Ask YC: Can a single person develop a website?

I am currently finding it difficult to find a partner to work on a small idea that have .So what is the feasibility of developing a project in such circumstances.Has anybody done ever tried this? I am mainly doing this project to improve my php and javascript coding.

Like?

of course. Start with a piece of paper and do a high level plan of the main goals/sections of the site. I find it helpful to use persona/role-driven design here. Once i have the main goals, then I develop the home page for a role inside Photoshop. I then develop an inner page. Once i have that, I move on to [web language of choice (i.e. php/asp.net)] and develop a few templates. Then I develop the home page and the inner pages using pure html (no database). Once I'm happy there, I move on to DB stuff nad oo-level stuff to support it.

I did all of http://www.learnsqlserver.com/, http://www.learnitfirst.com/ and http://www.videobooks.com/ sites by myself. It took a while but so what? I'm proud of the fact that I did it and I learned so much along the way.

Having a prototype makes everything easier, including finding partners. Build your prototype, and then while you're out socializing with other startup founders, and/or beating the bushes for customers, investors, business development opportunities, and press, you can also mention "I'm also looking for another developer to join the company in a partnership role". Somebody will know somebody, and if you're selling the dream effectively they'll be inclined to make that introduction.

The problem with people looking for business partners is often that they imagine that an idea is enough to persuade someone to get involved. It rarely is. An existing friendship might be enough, but a stranger with a new idea (and nothing else) is just annoying. So, building a prototype proves you're dedicated enough to put some of your own skin in the game before asking anyone else to do so. That's a big win.

And, of course, there have been single-founder success stories. More than a few, in fact. So, if you never find a co-founder, if you can deliver a valuable product, you might still build a successful business. But it's obviously a harder row to hoe.

I developed http://zerodaydeals.com (there is a good amount of back-end to it) as a one-person show and am developing http://overtrainer.com in the same way