UPDATE: I’ve corrected the broken links (especially the internal ones, in the Table of Contents), and added a link to the WAVE tool (thanks Matt!)
I’m proud to share with you a list of almost 200 of my favorite blogs, guides, resources, tutorials and tools on web entrepreneurship, which I’ve been constantly using for years. I hope many of these websites become useful assets to you as they are for me. I’ve broken them down for you into 7 parts:
- Web Design
- Web Analytics
- Keyword Research
- Project Management
- HTML5 + CSS3
- E-Commerce
- Web Accessibility
These are some of the fines bodies of information, tools and services I’ve used or tested. I’ve also included a few paid school courses just in case you want to really exapnd on what you know – but some of these websites offer many free courses of the highest quality you can find.
Please feel free to comment on this list and let us me how you use these tools in your workflow. I invite you to share your suggestion and advice to add up to this list, but please avoid link dropping.
A huge Thank You to all the writers, developers and designers behind these sites for creating such valuable resources, insight and time-savers for the rest of us.
If you find this list valuable, please consider sharing it with a friend or two.
www.colourlovers.com
Contents
Web Design
Guides, Resources, Tools and Tutorials
- Cornell’s IT News Blog: up-to-date and reliable information about web development news and buzz.
- Colour Lovers: a creative community where designers share color palettes and patterns.
- How Design: Graphic Design Inspiration.
- Tizag Tutorials: HTML and CSS guides for beginners.
- The Site Wizard: a beginner’s A-Z Guide to starting a website.
- HWG’s online web-design course
- JavaScript Kit: web building and JavaScript tutorials.
- The Best Designs: web design awards and inspiration.
- Codecademy: Learn the building blocks of web development with HTML and CSS.
- Team TreeHouse: Learn how to build websites & apps, write code or start a business.
- TutsPlus: Web Design Tutorials.
- Web Design on About.com: learn the basics of Web design, HTML, XML, and Web development.
- UMD’s ITSS Web Design References: resouces on accessibility, usability, web standards and related topics.
- W3C: Mobile Web Application Best Practices.
- W3C: Web Design and Applications.
- An unabridged, online version of the third edition of Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton.
- HTML Goodies: Free html tutorials and help, images, color codes on HTML tags, programming, basics, JavaScript, frames, hex codes and more.
- Coffe Cup: Web design and HTML software.
Blogs, Magazines and Inspiration
- Designrfix: graphic design inspiration, resources and tutorials.
- Awwwards: Sites of the Month. The 365 Best Websites Around The World.
- Web Design Ledger: covers a wide range of topics such as Photoshop, web design, photography, programming, and more.
- Web Designer Wall: design trends and tutorials.
- WebAppers: open source resources for Web Developers.
- Speckyboy: design magazine that focuses on highlighting resources, exploring new techniques, and inspiring.
- Web Standards Sherpa: best practices in web design.
- Andreas Viklund: WordPress templates.
- A List Apart: a magazine that explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
- Jeffrey Zeldman: web design news & insights.
- Smashing Magazine: a magazine for professional Web designers and developers, with a focus on useful techniques, best practices and valuable resources.
- Webdesign-Inspiration.com: beautiful web designs and trends.
- Cognition by Happy Cog: discusses design, user experience, business, content strategy and more.
- Creative Bloq: design tips and inspiration for creative people. Includes expert tips and tutorials.
- Web Design Depot: resources, tutorials, tools and plugins for web designers.
- Unmatched Style: inspiration, motivation and insight into how you design the web.
- Vandelay Design: tips, trends, best practices and tutorials on web design.
- Web Creme: web design inspiration.
- HTML5 UP!: responsive HTML5 and CSS3 site templates designed by @n33co.
- CSS3 Templates: free CSS3 website templates.
- DreamTemplate: premium website templates.
- TemplateMonster: a huge collection of website templates designed and developed by field experts.
- FreeWebsiteTemplates.com
- Theme Forest: a community of designers offering premium WordPress (as-well as plain HTML and other formats) templates.
- FreeTemplatesOnline.com: free web templates.
- Open Source Web Design: free web design templates.
- Open Designs: an open source web design gallery of free website templates.
Design Showcases and Communities
- Behance: Showcases latest work from creative professionals across industries.
- Dribbble: show & tell for desginers.
- Open Web Design: free downloadable web design templates.
- DesignM.ag: a blog and community resource for web designers.
- Designmodo: articles, tutorials, tips and advice on web design and development.
- Lots of design inspiration
- EntheosWeb: offers ready-made website templates, custom Web Design services, low cost solutions, as-well as many free resources.
- Impressive Webs: web design articles & Tutorials.
- Lava 360: design inspiration, and free resources , tools, tips & tutorials.
- Line25: ideas, tutorials and inspiration for web creatives.
- Web Design Meetup Groups on Meetup.com: meet fellow web designers near you. Trade advice on careers, rates, resources and freelancing. Make valuable contacts as you mingle with new friends.
- RapidWeaver: web design software for Mac users.
- Adobe Muse: softwre that allows you to create and publish dynamic websites for desktop and mobile devices that meet the latest web standards — without writing code.
Web Analytics
Guides, Resources, Tools and Tutorials
- Using Google Analytics on Tumblr
- The official Google Analytics blog
- Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik: digital marketing and analytics blog.
- Trending Upward: Web analytics for higher education.
- google analytics: the official website.
- comscore: digital business analytics.
- StatCounter: free invisible web tracker, hit counter and web stats.
- Alexa – analytical insights to benchmark, compare and optimize businesses on the web.
- OneStat: free web analytics and traffic counter that’s password-protected.
- Adobe analytics help: help and support resources for adobe analytics.
- Clicky: monitor, analyze, and react to your blog or web site’s traffic in real time.
- Shinystat: free traffic counter with web statistics.
- W3counter: free web analytics and visit counter.
- HitsLink: web analytics and website statistics.
- Digital Analytics Association: a not-for-profit, volunteer-powered organization that helps organizations overcome the challenges of data acquisition and application. Helps individuals become more valuable through education, community, research and advocacy.
- ClickTale: provides data about user behavior in forms of heatmaps, session playback and more.
- Locaholic: Easy-to-use, powerful, performance driven web anaklytics software.
- WebCredible: a one-day Google Analytics training course in London and UK.
- Open Web Analytics: an open source web analytics software that you can use to track and analyze how people use your websites and applications.
- Adobe Analytics: advanced web analytics and data analysis.
Keyword Research
- Wordtracker: keyword research tools.
- TrafficTravis: free SEO software for both on and off page analysis as well as spying on your competitors.
- HitTail: a long-tail keyword research tool.
- Advanced Web Ranking: an all-in-one SEO software for website owners and marketing agencies. Available on desktop and web-based platforms.
- WordStream: software and tools to make your search marketing campaigns more organized and more profitable.
- SpyFu: search marketing intelligence and keywords research tool.
- Uber Suggest: keyword suggestion tool. Basically like Google Suggest, just on steroids.
- Keyword Discovery: advanced keyword research tool and search term suggestion tool.
Project Management
- ZOHO Projects: a free online web based project planning & collaboration management software tool that helps get your projects done faster.
- Voices on Project Management: independent ideas and insights by and for project practitioners.
- OpenProj: open source desktop project management.
- Hosted Project Management Software: free project management software hosting based on SharePoint.
- AtTask: portfolio management software for project managers and executives.
- Tom Peters: the Red Bull of management thinkers.
- Project Management in a nutshell
- Project-Management.com: reviews of project management software.
- Software development magazine: software testing, project management, Agile, Scrum, UML, programming and more.
- Stanford’s Advanced Project Management Courses: offers certificates in Project Management online.
- Lynda.com: offers project management Video Courses and Tutorials.
- Certification and training in PRINCE2 project management method
- The Green Project Management method
- Skillsoft: learn project management and other skills
- Project management and leadership cources
HTML 5 & CSS 3
- The W3C Markup Validation Service
- The Living Validator: an (X)HTML5 validator.
- Easy HTML5 Video: a video converter to HTML5.
- Video.js: The open source HTML5 video player and framework.
- Modernizr: the feature detection library for HTML5/CSS3.CSS3 Menu: free CSS menu maker.
- CSS3 PIE: CSS3 decorations for IE.
- CSS3 Generator
- CSS3. Maker | CSS3. Generator | CSS 3. Generator | css3 generator
- CSS Border Radius Generator
- Can I use: shows browser support tables for HTML5 and CSS tags.
- CSS3 Please: a cross-browser CSS3 rule generator. Free and excellent tool.
- WebMonkey’s HTML5 Archives
- Dive Into HTML5: elaborates on a hand-picked selection of features of HTML5. Frequently updated content, links and information reflecting the relevant and current state of HTML5.
- Quackit’s guide to HTML5 tags: lists the tags (elements) supported in HTML5, based on the W3C HTML5 Working Draft.
- HTML5 Canvas Tutorials: tutorials, labs, and articles on HTML5.
- Rectangle World: code tutorials and experiments in HTML5 and JavaScript.
- Woofoo’s Current State of HTML5 Forms: shows which features of HTML5 are supported by which of the popular browsers.
- The W3C CSS Validation Service
- W3C’s Standards Portal
- CSS on W3C: contains information on how to learn and use CSS and on available software.
- W3Schools’ HTML5 Introduction
- CSS Zen Garden: a demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.
- W3Schools’ CSS Reference
- W3Schools’ CSS Tutorial
- CSS Tricks: a playground and lab for new CSS techinques. High quality stuff.
- SitePoint: learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby and Responsive Design with tutorials, courses and books.
- Microsoft Virtual Academy’s HTML5 & CSS3 Fundamentals: training for absolute beginners. 21 video episodes about the fundamentals of HTML5 & CSS3 programming, offered free by experts.
E-Commerce
- E-Commerce Times
- Bureau of Consumer Protection: rules and guidelines to protect consumers, truth-in-advertising standards and best practices for credible business behavior online.
- Small Business Administration: eCommerce Resources.
- We-Commerce by Fedex: expert advice, tips, stories and information on e-commerce.
- HTML Goodies’ guide to basic concepts of E-commerce
- Internet Retailer: industry strategies for online merchants.
- Ubercart: a free open source E-Commerce shopping cart software for Drupal-based websites.
- PrestaShop: free E-Commerce software for starting an online store.
- Authorize.NET / Payment Gateway: enables internet merchants to accept online payments via credit card and e-check.
- E-Commerce software, web design and inbound marketing services
- X-Cart: PHP shopping cart software for e-commerce web-sites.
- Ecwid: E-Commerce shopping cart that’s fast and easy to use.
- Pinnacle Art: E-Commerce shoppping cart fotware.
- StoreFront: E-Commerce shopping cart.
- Get Shopped: a WordPress E-Commerce shopping cart plugin.
- eCommerce Website: professional shopping cart software and unlimited ecommerce web hosting.
- Comodo Enterprise SSL: affordable security and SSL certificates.
- Zen Cart: E-Commerce shopping cart that’s free, full-featured and self-hosted.
- Fortune3: E-Ccommerce website builder and shopping cart software.
- FoxyCart: helps developers easily and quickly create flexible, powerful custom E-Commerce websites.
- Shopify: a powerful ecommerce website solution that allows you to sell online by providing everything you need to create an online store.
Web Accessibility
