your site.
If I could, I would change the entire layout of my site right now. Meg did a wonderful job of coding it, and I love what she came up with, but it’s not my brand. And I think that’s the wonderful thing about being able to code, really. That independence. You’ve named everything why I would want to learn how to code.
Yes! I totally agree with you about the independence. That’s the best part. I love how I can wake up one day and just think, “I want something different,” and then make it happen. I don’t need to worry about paying someone or about how it “can’t be done”. Because I can make it happen all on my own.
I love that!
YES! And not having to wait for your favorite coder to become available 😉
Ashley
The sign up is not working. It says undefined.
I’ve fixed the error, but the signup was working fine so if you did it then you should be on the list. The problem (undefined) was just with displaying the success message. But I’ve fixed that now too, thanks. 🙂
That’s great, Ashley! And btw, your reply comment email notification is awesome. Do you have a plugin for that?
Thank you! I coded it myself. 🙂 I shared the code I use in this post: https://www.nosegraze.com/comment-interaction/
Right now my page has been in limbo because my designer hasn’t finished and there is so much I want to get done on the page and that needs to be fixed. I’m dying to see a completed website that I can be proud of.
Oh yeah that’s one thing I love about doing it myself—not having to wait. I think I would get super impatient if I had to wait for someone else to do it! I’d be the worst client ever LOL.
Me too. I’m dying to have all my reviews organized and easy to find, and to have my front page fixed. It’s driving me batty. LOL.
I want to learn code because honestly your work has inspired. I look at the sites you’ve done for other people and think “I want to do that” not caring about the fact that technology and I generally don’t mix well. (I took IT and Web Design 1) in high school 6-7 years ago and remember little to nothing except the technology and I constantly fought. You inspired me to be brave and try to conquer it. Plus u honestly make it seem fun. The only thing stopping me were the prices of the college classes and the extremely fast pace we’d be going at while also having obligations to other classes. tge fact I don’t know anything about this stuff is also what has stopped me from starting my own blog which is sad cause I’ve already got some reviews typed up. I’d just rather know what I’m doing than go in blind if I start a blog hence wanting to take a class first and you’re the first and only person who’s made me WANT to take one and made it look interesting and fun. You’re awesome.
I loved reading your comment, Chenoa! I’m so glad that I’ve inspired you. 🙂 I would love it if you signed up for my course and I was able to help you achieve your dream!
Really awesome post, Ashley! I’m in the middle of your email series about monetizing book blogs and so far I’m really enjoying it — it’s so cool that you were able to turn your blog into an (amazing) business; I really hope to be able to something along those lines someday (although right now I’m mostly just trying to get through school xD)
I’ve learned bits and pieces of code, including some basic HTML/CSS courses, but everything looks super different and intimidating when I open up the code for websites! I’ve always really appreciated nice graphic design, so I want to learn how to be really comfortable working with real website design — my blog could use a lot of improvements in terms of aesthetics and ease of navigation.
I felt the same way when I first started, Connie Lu. I’m terrible at foreign languages and that’s always how I used to feel when I looked at code. It looked like a foreign language. I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t see how the pieces fit together.
I think a lot of guides/tutorials/teachers get so caught up on just teaching people to memorize bits of code, that they forget about teaching people how to understand that code. And coding doesn’t actually get easy until you reach that understanding.
Even better than changing peoples’ minds from nerdy to sexy? Making people realize how sexy nerdy can be! 😉
I want to learn to code since I love DIY, learning, and tech. So when it comes to anything online, I want to figure out how to do all the things, if only just for the experience of learning. I’d rather code my own website just because I know, if I really knew how, I’d love the hell out of it. 🙂
Sometimes I feel like I’m playing Pokemon with online skills – gotta catch ’em all! (It’s easier to accept than that silly jack of all trades thing.)
Gotta catch ’em all! Love that! Pokémon is awesome, hah.
I definitely think you’ll feel more confidence, pride, and love for your site if it’s something you can achieve on your own. I think this really ties into the “settling” I was talking about.
I feel like the very nature of most pre-made themes involves some kind of settling, because someone else made the decisions for you. Even when your theme is as crazy customizable as Tweak Me v2, there still might be some kind of settling eventually because it’s hard to cover EVERY SINGLE aspect in a pre-made theme. It’s hard to account for every single decision that a person could possibly want to make, you know? Eventually you might run into something that isn’t quite the way you want and if you don’t know how to change it, you’re settling.
But knowing how to code has given me freedom in so many areas. For example, when I moved my email platform to ActiveCampaign, their opt-in forms were ugly as hell. If I didn’t know how to code, I would have been settling by using their forms. But since I did know how to code, I was able to use their API and create all my own opt in forms that sign people up via the API. No settling. Awesome.
Great reasons, I agree that coding is the most freeing feeling in the world (when you own a website). You don’t have to wait for anyone, you can do everything by yourself (if you want).
I usually want to change the theme for my blog, as soon as I am finished with the current one, I’ve got the idea for the new one. I am hoping to integrate UBB more in my next theme (adding display of info for author archive view etc).
I love your ideas Dragana! Those are some things I’ve implemented myself too. 🙂
Aww Ashley this article inspired me to study coding again. I think this e-course would be very helpful to people like me who wants to learn the craft but are too intimidated and overwhelmed. 😀
I’m so glad you’re inspired, Farzy!
My goal is definitely to turn coding into something that’s fun and easy to understand. Hopefully I can pull that off. 🙂 I remember how hard it was for me when I was first learning and I’d love it if I could find a way to give people that level of understanding that took me so long to achieve on my own.
Code and I have had this relationship of understanding… I didn’t touch code and my website didn’t crash. It has been working really well… but it’s starting to look quite boring. Looking forward to hearing more about your course.
Haha, that’s funny Krystal. 🙂
If it helps at all, this first course I’m doing is all about learning HTML and CSS. It’s impossible to make your site crash (blank screen) with just CSS. The crashing comes into play with PHP when you start messing around with your functions.php file.
That’s another course in itself. 😉
I think this is a brilliant idea! I learnt/want to learn to code simply because I want more control over my blog design, and don’t want to just rely on other people’s tutorials to change the look of my blog. The novelty of actually writing code and it WORKING still hasn’t worn off.
I’m can write HTML and CSS comfortably, and can understand a little PHP, though as we all know, Javascript is the devil’s spawn (and is the bane of my life XD). If you manage to make it even slightly understandable you deserve a medal 🙂
I totally agree with you about JavaScript. I hate it. I know it well enough, I just really don’t like it. X_X It makes me sad that the future of web development is in JavaScript.
I’ve always enjoyed the way you explain things. It is really easy for me to learn. I took your first ecourse and loved it. I love all of your coding blog posts. All so very helpful.
Thanks so much!! 🙂
Ashley, I LOVE your post graphic.. that by itself makes me feel powerful… I want to punch someone in the face! LOL…. No, not you, the bad clients, LOL
Thanks Pamela! Coding totally does make me feel like a total badass. I’m just like, I CAN DO THIS! I CAN DO THAT! I CAN DO ANYTHING!!
Coding makes you a super woman!
I’d love to be able to have the knowledge to be able to tweak and update things on my site without fear of breaking it!
This post makes me so happy. I’ve been wanting to get back into learning more code after doing a web design course in college. It helped me so much in building up the skill of logical thinking. Something things just wouldn’t work and I would have to “think like a computer” to figure out what the problem was.
Once I finish with NaNoWriMo (!!) I’m going to look into Thinkful and Treehouse to get back to code!
By the end of this post, I was like, “HECK YES, TEACH ME HOW TO CODE!”
(I mean, I’ve wanted to learn for years, but I’m not always sure my brain is wired that way.)
But excellent writing. And I’m excited to hear about the Beta options! 😉
I would love to learn how to make a button so that others can put my button on their page and I can put theirs on mine as well.
Hi, Ashley. I think this looks great; I’ve been wanting to learn for a while. How basic will you be starting? Is this course most helpful for people who already have a basic knowledge of code?
Super basic! You don’t need any prior knowledge of coding. There are introduction lessons on taking your first steps into HTML and CSS (plus learning the difference between the two, etc.).
This course is basically coding 101. After this I’ll be releasing more of a 201 course. 🙂