PHP is a great language that you can get up and running quickly and for free. There is a lot of really good open source code written in PHP which give you the advantage of having a good base to start with.

That being said, if you are going into a programming job, there will be more money learning something like ASP.NET or JSP(although I **** JSP) because big business views these are more “Enterprise” platforms.

I program in both PHP and ASP.NET on a regular basis (I know several others, but these are the majority of my time). IF you are just doing small sites for freelance work, then PHP is defnintly the way to go because you get to avoid licensing costs, but if you’re trying to get into a real software job, I would say go with .NET

PHP is a great language to learn! I started with PHP and then when to ASP then ASP.NET then JSP and Java. When getting a job you will find business want to use ASP.NET or Java because they think it’s a better platform and also you will come to see that many servers they are using is a windows box so without any modification PHP would not be possible to use.

Start with PHP but don’t stop learning at that, keep moving on the more you know the more your worth on the job market.

If your planning on making money out of building websites then learn what language you need to, to be able to do what the customer wants.

A good step would be to learn to write Javascript, this is going to let you create some dynamic content, open new windows, verify form data etc.

PHP is a scripting language that is used to build dynamic database driven sites, so how about learning some SQL and about relational databases. This is the technology that so much of the internet is being built on today.

Good place to start is to download XAMPP, it includes an Apache webserver with MySql, PHP and Perl modules all fully configured and running so that you can easily set up a development environment. From there you can teach yourself to build a simple database and read and write things to it.

Have fun