I really want to keep this thread alive so here are a couple questions:

1. Where do front end devs and web designers get all their images they build into websites?
Is it common to have a subscription at some of the stock photo sites and buy from them?
Do they use mostly free sources? Do clients usually give pictures to use? (talking about fresh new sites now)

2. Where can i find a good wireframing tool for designing page layouts? What do you suggest? Do you guys use some adobe product to do that? The good old pen and paper style?

#1)
Really depends. Probably a combination of making stuff from scratch, using free images and paying. I'm not too heavy into front end stuff but when I do need something like arrows or icons I find there's more than enough free images available (legally) to get the job done.

If you need a perfect set with very specific things you might have to dive into the paid realm or make them from scratch.

#2)
If you're just prototyping something and want to put up a reasonable layout without spending much time most people use Twitter Bootstrap. There are others though.

Here's a throw down of bootstrap vs foundation which is another popular one.

http://designshack.net/articles/css/...ter-bootstrap/

1) Stock photo service, flickr CC, and a designer available/on retainer

http://dribbble.com/

This site is amazing for inspiration and color themes too.

Questions to freelancers:

Do you guys have strict rules / contracts with customers? What are some mandatory parts of such a contract?
Are payment problems common? How do you make sure to avoid such problems?

For big organizations you want to have the terms in writing in advance, and make it something realistic like Net 30 or something.

For small groups and individuals, I think the key is constant communication so nobody is surprised.

Net 30?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_30

Net 10's good if you can get it. Some will want to pay it, some will want longer.

Thanks, Neil!
Something differet to keep the discussion going:

I've been studying mostly front end development and website design. I feel quite comfortable creating a pretty and well organised layout with html, css, and javascript but I feel like i would be in deep trouble if I had to create a more complex website.
What are some good sources to study actual web development / web building?
All the material i have about server side scripting or database stuff mostly deals with the basics and none of these include a detailed "workflow scheme" or "pipeline", whatever you call it, for building a more complex project.

I think everyone learns this one the hard way. I have signed contracts with every customer. The key paragraph is that ownership of the finished product transfers to the customer only upon payment in full. I don't deliver source code until payment in full, too. (Easier for programmers, harder for pure HTML/JS/CSS which can be sucked from a web site, but customers don't always know that.)

If a customer is past due, work stops. I insist on getting paid on time. I know some consultants are more lenient on terms, not me. Clear communication is a must: an invoice should never, ever be a surprise to a customer. They should be happy to pay for great service at a fair price.

Are there ways to fairly accurately measure a random website's traffic stats?
I know alexa and compete, but as far as I know, those are often way off.

Maybe for a 10 page brochure site. If you have an involved functional site your CSS programmer better be part visual wizard, part programmer problem-solver and part business-aware organizer. Otherwise your CSS file will become a sprawling unmaintainabe mess.

Writing comments in your code - do you do it? Do you know others that do? Basically, how common is it?

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered before but here goes. I'm very interested in web development/design. I'm currently doing courses on codeacademy. I assume it isn't really necessary to get a degree? Are there other resources where I can learn this stuff? How long do you think it would be before I could actually code a website(i guess technically I could do it now but it would be crap obv)?

sorry for all the noob questions

All I know is that I hired a freelancer with high rep on oDesk for $35/hr and he didn't know jack **** about stack tracing and/or PHP troubleshooting in the slightest. I fired up a New Relic agent, traced code, used Google, and solved it myself in 3 hours.

****ing ridiculous that people get paid that much in third-world countries, have high rep, and still don't know intermediate-level **** about a simple language.

So my point is, there is PLENTY of money to be made if you aren't an idiot.

so html5/css/jquery would be #1 on my tech skills to learn list. no matter what web projects you find yourself on or corporate camp you fall into, these are the foundations.

more importantly is understanding how each of these pieces fits into high quality and maintainable web solutions. learning how to build clean semantic html mark-up, elegant css and well architected jquery takes most people at least a few years!

if you are already all over that, then node.js is a great platform to learn. so many fantastic packages for things like hybrid mobile apps (cordova/phonegap), task runners (grunt), text message/phone calls (twilio) etc...

treehouse.com
bloc.io
udacity.com
coursera.com

I'm doing the Complete Web Developer Course on udemy at the moment, by a guy called Rob Percival, and it's super good. I've piddled around with computers for years, as a hobbyist, and don't particularly have any ambitions to work as a developer but wanted to do the course just to get my head around some of this stuff. Usually a couple of hundred bucks but udemy are doing one of their offers so it's $10 for the next couple of days which is stupidly good value. I'm not associated with the course in any way, and apologies if this sounds spammy, but you did ask about resources.
Good Luck

In my opinion this site: http://www.theodinproject.com/courses is a good way to get initiated to development from a basically non-existent knowledge base. It's fairly well structured too and that helps out a lot when you're just beginning and don't even know what you should be trying to learn.

^^^ Looks very useful. Thanks for the link.