As a beginning website designer I needed a lot of help. When I couldn't find something I needed, I made it for myself, and now I will share all those things with you.

The first thing I needed was a source of HTML information for people who are really beginners. When I was starting, even the things that claimed to be for beginners assumed I understood things I had never even heard of. After I became quite familiar with HTML, and the way to make a decent web page, I decided to prepare some instructions and definitions so other people could find them. It isn't a complete list of everything you can do with HTML, but the basics are there, as simply as I was able to present them. Quite a few people have told me this resource has helped them a lot. I hope it will help you too.

HTML for really beginning beginners


When I had a webpage nearly made, I decided I needed a nice background for it. I looked at all the free backgrounds that I could find, and none of them were exactly what I had in mind. I used them for a while, but soon I figured out that I could make my own backgrounds. My backgrounds may not be what you have in mind, but you're welcome to look them over, and if you like any of them, help yourself. Every now and then I accidentally discover one of my backgrounds on someone's page. It's a strange feeling, and I like it. If you use one of my backgrounds, I'd welcome a link back, but I don't require it and most people don't do it. That's OK too.

I have two different background sets:


Another thing I needed was a source of color information. I wanted to know what text color would look good against which background color. I figured out a way to have a single page with 140 background colors, and 140 text colors all at the same time. You can change the color of the background by just touching your pointer to the name of the color you want, and then see all 140 colors against that background. It's a fun page to play with, too.

140 HTML Colors

After I made that page I kept thinking about all the other possible color combinations, and there are a lot of them, too many to do in any reasonable amount of time. Then one night, when I couldn't sleep I thought of a way that I would be able to put together over 4,000 colors the same way I had done with the 140, and it shouldn't take me more than a day to do it. It worked, although I had to make it in many pages because the size became too much to handle. Even as it is the pages take a little while to load. It's a useful resource if you are after EXACTLY the color you want, but mostly I did it just because I could. Seemed like a good reason at the time.

4,000 colors (actually, there are more than 4,000 but who's counting?)

I got really interested in animations for a while, too. I made several that I'm pleased with, and you are welcome to take them and use them on your own pages. With each one I made several variations, for use with different backgrounds. I did that so I could identify them as my own without the identification being ugly or obvious. If you use the animation against the right background the identification becmes invisible. But if someone copies it from your page and uses it on a different background the identification appears. One I'm particularly pleased with is a man bowling. There's also a sailing ship and a person sitting at a computer.

My animations

As I put up more and more pages of interesting things I began to get quite a few visitors to my pages. It became evident that I would be able to help pay my expenses by putting some paid advertising on the pages. That wasn't as simple as I hoped it would be. I discovered all sorts of scams, and thought I was making bunches of money, which somehow never made it into my pocket. Eventually I got things sorted out, and now I have a pretty good idea of who will pay me and who won't. There are some good places to arrange for advertising on your pages, and I have a page telling about what I've learned.

Lessons Learned

Every website needs a place to live. There are a lot of hosting companies out there, and most of them are pretty good. A few aren't, of course. I have a page listing several of them, and it's a good place to start your search for the perfect website host.

Website hosts

Once you have your website made and hosted, you have to tell the search engines about it. A lot of people will try to sell you the service of telling thousands of search engines about your page. The truth is that almost everyone uses the most popular few search engines, so it's probably a waste of money and effort to bother much with the others. I have a page that will help you register your site quickly and easily with the search engines that matter.

Register your site with search engines - free