If you've decided to try to take the plunge and build a website, We must first pound a misunderstood fact into your brain. *You will NOT be an expert with HTML overnight!* It took us the better portion of 6 months to get a stable grasp on exactly what needed to be done to get a decent website built. Webdesign involves lots of little ideas and symbols that can take a little bit to understand, so if you don't try to build an entire site in a two hour period you'll be okay.

Anyway, to start a website you need to understand exactly what you need to build one:

• Webspace:
  Space on the web allows you to store images and pages directly on the internet. Although you can pay for premium services, if you are starting out with your first web page you would be better off keeping your money and using a free service, such as Geocities or Brinkster.
  
• File Manager:
  Once you have a server, you will want to become aquainted with the server's File Manager. Some servers have what is called a "Web Builder", or something like it. It's basicly a program, almost like a game, that let's you move around freely and create your page with no HTML (see below). Although these builders can be much easier and inviting to use, using them often times does not create a site as exact and good-looking as using raw HTML. If you are serious about building websites, PLEASE learn HTML. What you do want to use on your server is what is called the "File Manager", which holds all of your files and documents, and allows you to edit your pages, etc. Find it and make use of it!
  
  
• Basic HTML Knowledge:
  HTML is what we going be describing in the tutorials. HTML stands for "hypertext markup language", which is literaly the language of the web. HTML is made up of "Tags", which tells the browser what the HTML wants to display. Basic HTML knowledge is what is needed to make a decent website.
  
  
• Graphic Editor:
  You can't make an attractive website with just text HTML. Although you can find plenty of websites that give out free graphics, if you want original graphics you need an editor, and believe me, Microsoft Paint is not good enough! You can get a free version of Paint Shop Pro (what we use here), and there are other great programs such as Adobe Photoshop that also make great graphics.
  
  Now that you should some sort of idea of what you need to get started, we suggest finding a server that you like, and get aquainted with it. You should also be developing some ideas of what you want to put on your website, just please remember to be original!