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This is a guest article by Stephen Ward. He writes for DailyBits.com, a blog focused on web development, software and online marketing.

So you're interested in a career in web development. You already know a thing or two about HTML and CSS. Maybe you've created a few static websites. You're interested in learning more, but there are so many different directions you could take. What's the next step to really get your web development career off the ground?

If this sounds like you, or if you're just interested in improving your existing job prospects, here are 10 web development skills that you can learn to boost your marketability. They apply both to corporate environments and web startups. Update: a note that these skills are listed in alphabetical order.

ASP & VBScript

What are they? ASP is a server-side script processor developed by Microsoft. VBScript is the programming language most often used to power it.

Why are they important? When it comes to server-side programming, ASP enjoys popularity comparable to PHP due to Microsoft's heavy market share. VBScript, in addition to its use with ASP, can also be used client-side in much the same way as JavaScript, although support for this is spotty outside of Internet Explorer. Additionally, VBScript can be used to create desktop applications for Windows. Because of these varied uses on Microsoft products, VBScript is very handy for developers who work in Microsoft-centric environments and large corporations.

Where can I learn more?

• ASP Resource Index
• ASP Wikipedia Article
• VBScript Wikipedia Article
• W3Schools ASP Tutorial
• W3Schools VBScript Tutorial
   

C# or VB.Net

What are they? C# and VB.Net are general-purpose programming languages. Both were developed by Microsoft as part of its .Net initiative.

Why are they important? As part of the .Net framework, C# and VB.Net are often used for code-intensive projects that simpler runtime languages aren't well-equipped to handle. In usage and syntax, C# is very similar to Java, whereas VB.Net strongly resembles Visual Basic. Learning either is a good path to heavy back-end development and software houses that focus on web development.