HTML is a coding language used to create web pages in the world wide web.

Frankly speaking, I don’t even know what is HTML when I started my internet business. I’m serious! Before this, I only know the basics in Ms Word and Ms Excel. That’s it! Two programs.

It was at that point when I started my business that I told myself, “If I’m going to start an internet business, I will learn up everything that goes in my way!”. Looking back now, it wasn’t a hard journey at all…especially if you know where to look for services that can substitute your lack of skill.

So, what did I do to brush up my IT skills? (…and what you can do?)

1. Learn from a good book

First thing I did was to shop for a good book. This, I think is what most of the people will do. Buy a book and read! There are many titles out there on this topic. Run a search at Amazon.com and you’ll find yourself a long list of books. Unfortunately in my case, I knew this method would not work for me. When I saw how thick the books were, I could vision months of reading with no real job done. (Only in my case, maybe not for you) I flipped through the books and thought, “Hey! I don’t need to master all this before I start, do I? All I need was the very basic skills!”. So, I resort to the next method…

2. e-Learning

A local network marketing company introduced this to me. I was surprised to see so many courses offered online for free. “Well, few hours course is faster than reading a book. Let’s give it a try. After all, it’s free!”. I took a basic HTML course in less than 3 hours (it normally takes an average person five hours…hint hint). Upon completion of the course, I thought I was ready until I saw…

3. Learning from other websites

…how advance other websites are. How am I going to compete with others if their websites can talk, have banners, forms, boxes and borders? Then, I found out how we can actually learn HTML from other websites by going to View > Source. Click on it! A notepad file will pop up with full HTML of that website. View and find out how certain effects are applied. Copy the HTML for the effect that you like. This is a very fast way to learn especially if you already know how to copy and paste. However, the basic HTML e-course has helped me to understand where I should copy and paste so I highly recommend you take a basic course.

Since HTML languages are not in paragraphs, it might be challenging for you to locate the HTML for the effect that you want. A great tool you can use is a …

4. HTML editor

Why didn’t someone tell me about this earlier?

With this tool, you don’t need to know much about HTML to start creating HTML pages like a pro. Yes, I mean it!

HTML editors allows you to write like you normally do in Ms Word, format sentences by highlighting it, add pictures, create buttons and change color with just few clicks on the mouse.

If you want to locate HTML for an effect in a web page, highlight the effect and click on ‘HTML’ to view the HTML of this effect, which is also highlighted.

A time saving and convenient tool.

Ms FrontPage and Dreamweaver are the common HTML editors, which can be used to design web page even when you are offline. Subsequently, run a quick search for “HTML editor” or “free HTML editor”. There are plenty of HTML editors, which you can download from the web.

5. Get a good web host

Check the features before you sign up for any web hosting packages. There are a web host that provides you with a built-in site html editor and pre-designed templates. All you need to do is to add content and graphics (if you want to) in the allocated columns. It is an advantage if your web-hosting package comes with a library of plug-in java scripts, a logo creator, statistics analyzer and etc. These are either paid services or require “IT skills” for you to create your own.

So the next time you think you can start your own internet business yet because you don’t have the technical skills to do so, think again!

“If you put your heart into doing what you want to do and focus on what you want to achieve, nothing can stop you from reaching your goal!”

Good luck!

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Michele Lum is the author for StartingYourOwnInternetBusiness.com, a site dedicated to helping people start their own e-business through an online step-by-step guide and the 7 days e-course. Discover how you can be an internet entrepreneur in 3 simple steps starting from as low as $4.95 per month.

Sign up for free e-course at www.StartingYourOwnInternetBusiness.com

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