The following are a collection of online resources that I have found to be helpful in my line of work. I've posted them here so that everyone else can benefit from them as well.

Website Design Resources

• AllDomains - The first step to creating a website is buying a domain name. Although there are many companies out there that offer this service (Register.com & Godaddy.com to name a few), I've found Alldomains to be one of the easiest to work with. Their site is easy to navigate and the customer service staff is usually very friendly and helpful. Holding times for support staff are typically 15+ minutes, but I've found that to be the case with most major registrars.
• Lorem Ipsum Generator - This is one of those tools that you never realize you need until someone introduces you to it, at which point it becomes very handy. Have you ever been working on a design for something, and you know that your design needs to incorporate a bunch of text, but you don't want to type it all out right at that moment? Or perhaps you'd thought of typing "asdf" repeatedly & just realized it doesn't look quite the same? This site will provide you with realistic looking filler-text that you can use until you get your hands on the real stuff later on.
• IStockPhoto.com - One of the biggest misconceptions I hear from people when they're looking to make a site is that all of the images/text they find online are free, so they're intending to just use some images they found on someone else's site for their own. Not only is this illegal, it can cost the offender thousands of dollars if discovered. Whether you're simply looking for some photos to fill up space in your site, or you're looking for some photo-editing source material to work with, this site provides a wealth of stock photography and vector illustrations for just about anything you could want. The best part is, for little more than a dollar, you can download almost any image you want & legally use it for commercial purposes.
• DaFont.com - Hands-down, the last website you'll ever need for finding the perfect font for your latest project.
• W3 Schools - This site has a wealth of information about HTML, CSS, Javascript, ASP.NET, and many other languages. It also includes "try-it-yourself" demos that allow you to see how your code will look on a live server via a split-screen display. An invaluable MUST-SEE resource for all web developers!
• W3 Website Validator - Ever wondered why your site shows up fine in one browser, but looks messed up in another? Odds are that you're not validating your code. Although it's true that some browser display differences are unavoidable, checking to make sure your code validates is the best way to eliminate 99% of those problems. This site provides a great way to do just that.
• NetRenderer - In an ideal world, Designers would be able to just make a website & everyone would see/experience it the same way. Unfortunately, while many of the newer browsers are standards compliant & DO display websites the same way, older, but still-popular versions of Internet Explorer are not. If you find yourself wondering how to see what a site looks like in an older version of Internet explorer, this site is a great way to do just that for testing purposes.
• Adobe Support - If you're involved in any of the various fields of computer art, the name "Adobe" probably rings a bell. Whether it be a question related to Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, etc., often our first instinct is usually to do Google searches and/or look through forums for an answer, but don't under-estimate Adobe's own support! The "Help" menu, which is generally useless in most programs actually has a wealth of information in Adobe's applications & their website expands on that knowledgebase even further.

Optimizing for Search Engines

• Google Analytics - Everyone wants to optimize their site to do better in search engines, but why? The answer of course, is that they want more traffic to their sites, but even ranking #1 in Google won't always accomplish that. The trick is, knowing how much traffic you're getting from each of the terms you're optimizing for AND how much of the traffic from each keyword is being converted to legitimate leads. Google Analytics provides a free way to do just that!
• Google Webmaster Tools - While Google Analytics provides a way to monitor your site's performance, Google Webmaster Tools actually will help point out things that are wrong and help you make improvements that could lead to better rankings, but at the very least lead to a better site.
• Google Keywords Tool - Considering optimizing your site, but not sure which keywords you'd like to target? This tool from Google will tell you how many people search for each of the keywords that you type in (to determine how popular the word is & consequently how much/little traffic you can expect from it) & even goes a step further to suggest a list of similar words that might also be of interest.
• Google Local - Ever wondered how sometimes when you're searching for nearby businesses you'll get a miniature map on the Google results page with a list of 10 local businesses? Want to get in that list? The first step is registering yourself with Google Local & establishing yourself as a local business in that area.
• Search Engine Land - A site dedicated to the community of search engine optimization professionals. Contains tips on how to optimize your site, as well as all the latest news on what's going on with the major search providers. If you're willing to pay the subscription fee, there are also some very informative articles in their archives.
• Search Engine Watch - A site dedicated to the community of search engine optimization professionals. Contains tips on how to optimize your site, as well as all the latest news on what's going on with the major search providers.
• Search Engine Ranking Factors - Exactly what the average person is looking for: a quick list of SEO DOs & Don'ts, organized by impact.

Tutorials

• W3 Schools - Before you go out and buy a book to teach yourself something, give this site a shot, it'll get you going on the basics of a number of coding languages (including HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, and ASP.Net to name a few) in no time.
• Kirupa.com - Friendly, Helpful, Knowledgeable people. I primarily use this site as a starting point when teaching myself how to do new things in Flash, but it covers a range of other programs as well. Although it doesn't have quite the depth of knowledge that some other sites have, the information is usually presented in a way that's VERY easy to understand & pick up. Contributors often write several-page tutorials complete with images, animations, and source-files.
• gotoAndLearn.com - A collection of video tutorials that explain how to do a wide range of things in Adobe Flash
• Calypso88 - A Blog of "actionscript trials & tribulations" from a knowledgeable developer.
• Good-Tutorials.com - Collection of online tutorials from individuals
• Tutorialized.com - Collection of online tutorials from individuals
• Tutorialsphere.com - Collection of online tutorials from individuals
• How to Create a Custom FLV Player - tired of using the stock FLV-players included in Flash? Check out this tutorial for step-by-step instructions on how to create your own!

Quick Hints

• Transparent PNG files in Internet Explorer 6 - Many of us would like IE6 to disappear, but unfortunately a number of people are still using it & thus, such workarounds are still necessary.
• CSS Min-Height Solution - Wondering why divs can't act more like tables when it comes to their height property? Look no further :)
• CSS Fixed Footer - Interested in learning how to fix the position of your website footer or other content that you'd like to stay at the bottom of your site without interfering with your content? Check out this quick example outlining how it's done.
• AS3 Dynamic Instance Names - Frustrated with the fact that you can't reference your dynamic as3 objects by their respective instance names? This post provides a great solution!
• Add Driving Directions to Your Site - This site provides a relatively easy way for developers to integrate the ability to provide driving directions (using multiple languages) into any site.
• Get Latitude & Longitude from Google Maps - After searching for an address, simply enter this:
  javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));
  into the URL bar of your browser & hit "enter" for easy-to-copy exact coordinates. Alternatively, you can also click on the green flask icon in the upper right and enable the "LatLng Marker" option available from Google Maps Labs to get the approximate values of the current mouse target.

Book Recommendations

Once you start to become advanced in any area of knowledge, you begin to build a base of resources that you can fall back on for more detailed knowledge. However, when you're starting something fresh and don't have a clue what you're doing, it's nice to know that there are books out there that take the time to teach you the problem-solving skills you need and give you a solid foundation for doing serious projects of your own (rather than overly-simplified examples that have no real-world applications). Although I've bought and read many books, the ones I'm choosing to list here did an exceptional job at that AND managed not to put me to sleep in the process.

• Learning Actionscript 3.0 - A Beginner's Guide
• Build Your Own ASP.NET 3.5 Website

Free Development Software, Tools, and Code

• Visual Studio Express - Want to learn programming, but don't have the money to invest in the necessary software & equipment? This set of downloads is a great starting point.
• NotePad++ - If you're like me, then you've probably gotten sick of how programs like Frontpage & Dreamweaver insert code of their own into your projects. Unfortunately, for most designers, avoiding this hassle would mean reverting back to good old "Notepad" with no color-coding or other conveniences & would make code-editing a strain on the eyes. Enter Notepad++. Think of it as "Notepad" on steroids. This program has a range of built in features, including a library of around 40 different coding languages that you can use to color-code your code. It also allows you to expand/contract blocks of code for easier editing and lets you launch some files directly to browsers for testing while you're working. Best of all, it's free!
• LightBox 2 - Ever seen those cool galleries where when you click on a picture, the screen goes black and the image pops in over top of the actual site (but not as a pop-up)? Well, this site by Lokesh Dhakar shows you how to create that effect & provides you with all the javascript code you need to get started.
• LightBox++ - A modification by Justin Lyric of the original Lightbox, this version is slightly more complicated to install, but allows allows artists to display flash content as well as regular images.
  NOTE: Displaying flash movies with this script will cause your pages to fail validation.
• Dynamic Drive DHTML - Javascript code generation site
• Javascript Source - Javascript code generation site

Browsers & Plugins

• Mozilla Firefox - A browser application from Mozilla, currently used by upwards of 40% of internet users.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer - This link is on this website mainly to help those of you still using Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade to a newer version. Odds are, most of you already have this browser installed on your computer.
• Apple Safari - A browser application from Apple. Although you probably already have this installed if you're on a Macintosh computer, you may be surprised to know this browser is also available for PC now.
• Opera - A lesser-known, but still decent browser.
• Google Chrome - Google's entry into the browser arena.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader - Again, one of those applications that you probably already have installed, but very useful for browsing documents online, so I'm listing it here anyways.
• Adobe Flash Player - A VERY popular browser plugin, but not quite as universal as the "Adobe Acrobat Reader" plugin, this browser plugin allows you to view animations and interactive website applications on many sites, including this one.

For Geeks Only

• DNS Stuff
• DomainTools.com
• Internet Performance & Speed Test
• File & Disk Utilities

Other Useful Resources

• OpenOffice - A 100% Free Open-source alternative to most of the programs offered in "Microsoft Office". This software even offers the ability to read files created in "Microsoft Office" AND create files that can be opened by "Microsoft Office", such as ".doc" or ".xls" files.
• Picasa - A great program for organizing digital photo collections. Entirely Free.