HTML is short for the acronym Hyper Text Markup Language. In short, it is a series of code that was designed for the purpose of displaying Web Pages in Web Browsers. A sample code might look like this...
<html>
<title>
</title>
<header>
</header>
<body>
</body>
</html>
The above is just a basic, stripped down version of HTML Code. If you were build a website and look at the code for the finished product, it would look drastically different. There are numerous Tags, which are what you see above, that we can use to insert images, video, and links to our website to make it more dynamic and attractive.
However, the vast majority of Website Owner/Operators, fail within the first few months to a year. Why? Simply because they do not have a plan of action. They have not found their audience and have not developed an article strategy. They just throw the website together, in the hopes that things will fall together and draw traffic or attention.
So, how does one go about planning their Website? First off, you need a few tools. These tools can range in features and prices. Here is a list of tools you'll need...
A Photo Editor - Gimp
A Hosting Service - Host Gator or Media Temple
Gimp is a free Photo Editor that can allow you to edit photos and make logos as well. Making your Own Logos and/or Web Banners may be what you might want to do to start with. At least until you get some extra income and can afford to higher a designer. Again, planning out your Logo and what you want users to get out of it, might be your first step.
Here are several links that shows you what different colors mean, that way you can get some ideas on how you want to design your Logo/Banner. The last link shows you the different major brands and the meanings behind their logos.
Finding a platform is relatively easy. This particular blog is hosted on the Blogger Platform and is hosted for free by Blogger. Free blogs such as Wordpress and/or Blogger do have their advantages and disadvantages. With free blogs for example, you do not have to know any coding at all. However, for those of you who are here, chances are, you probably want to learn coding and design.
A benefit of having hosted Wordpress or Blogger platforms, is that you can add plugins and other features that you might not be able to add on the free websites. This adds more functionality to your website/blog. Most of these functions however, can be added to your website via HTML, CSS, or PHP code. However, we must start somewhere and our starting point is HTML.
Hosting Services range in price and features. Host Gator is a great example of a beginner style Hosting Service. They offer you minimal features to get your site started with added features that you can add right off the bat or later down the road. Media Temple is great for those who truly want to focus on the expansion of their website. If you want generate traffic and you're going to invest in that, then you'll want to invest in a better overall Hosting Service. Media Temple not only has better Servers, but it has better Customer Support, more Bandwidth for your Website, and a great slue of choices for Platforms that you can choose from.
Now come the basics of the actual planning phase. Once you have everything up and running, you'll want to start doing some thinking. In fact, by now you should have a design in mind for your logo as well as a solid name choice. You need to be able to answer a few questions before we get started. Those questions are as follows:
- What is your target audience?
- What does your target audience want/need to know?
- How are you going to deliver that information?
That's it, three simple keys to plan out your Website. Knowing who your Target Audience is, is often the main cause for Website/Blog failure. The reason why you're not getting comments on your blog, the reason why people are not sharing your post on Social Media sites, etc. Once you know who your Target Audience is, then you can really begin to shine. You may even be able to divide your Target Audience into two or three different groups. That way, you can write to different groups on each day or perhaps alternate between each group.
What does your Target Audience want/need to know? In my case, I have decided to teach HTML to people that want to learn. In other words, this is going to be a Tutorial Series that is geared towards Beginner Programmers who want to Design their own Websites. Perhaps even those who want to Design Websites for others, to turn it into a Job. Owning and Operating a Website can be a lot of fun. It doesn't have to be Difficult or seem like it's Rocket Science. However, it does need to be about something that you know and/or are learning about. Also, the Website in this tutorial series is going to be one dedicated to Travel and Architectural Designs, which will be a fully operational Website by the end of the tutorial.
How are you going to deliver that information? There are many different options for delivering your content/information to your readers/listeners. You can write an article such as this, which is often times the most common form of Website Viability. You can however offer different solutions such as Video via YouTube, a downloadable Audio File, or perhaps even a Podcast via BlogTalkRadio. There are varioius Social Networks to take into consideration as well, such as: Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, and other popular sites.
As you can tell, there is a lot of planning just going into your Target Audience. However, the planning doesn't stop there. Once you have colors picked out, as well as your Target Audience for your Website determined, you'll want to delve into the Layout of your Website.
Layouts can come in many forms, but it doesn't have to be a Difficult Task. In fact, some of the most popular websites out there are simple Two Column Websites that have Articles on the Left and Side Bars on the Right. There are Headers, Footers, Banners, Ad Space, Social Media Locations, and the Number of Columns to take into consideration. Some sites have as many as four or five Columns, along with Multiple Header or Footer areas. It depends on how complex you "Need It To Be" in order to reach your desired Target Audience. It's important to remember to not go overboard.
This concludes our tutorial for the day, Learn HTML - Stage One - Website Planning. Don't forget that your Target Audience is perhaps the single most important key in everything you tackle. You have to connect with people so that they'll keep coming back to your Website. If you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends and don't forget to follow us here on Blogger so you can get more updates.
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