I guess I can start with my background.  I started programming a LONG time ago when I was only 7 on an HP-2000.  I sold my first program in 1976 (a help system for the San Diego Unified School System) when I was 12.  At 19 I was one of those hacker kids you may have heard of working for a defense contractor (while finishing college early).  They were an Alpha Test site for new DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) machines and I lucked into having a full set of manuals (which took more than a 6' x 3' bookcase to hold them all).  Only the onsite librarian had a set of manuals for about 210 programmers to share so I got the chance to learn about everything and everyone came by to borrow my copies which helped me know who knew what.  I became the tech. lead for the CMQA department at 20 before moving into other areas.  I usually got the fun work (i.e., the stuff no one else wanted to tackle) so I didn't get bored.  By the time the contract ended after five years I moved to a healthcare utilization review company that was migrating to DEC machines.  I still got to do a lot of everything (good and bad, like when I was forced to create a full-screen editor in COBOL - hehe...). After 8.5 years as a full-time employee I was so under paid that I was having to offer people I was hiring more than I was getting.  The nice corner office with the leather chair, nice title, extra work stations and fridge were nice but didn't pay the rent so went back to consulting and ended up being a consultant to Anderson Consulting (now Accenture) at a Verizon Wireless project. That was seven years, the last two consulting directly for VZW.  When their main billing system was converted to another managed in a different state, they started laying off the consultants and, since I have always been a jack-of-all-trades, I was in the final wave.  By this point, Intel had bought all of the DEC gear and buried it to force people to use their servers, and Oracle had purchased all of the DEC database products for the same reason.  So I basically went from being an "expert" (even teaching some classes) to starting over.  In what little spare time I had I used to run game servers and had the second most popular server on the West Coast at one time (in addition to playing sports and music).

By this time I was pretty burnt out with all the long hours (I averaged almost 60 hour weeks for the last ten years and didn't have a week off during that whole time).  Since my side investing had done well I went back to college to work on a PhD in a completely different field and moved to the Pacific Northwest (my body had started wearing out from too many sports).  I sold my home in So. California and ended up here with five properties, no debt and a lot of money.  Then a LOT of bizarre things happened, like my father passing the day after I moved up here, along with the real estate and credit crunch in 2008 plus a lot of illegal actions taken by financial institutions.  When the dust settled I had no properties left, no vehicle, barely found a government subsidized appartment for my Mom (who will be 86 next month) and over $820k gone.  I ended up with some things hidden in storage and living in a friend's extra room.  Part of the problem at the time was that I wasn't eligible for any of the government programs because I'd actually been paying my mortgages (really???) and the other was that I wasn't working.  Obviously I immediately tried to get back into the job market but was told that without two years of recent experience I wasn't employable (again, really???).  I did get a couple of short contracts, including one with Intel, but the financial issues hit everyone and all hiring was either frozen or people got laid off.  I ended up in a promising startup company with a couple of friends but that ended after five years (another long story).  After that I've just been getting by doing miscellaneous IT work for friends that either own or manage companies. In most of those cases they needed the work done, but couldn't afford to pay the normal rates so I'm able to help them.  Apparently, I'm unemployable otherwise.  All the IT places want recent experience, certifications (that weren't around or necessary for me when I was still working for VZW) and won't even hire me for an entry-level position (a lot of age discrimination really, they want someone young who will drink the corporate kool-aid).  I can't even get low-paying jobs like working at a supermarket, UPS Store, etc.  Those that will actually respond to an application say they can't pay what I'm worth and that I'll leave them as soon as I find a better job.  They don't seem to believe me when I say I'd be happy to just make enough to pay my rent and other living expenses.  Oh well.  This is a LONG story (sorry) but it does show I got to where I am now.

One of those friends that I've been doing work for started off with his own water leak business which expanded to supplying auto-body repair parts (paints, solvents, abrasives, screws, bolts, rivets and all those plastic clips that hold your vehicle together).  I've known him for 11 years and have helped him for over five of those (my main strengths are organizing so I designed his supply & inventory systems, created the layouts for his warehouses as well as his company branding, images, literature, etc.).  The first website I ever created was for the startup company mentioned above (where I wore about 11 hats).  It actually came out well albeit cutting edge 1990's.  He asked if I would like to try and make an online store for him and the first attempt is actually still up and can be seen at www.nwclips.com.  I did all of the image scanning and processing, all product detail research as well as all company branding (95% of the work).  The website ended up on GoDaddy by his choice (neither of us knew much about hosting back then - all of my personal websites are on 1and1 because I only use them for data transfer and email accounts).  This meant that I used GoDaddy's Quick Shopping Cart (QSC) online tool for everything.  I didn't need to know any HTML, CSS or javascript.  As I went forwards I continually ran into issues with their tool and even submitted over a dozen fixes for them (most of which they've included).  But all of that plus other problems that my friend ran into dealing with the company made him have me create a new version with Volusion.  I completely modernized the look and feel, but was still mostly using Volusion's online shopping cart tool though it was FAR better than GoDaddy's QSC.  My friend ran into more issues with the company that dealt with hidden charges, payment gateway issues, and other problems that I wasn't party to, and he pulled the plug on Volusion. Now I realize that it's possible my friend has unrealistic expectations, but he's the owner so he has to be happy.  This is why he wants a website that can be customized in any fashion without be limited by a host's online tool and also wants to be able to move from host to host as he sees fit.

This is already too long, so I'll just add here that between all of the above AND a couple of side companies I've started that I haven't done much with I've since done training and been exposed to SEO, SEM, HTML5, CSS and some javascript.  In addition to the website I will also be doing some of the managing at his new warehouse and his goal is to be able to hire me full time at what I'm worth.  We'll see how that works out.  I'll put more answers into the next reply!