Archive for February, 2007

Learning Basic HTML

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

Ok, no getting around it, you’ve got to learn some HTML! You don’t have to be great at it, but you really do need the basics. Even if you choose to write and format everything in Word and use PDFs for your ebooks, white papers, articles and the like. You will still need to be able to change headlines on your website, create or change ‘thank you’ and ‘sales’ pages, and add things quickly to your website.

There is a wonderful membership website that I once enjoyed. The site is filled with Internet Entrepreneurs who are successfully running an internet business. There are a series of detailed interviews discussing how each of them got to be successful. Without exception, every single business owner said ‘you have got to do your own website’. The number one regret by those who hired others was the money they spent on web designers. They all learned HTML in the end.

Now I am not saying that you will be stuck building your own websites forever and ever… in fact, I encourage everyone to have “propellerheads” on their team. Its just that even when others are building the sites for you, you will still want to be able to gain access and do some minor changing of copy, colors, font sizes and the like.

HTML is the language of websites. You use HTML to make your fonts large, change colors…

Start a new paragraph, insert a picture…

I am not the best source to teach you. However, Annabella is! She has a wonderful website where I learned HTML. It’s located at:

http://www.annabella.net/html.html

Once you get through Annabella’s site here is a handy HTML reference guide:

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/developer/reference/tag-table.html

Here is one more great learning site:

http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex.html

There are other languages that have been created after HTML. Java, php, and others. However, you will find that for most needs, a bit of HTML is all you need. Anything more complex is best handled by your propellerhead, unless you have plans to really master this area of web design.

At some point you will need an HTML editor. This is a handy tool that lets you see what it is you have created. Let’s take a quick look at the most popular ones.

Microsoft FrontPage® is very popular. It has a lot of great functionality allowing you to build a site from scratch. It’s a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that lets you graphically design your web pages. It’s one of the easier ones to learn. Though you will still spend a week or two banging your head trying to figure it all out (assuming you are a beginner). One of the things I like about it is the ability to “split” the screen and see the HTML code along with what the web page looks like.

Dreamweaver is supposed to be the best. It’s the high end program that does everything but the dishes with regards to website design. The learning curve is high. And frankly, if you aren’t going to be building sites right along, it’s expensive.

There are website builders out there that take all the pain out of building websites. You provide the copy and the graphics, and they manage the rest. The one we like at the moment is XSitePro. It is relatively easy, quick and inexpensive as these things go. They also don’t appear to leave a “footprint”… something that the search engines look for to see if your sites are mass-produced.

Check out our resource page at http://www.BizRecipes.com for this resource along with our many, many favorite things.

I have used a little free HTML editor that is quite delightful.

You can download it at: http://www.evrsoft.com

It’s called 1st Page 2000 and we used it for several years before moving to FrontPage®. I always like to include a free tool wherever possible for those who must be extra careful with their dollars.

What can I say? You just have to sit down in front of your computer and do it. This is one of those skills that you will have forever. And you will be very glad you learned it.

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Learning Success, Increasing Education, Building a Business Entirely Online

Friday, February 9th, 2007


“Webucation is the next great growth opportunity” –Peter Drucker

The Internet has transformed the way people get their education. Where once, taking online courses was an exception rather than the rule, it has now become one of the most popular and quickest ways to educate oneself and even start your own business. Traditional online education isn’t the only way to educate oneself. Just gathering information about a particular subject that interests you is a form of educating yourself. There are also distance and continuing learning courses which are more formal than simply gathering information, but less formal than a traditional class where accredited grades are given. With online website, it allows both education, through personal development courses, and starting your own business to be accomplished at the same time. Courses offered involve personal development and achievement. They teach students about life, relationships, and finances. That’s enough to appeal to almost everyone in some way. Getting your “webucation”, or education obtained on the world wide web, in specific areas that you want to know about is a reality that many are taking advantage of these days.

The webucation offers visitors a chance to not only get web-educated, and thereby become “students” of the training materials, but also to start their own business from home by offering the personal development education services to other potential “students”. These students pay a monthly fee for registering and accessing the many courses available and certificates are even issued upon completion. Courses and presentations in personal achievement are given by the likes of Brian Tracy, Les Brown, Jay Abraham, Cynthia Kersey, Robert Allen, and more. Business minded people may particularly be interested in this as not only do they get to use the site to start their own business online, but they also get the motivational training that many business professionals need to succeed in life and the business world, and will want to network with others about it. The added bonus is that they can also get paid to do it.

The field of “webucation” is growing and there does seem to be an education demand in this online niche that is growing like wildfire thanks to the proliferation and world wide reach of the Internet. In a Forbes magazine article, Peter Drucker is quoted as saying that, “Triggered by the Internet, continuing adult education may well become our greatest growth Because of this fast growing education niche, business savvy people might want to take advantage of an online business opportunity in a growth industry. By extending this form of education themselves, they have a chance to make an exciting profit at the same time as helping others obtain more personal education while increasing satisfaction in the lives of others overall.

Why continue learning online? It is easier than ever, for one. For most busy people who want to continue their education but don’t have the time to sit in a classroom, this is a great timesaver. It is also flexible as they can review material whenever they want as many times as they want. It is also much cheaper than paying tuition for traditional education courses which everyone knows goes up every year.

Why start a business online? A lot of people don’t even know that they can but many are now just starting to come to this conclusion. More and more people are wanting and needing to supplement their income without having to commute. There are also those business minded people who just want to do “something different” in their lives. Why not start a business offering others education? Both, online home business and education at home, are super growth industries.


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