Give Yourself the Gift of Programming

If writing is a skill everyone needs today, so is programming.

Or, taking into account the number of people who don’t know how to write computer code and still do well in life, maybe I should say it’s a skill everyone will benefit from.

I was reminded of this yesterday as I spent an evening designing and implementing the first version of a simple web service for distributing the issues of my magazine to its subscribers. I have seen how other (micro)publishers who are not programmers have to settle for less than optimal solutions just because they don’t know how to code the solutions themselves. Because of the nature of this business, paying a programmer to do it is not a feasible solution most of the time.

And this is not the end of it. I still have a lot of programming to do before I have the tools I need for micropublishing in place. I can’t wait to get rid of the clumsy shopping cart service (e-Junkie) I’m using, not to mention the option of trying my hand at an iPad version of the magazine (disclaimer: I have no real plans for this at the moment).

So, at least for a micropublisher, programming is a skill that — while technically not a requirement — helps a lot.

So, if you still don’t know how to code, get started today. It’s far easier than you would imagine. And it is rewarding.

Here are two great online courses to get you started.

• Introduction to Computer Science: This is a FREE university level course on programming. It assumes no prior knowledge on programming — but at the end of the course you will have created your own search engine!
• CodeAcademy is a free site with courses on different programming languages. This JavaScript course is an easy way to get started, and hooked to programming.

There are many more courses online, but these two are some of my favorites, so I’m not going to confuse you with more links.

Give it a try. There is nothing to lose.