HTML. What is it, and why do you need to know how to use it?

First of all, HTML is Hyper Text Markup Language. It is what a browser reads in order to display what you actually see on a webpage that you view through Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, or whatever browser you may use. It's a type of code.

Uh-oh, code. Yikes! Is it some sort of secret language? Not really. And it's much easier to learn than one might think.

Why is it important to know how to use it? For many reasons. What I consider the most important reason is so that you can create your own web pages. There's a great deal of pleasure to be derived once you've finished a site and it looks good. There's even more to be gained when you put that site out there and it accomplishes what you want it to do, i.e., get you sales, signups, etc. Besides, if you know how to put together those web pages that you want, it can save you bundles of money. While it's easier having a professional design for you, if you're on a tight budget, it's much cheaper to do it yourself and there's absolutely nothing wrong with saving a buck where and when you can, especially when just starting out with your online business.

First things first...you need an HTML editing program downloaded on your computer. You could actually use Notepad, but I prefer an editor that shows aspects of HTML in different colors. This makes it easier for me to find a mistake when I make one...and you're going to make mistakes, believe me.

The editor that I use is called First Page 2000. While there is an edition that you may purchase through Evrsoft.com, I use the free one which you can download from their web site.

There are four different skill levels to use. I choose to use the "Easy" one. There is a tutorial provided with the editor, and there are Java scripts and much more that go along with it. As you learn more, you may change your level of the editor to reflect what you're most comfortable with doing.

There are also editors that are generally labelled "WYSIWYG." That stands for "what you see is what you get." This means that you can type into the editor the text and the links that you want shown on your webpage, and the editor does most of the coding for you. I prefer to do my own for personal reasons. I like the fact that I have better control over what goes on my page if I do it myself. If you find that a WYSIWYG works better for you, you may find an assortment through Google. I don't have any specific ones that I recommend.

Ok, so how does one learn HTML?

There are many online courses and offline books available to learn the language. My personal favorite is a no-cost course that is available online:

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/

This is an in-depth course which shows many aspects of HTML, and how to make it work properly when you enter it into your HTML editor. I highly recommend printing this course out and actually putting it in a three ring binder so that you can use it for easy reference when you are editing your webpage. Follow the tutorial on that site, if you really want to learn HTML. Put together the site that it builds while taking you through the course. Learn the basic tags it teaches, and commit them to memory so that you can do a page without referring to your "handbook" every time you want to put together a new site.

Here are a couple of other sites that can help you in your designing efforts:

Complete True HTML Color Chart:

http://www.immigration-usa.com/html_colors.html

HTML Tables Tutorial:

http://free-html-tutorials.com/tables/

Bookmark those sites and put them in your Favorites folder so that you have them close at hand. I have them in a folder labelled "Website Design Tools."

You may also want to print out the Tables Tutorial and put it in a three ring binder to go along with your full HTML tutorial I recommended above. Refer to both of those frequently as you learn. These are some of the very best that I've found online. They are both comprehensive and easy to follow.

One more thing...you can use templates that are already put together for you and enter your own HTML code to those. There are many sites available online through which you can get free templates, or purchase a ready made one. My feelings about that are this - do I really want my site to look like dozens of others already out there? If so, I'll go find a free one or purchase the ready made. If not, I'll build my own from scratch so that I can control the colors and the setup. I derive a lot of pleasure from building one completely and seeing it online and functioning. That's just my personal preference, though. It's up to you to determine which works best for you.

I hope that what I've given you here helps you.