If you’re doing business on the Internet, learning some basic web design skills is an absolute must. Not only will you have the ability to create your own web pages, but you’ll also save yourself a great deal of money.

Selecting an HTML Editor

Although there are many HTML editors available on the Internet, the best editor I’ve found is “Coffee Cup.” This powerful editor is great for newbies and experienced webmasters alike. You can download a fully functional shareware version here: http://www.coffeecup.com

Web pages are created with special codes known as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). These codes, also referred to as tags, are enclosed by the lesser than () brackets and may be written in capital or lower case letters.

The opening bracket is followed by an element, which is a browser command, and ends with the closing bracket.

Example:

An element may also be followed by attributes, which are words describing the properties of the element, and further instruct the browser.

Example:

Attributes are only contained in the opening tags to the right of the element and are separated by a space and followed by an equal (=) sign. The value follows the
equal sign and is enclosed in quotes.

Basic Document Structure

Below, is a very basic HTML document structure. It contains the opening HTML tag, the TITLE tag enclosed between the opening and closing HEAD tags, the opening and closing BODY tags and the closing HTML tag. All of your text, graphics and any additional HTML codes will be placed between the and tags.

Your Web Page Title

Each HTML tag above contains an opening tag and a closing tag. The opening tag is written with the command enclosed with brackets.

Example:

The closing tag contains a forward slash followed by the command enclosed with brackets.

Example:

The opening tag is telling the browser to begin the specified action and the closing tag is telling the browser to end the action.

The proper way to write HTML is to place your closing tags in sequence with your opening tags.

Example:

Example of the proper sequence of writing HTML

Notice that the closing tags are in sequence with the opening tags.

When you have several opening tags, the closing tags will begin with the last opening tag and end with the first. Are you totally confused now? Here’s some more examples.

This is an example of a properly written code:
Example

This is an example of an improperly written code:
Example

Creating a Basic Document

Begin writing your HTML by creating your document’s basic layout — beginning with and ending with :

Your Page Title

This area will contain everything that will be visible
through a web browser such as text and graphics.

- Begins your HTML document

- Contains information about the page such as, the TITLE, META tags for proper Search Engine indexing, STYLE tags, which determine the page layout and
JavaScript coding for special effects.

- The TITLE of your page. This will be visible in the title bar of your visitors’ browser.

Note: Make sure you include your most relevant keyword phrase within your “title” for Search Engine indexing. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best
describe your website. For example, if your website focuses on “grooming dogs” then your best keyword phrase will be “dog grooming.”

- Closes the tag.

- Closes the tag.

- This is where you will begin writing your
document.

- Closes the tag.

- Closes the tag.

Basic Text Elements

- Bold Text

Example

- Italic

Example

- Underline

Example

Color Codes

If you would like to specify a certain text or background color, you can do so by using color codes.

RGB color codes are represented as hexadecimal values. The RGB color codes contain three sets of numbers representing the amount of Red, Green and Blue contained in a color. These codes must be used within your HTML to specify your
selected colors.

Now, to put the above statement in English…if you’d like to display your text in a certain color, you must include the hexadecimal color code within your font tag. Each color has its own color code.

Here are a few of the basic color codes:

Black – #000000

White – #FFFFFF

Red – #FF0000

Green – #00C000

Blue – #0000FF

Yellow – #FFFF00

Example:

Example

You can find a 216 safe color chart here:

http://www.web-source.net/216_color_chart.htm

Creating Links

In order to navigate a web page, you must create links. Links are created with an anchor, an href attribute and a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). URL’s provide the browser with the location of the link, the name of the file and the method in which to access the file.

Example:

Link

When you begin writing your HTML code, all of your codes will be placed between your and tags, as this is the only part of your web page that will be viewed through a web browser.

You can find an HTML code chart here:

http://www.web-source.net/html_codes_chart.htm

This chart will provide you with all of the basic HTML codes, descriptions and examples to assist you in creating your web page.

Although this article provides you with a very basic overview of HTML, with the help of Coffee Cup and the HTML code chart mentioned above, you can easily begin learning how to create your own web pages.

By: Shelley Lowery

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A website is simply a collection of ‘pages’ – files on a computer, much like an Excel or Word file might be. The extension (the bit after the dot) for a web page file is ‘html’ or ‘htm’. A web site consists of a number of.html files all linked together so that you can navigate between them.

Domain Name

The name of the site is called the ‘Domain’ or ‘url’ – (Uniform Resource Locator) and is what you have to type in at the top of the browser to access the site. You need to find one that has not been used already and register – you use a ‘Domain Registrar’ to do this for you. Tell them the domain name and extension you want, they check that it is available and, if it is, they reserve it for you.

In reality, you need to purchase the domain name first – it would be a shame to build the whole web site and then discover that the phrase that you desperately need has already been taken!

Web Hosting

When you build a site, the files sit on your PC or Mac but no one else can access them, so you need somewhere the public can see them. You need is ‘Web Hosting ‘. This is simply an area on a computer that is attached to the internet where you store the files that make up your web site. You rent this space by setting up a ‘Hosting Account’ – they will charge to give you space on their big computers (servers).

So you now have a web site, a domain name and a hosting account, but your web site files are still sitting on your PC. You need to copy them to the space allocated by your Hosting supplier on their servers. You need to do something called ‘ftp’ which stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol’ using some sort of ftp utility programme. I use an Open Source tool (which are free) called FileZilla.

Do you now have everything you need? Well not quite, because there is a vital part missing and it seems to be the part that confuses people most. This is called the ‘DNS’.

‘DNS’ or Domain Name System

What DNS’ing does is to make sure that the domain name points to the space on the server where you put your web site files. The domain name is like a telephone number in the directory – it is just a number until it is actually routed to your home. DNS’ing is how you route the domain name to the server at your hosting company, so that Google knows where to go to load the web site files. This is done using something called a ‘name server’.

Name Servers

When you create your hosting account, the hosting company will send you details of their ‘name servers’. You need to tell the registrar who registered your domain name these codes so they know where the domain name should point. For example, I use HostGator for my hosting and they have allocated name servers of ‘ns1409.hostgator.com’ and ‘ns1410.hostgator.com’. I logged in to the account which holds my domain names and amended the DNS settings for each to point to the name servers HostGator sent me.

If you have hosting with the same company as you have used to register your domains, you do not need to do this step, as they will do this for you.

And finally, you need to wait a while – 24 hours or so – before the changes get passed around the internet. When you type your domain name into a browser and your page appears on the screen, it is ready!

By: Neil Lawson

About the Author:

If you want to host your web site then you have two choices.

1) Dedicated Web Hosting

2) Shared Web hosting

Dedicated web hosting is costly but you get a full control of your server. Shared hosting is cheap but you share CPU resources with many other web sites.

How Much Each Web Host Costs?

You can get dedicated website hosting at $100 to $200 per month charges. If you are just starting out your online business, this is very high amount.

You can get shared hosting at just $3 to $9 per month. Shared hosting is very cheap because all CPU resources are shared among many clients.

How Much Secure Each Hosting Is?

Well, dedicated website hosting is much more secure than shared web hosting. If any site on shared sever is hacked then it can affect other web sites too.

In dedicated website hosting, you have full access for your server. So that reduces the chances of being hacked due to other people’s mistake. Although if you have very bad luck then dedicated server can also be hacked but chances are less compared to shared web hosting.

Access Level

In shared website hosting, you can’t get full access of your server. In dedicated hosting, you have full access of your server. You can do whatever you like with dedicated hosting.

Getting full access to the server is beneficial as well as harmful also. You can mess up all setting by mistake if you have full access. You cannot do such stupid thing in shared web hosting.

I personally don’t like the dedicated hosting due to its price. I believe it’s not worth. I have seen many high traffic web sites on the shared hosting. So don’t assume that if you have high traffic then dedicated hosting is the only solution.

By: Dhruv Patel

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Web page hosting is something that every single web page on the internet has to have since web hosting services are required to have your site seen on the internet. If you want to host a web page on the internet, you will have to wade through thousands of hosting companies in order to find one to suit your needs.

If you are not armed with knowledge of web hosting terminology and technology, how can you possibly make an educated decision on which company should host your web page?

First, you should learn about the different types of web page hosting that are available on the internet. There are a lot of different kinds of web hosting but there are the most common ones used by web pages on the internet.

Shared Web Hosting
With shared web page hosting, numerous web pages are hosted on the same web server. All of these pages will share the same resources available on the server such as internet connection, hard drive space, CPU speed, RAM, etc.

While this is the most common kind of web hosting, it can be dangerous for a professional business because of the sometimes unreliable nature of shared web page hosting.

Virtual Dedicated Server
Virtual dedicated servers are also called virtual private servers. With this type of web hosting account, you are still sharing a server with other web pages but this time you have your own piece of the server’s resources that are dedicated to your site.

In all other aspects, it functions just like a dedicated server where you generally have your own IP address, can host numerous web pages, and have root access to your server.

Dedicated Server Hosting
A dedicated server hosting account is where you have an entire web server that only you get to use and you do not have to share anything with any other web pages.

Dedicated web hosting servers are offered in a number of different formats to suit the needs of a client. You usually get to choose the server specifications depending on your budget.

Colocation dedicated servers are purchased instead of leased servers that are maintained, connected to the internet and stored by a web hosting company.

Dedicated servers are generally assumed to be leased servers where you make a monthly payment to the web hosting service to have use of the web server.

Managed dedicated servers are higher priced leased servers that are managed and controlled by a web hosting company similar to the way a shared hosting account would be managed. Managed dedicated servers do not receive root access but will keep you from landing in a situation where you have messed up a server setting by playing around with something you didn’t have the knowledge to be doing.

Unmanaged dedicated servers are for webmasters that have the knowledge to maintain and even perform software updates to their own web server. This is the cheapest web server leasing option available but you will be responsible for your own machine.

Web Page Hosting Technologies
It is also important that you have a thorough understanding of web hosting technologies before you proceed with purchasing your web hosting account. Again, this is not a complete listing of the different technologies used by web servers and web site hosts, but they are the most important features that you should know about when choosing a web host.

Web Hosting Control Panels
There are actually quite a few different control panel software systems being used by hosting companies these days. Some of these control panels are designed by the companies using them so they can limit access to certain features of their choosing. Other control panels are widely used, powerful pieces of software that give you full control over your web site and the newest technologies available.

It is essential that you select a web hosting service that will give you full access to your site or else you may find yourself needing features that are not available to you. This is especially true when you start trying to install software scripts on your site.

CPanel is probably the most widely used web hosting control panel and is the recommended control panel that you should look for when selecting a hosting service provider.

Web Page Programming Languages and Databases
It is absolutely essential that you are aware of what programming languages and databases you may want to use before you choose a web host. Different scripts that are used for sites on the internet may only be compatible with specific versions of programming languages and databases.

Once you have determined what programming languages and databases you will need, you can search out a web host that can provide you with what your web site will need to run properly. Different web servers will have different versions of programming languages and databases installed on them, so you want to be sure that you will have access to the versions that you need.

All web pages use some sort of HTML and possibly CSS as well. HTML tells the web browser what to show the user while CSS will add style to various elements on the page.

Javascript, PHP and ASP are some of the most common programming languages used by web pages. If you are going to be running a script written in ASP, you want to be sure to get a web page hosting company that can offer you the windows operating system because ASP does not run under Linux.

MySQL is generally viewed as being the best and most widely used database software. It can handle enormous amounts of information and is used by some of the largest, most popular web sites on the internet such as Wikipedia, Facebook and even Google.

Web Hosting Operating Systems
While you may be inclined to choose a windows web hosting account because you use windows on your home computer, you may want to reconsider unless you are going to be running scripts written in ASP. Linux is the dominating operating system on the internet and most scripts will work best under that environment. Many people also argue that Linux servers produce a faster loading page than windows servers.

Web Page Hosting Bandwidth and Hard Drive Limits
A lot of web page hosting service providers are offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth these days, but it is still important to make sure that is what you are signing up for before you select a web host.

Almost all brand new web sites will not have to worry about exceeding bandwidth and hard drive space limits at first, but it is something that you want to be sure to pay attention to because your web page hosting account can be suspended if you reach these limits. If your site is suspended, all web traffic to it will be blocked.

By: Ethan Boss

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By: Rose N

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By: Julia

About the Author:

Web Hosting services are among essential needs in online world. People often need a web space and hosting service in order to launch a website for their business or personal purposes. To serve this common demand for web space and hosting, several web hosting service providers are offering attractive hosting packages.

Sometimes availability of multiple options becomes confusing for customers. So, here are a few tips to help in selection of perfect web hosting packages.

Assessment of Requirements

Before going further, one should assess the essential requirements. For example if someone is planning to launch an e-commerce website then their requirements will be different that an individual looking to launch a personal blog or information website. Therefore, it is very important to do assessment of all essential as well as subsidiary requirements of web hosting.

One should clarify a few things like, how much web space they need, what operating system they prefer on server, how many email addresses they want with their hosting, whether they need a shared server or a dedicated one, as well as need for SSL certificates (in case they want to have online transaction through website).

Technical Aspects of Hosting

It is very important to check technical aspects of the hosting package before subscribing for that. Usually Linux hosting is cheaper than Windows Hosting, but going for Linux just to save money is not good. You should check your basic requirements also like various language supports, database, as well as the platform on which your website is developed. If you database is Microsoft SQL, then you cannot go for Linux hosting.

Another technical aspect includes the stability and scalability of hosting package. Check how much server uptime they (hosting service providers) are offering. Go for maximum uptime in order to stay connected with your potential customer without any break. Also confirm the choices of upgrade. In case you need more web space, whether they will switch you over in between or they will charge addition for switching over.

Customer Support

After sales customer support is the most important thing for web hosting customers. One has to face different kinds of issues while running and managing a website. A good customer care department should be there for provide seamless service.

Once you check all the above said things related to various hosting packages, you are ready to make your decision.

By: Raj Kamal

About the Author:

The majority of Content Management System users never take the time to learn the HTML basics. Technology has changed the way the internet is used and Content Management Systems have made it possible for anyone to build a website, blog, or start an internet based work from home business. Their ease of use tends to make us lazy webmasters. Wouldn’t you like to learn some of the HTML basics?

Have you ever found a great looking website and asked yourself: “Wow, that’s cool how did they do that? Learning the HTML basics is not rocket science. Its actually a fairly simple and logical format.

HTML is written in plain text, it reads left to right, and top to bottom. What makes HTML come to life is what is known as tags. Tags are simple commands that we give words or phrases to create an affect such as bold, italics, and underline.

Lets suppose you are creating a new page for a website and you want to a certain word or phrase to stand out from the rest of the text. All you have to do is put a beginning tag in front of the word or phrase and an ending take after the word or phrase. You see that’s not so hard. Now all we need to learn about the HTML basics is what the tag commands are and how to format the tag.

Formatting A Tag

The formats for all tags or commands are the same. There are no exceptions to the rule. They start with a less-than sign: . You remember these symbols from algebra class don’t you? What goes between the is the tag. What affect do we want to put on the word? Do we want it to be bold, or maybe italicized. So formats are those algebra signs and tags are what we want the word or phrase to look like. I told you this wasn’t rocket science.

For instance: The tag for bold is “strong”

James RouseJames Rouse

You see this HTML basics stuff really works once you get the hang of it.

Lets Break it Down

strong wrapped between is the start strong tag. “James Rouse” is the affected word by the “strong” tag. /strong wrapped between with a backslash is the end strong tag. It’s the same as the beginning tag with a backslash in front of the tag command. And the final product, Drum roll please: James Rouse
Its An Open And Closed Case – The Tags

In this article the term begin and end has been used for the tags. They are commonly known as open tags (beginning) and closed tags (end). Since this is the HTML basics it was easier to describe their location using the begin and end terms. Most times tags will require to be opened and closed although there are some cases when an open tag is all that is needed. Below are some examples of typical tags and their effect.

strong wrapped between followed by the close tag – results in bold p wrapped between followed by the close tag at the end of text results in new paragraph em wrapped between followed by the close tag results in italics

There may be occasions when you want to use two tags on the same word or phrase. This may be getting a little advances for HTML basics but lets explore this a bit.

Lets say want to make a word bold and italic. Set your first tag as strong immediately followed by the em tag. Then what word you want affected by the tag followed by the end tag em and strong in this order.

Be careful doing this because the tags have to be in the same order. If you mix up the order the formatting will be wrong. The best method for keeping the order correct is to add your open and close tags simultaneously.

Stand Alone Tags

The HTML basics isn’t so hard once you get it figured out. So far we’ve talked about the open and close tags but there are some instances when a single tag is used without a need for the close tag. The most common ones are as follows:

HR wrapped between will produce a solid line going across the page. This is useful when you want to break a page up. BR wrapped in forces a line break.

Well, you made it through the introduction to HTML basics. The next time you get ready to write another page with the Content Management System of choice you’ll have a better understanding of how all this stuff works.

I still use a CMS for my websites using HTML basics from SBI (Site Build It) because these guys really know search engine optimization. I actually became interested in HTML by reading their members only forums. That’s where I got my HTML basics education.

Creating web pages that look good and read well is fun. Building a business with all the necessary tools for one low price and getting found on the search results page is priceless!

By: J. P. Rouse

About the Author:

By learning HTML basics, you can publish content online with link anchor text and embedded images, audio or video with simple code.

If you are an affiliate marketer, having basic HTML skills will allow you to make minor to moderate changes to the code as you publish content to promote a product. Learning how to do update HTML is not very difficult at all.

HTML tags are very easy to understand because they are logical and there is much documentation available both online and offline. If you know how to use a software tool like Microsoft Word, you can learn the basics of HTML, it is really that simple.

As far as resources, you have many cheap and easy references including a wide variety of HTML tutorial websites. With these help sites, HTML is fully explained and demonstrated so that you can learn all of the skills and techniques need to design a website. It is entirely reasonable for somebody with no experience to learn enough HTML to build a web page in a single day.

Video tutorials are also helpful in learning HTML. It is very obvious that video tutorials are instrumental in helping students to learn basic HTML. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a volume of words. With video training you will actually see what steps are required to design a HTML web page leading to website design.

Like most things in life, building a website is a process that can be learned, just as you learned to walk and talk. If you are going to eventually design a website, you will of course need a domain name and web hosting.

One thing to consider is domain name availability. You will have to visit domain registrars and use their search box to check the availability of your target domain name. It is always best that the domain name you purchase is descriptive of the actual website site that you are developing.

Next you will need to acquire a web host to publish your website online. Once you learn how to publish a website online, creating more will not only be easier but also very addictive.

So before you publish your website, a domain name and website hosting is required.

Rest assured that you can learn to write HTML code. One last tip you should consider is a web development editor. There are many available. Some are free, but the more feature packed website editors cost a small amount. You can also use Windows Notepad for writing HTML code. Using a simple text editor like Notepad is probably the best solution because some of the HTML editors add extra tags and other information that may confuse you and complicate your HTML code.

By: Jazmine Farley

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Those who are in search of the right host will do best by reading up on web hosting service providers first, simply by visiting a trusted web hosting review site. If you are about to introduce your business on the Internet and you plan to have your own website, you would need to get the right web host, to avoid headaches down the road. The web host is the one, which takes care of the visibility and accessibility of your site on the Internet. The way your files are easily downloaded by your site visitors or the way your website is easily accessed would depend on the kind of web host you have. Therefore, before you decide to choose a web host you should research into the various offerings of each one and decide if they are going to meet the needs of your future site.

Some web hosts offer trial versions of their services, so you don’t have to pay anything before trying out their packages first. This is an excellent way to find out if the web hosting packages are attuned to the requirements of your website and your business. However, one of the more convenient ways that you can evaluate web hosting companies is to find honest web hosting reviews on the web. There are various websites dedicated to web hosting and web hosting services, and in most cases, these sites offer hosting reviews as well. They also make recommendations, based on the performance and customer support offered by the web host. It is also imperative that you find a trustworthy website, which is able to give you a fair and thorough insight into the services offered by web hosts.

Since there are various types of hosting, from PHP hosting to business hosting, you have to identify which hosting type suits your business best. Many of these hosting reviews are categorize the hosting types separately, so you will be able to view the services offered by each hosting type. It will be easier to identify which among the web hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth, unlimited sub domains, and unlimited email accounts. If you demand top-notch, round-the-clock customer support, or if you require an uptime guarantee of not less than 99.9%, you will easily know which web hosts are deserving of your attention.

You may have some specific requirements in getting a web host, such as your budget and the availability of a money-back guarantee. You may be in need of easy-to-install scripts to achieve a well-designed and functional website. There are hosting providers that offer money-back guarantees of up to 45 days, and these are often included in many web hosting reviews on the web. If you are an advocate of environment conservation furthermore, you will know which among the hosting companies nowadays have gone “green”, by using solar panels to power their servers and their offices.

By: Cindy Cox

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