Don't skimp on the database design. It can make your life a lot easier if you're model is tight. Learn how to think about your data model as Entities and Attr

Don't skimp on the database design. It can make your life a lot easier if you're model is tight. Learn how to think about your data model as Entities and Attributes and the relationships between them. Then find a tutorial on database normalization and learn it. It's not hard, but it might take 2 or 3 run throughs before it clicks. Learn to be comfortable at the *nix command line if you plan to be hosting your app on a shared host or Virtual Private Server. Most of all; don't get caught up in fads. It's easy to get the impression that you need to learn AJAX, Rails (no wait, Merb!), S3 and EC2, distributed programming, jQuery, ad infinitum, all at once. You don't. Here's some Google terms: "Database normalization" "entity relationship diagram" "Unix shell commands"