Part I - Learning

Part II - Preparation

Part II - Writing the Code

Part IV - Exercises

Learn HTML/CSS and Build a Website

Create Your Own Website From Scratch

Building a responsive website, like other creating tasks, can be rewarding. It also accomplishes a goal. You may own a small business and like many small business owners, you end up wearing a lot of hats. Some business owners have paid $1000’s for a website they could have built.

Curved Arrow Everything you see to the left are the tools you need to start from literally no knowledge of web design and finish with a complete website. Each Part leads you to the next Part. Each Step builds on the previous Step. When you are done, you will have created a website from scratch. This isn't about giving you a ton of information. It's about giving you the knowledge and tools to build websites.

Some business owners built websites themselves or had someone in-house do for their businesses. Some of those websites probably cost them $1000’s in lost business because the websites looked cheap, unprofessional, not SEO-friendly and weren’t responsive.

This program gives you the tools to build a professional-looking, clean, responsive and SEO-friendly website. And it won’t cost you thousands or even hundreds of dollars. The tools here are for the DIY’er in you. If you are the type of person who likes to build things, fix things, maintain things on your own, then this is for you. If that’s you, then when you finish this program, you will be able to organize, build, create, publish your own websites.

Tired Of Scrolling Through WordPress Templates and not finding what fits your needs?

Create your own website to have the look and feel of a WordPress website.

Make modifications the way you want.

No WP image

"Paralysis by Analysis". Sometimes having too many choices can slow you down. One WP template may have a nice navigation bar, but maybe you don't like the layout. Another WP template may have a nice side bar but the content section isn't what you wanted. Why not take the best of what you like from multiple websites and make it you own.

Don't get me wrong, if you want a quick and easy website, then WordPress may be your solution. This program is for the DIY'ers who want to learn to create a website from scratch.

What You Can Do

Learn HTML

HTML Basics

Terminology, Concepts, Etc.

Learn CSS

CSS Basics

Terminology, Concepts, Etc.

Make it live

Publish Website

Publish a Website with all the tools you have now

What You Need to Get Started

  • Computer
  • Internet Access
  • Free HTML Editor

That is all you need to get started. If you want to learn how to put together a basic website, you only need the above 3 things. I’m sure a computer and internet access may seem easy to understand for the layman. What is “Free HTML Editor”? Well, free is just that, free. Editor is something that allows you to, well, edit.

An HTML Editor is a tool to create HTML and CSS files. Every Windows based computer comes with NotePad. NotePad can be used as an HTML Editor. But it is very limited. There are more robust programs on the web that you can use. Search for free HTML editors.

Once you have all three items, it is time to start learning how a website is put together and the terminology regarding HTML and CSS.

But Wait...
Most people have heard about domains and hosting and that they relate to websites. So no domain name? No hosting account? No, to learn to build the website, you technically do not need a domain name or hosting account. It helps to have both. If you want others to see your website on the World Wide Web, then you will need to have a domain and hosting account. Plus one other item, but let’s learn to build the website first.

In fact, before we move off from domains and hosting accounts, securing the domain name is an important part of the planning process. In my previous book, How to Plan Out Your Website: The Plan Before the Plan (2016), I state that you can save time and money by doing the proper planning. Proper planning means that you have the right domain name secured before planning a website around it. The cost of a domain name is nominal. For less than $15 a year, you can ensure that no one else will take it from you.

The way I explain hosting to people is that the website is the house and hosting is the street or city where it resides. You can build a beautiful house, but it has to be somewhere. The hosting is where the website resides.

If you would like to secure your domain name and hosting, go to www.hostingdomainsweb.com to purchase both. This is a website I host and do get money from people who purchase internet related products, like domains, hosting, SSL, shopping carts and more. For our example website, we are going to use riverbendadventurecamp.jamesgirardi.com. This is actually a subdomain of my website www.jamesgirardi.com. A subdomain allows us to have another website separate from the main domain. In this case, www.jamesgirardi.com is my main website.

Riverbendadventurecamp.jamesgirardi.com is a separate website connected to my main domain. People do this for other subdomains like “shop” or “blog”. Your online store is a separate entity than your website. Same with your blog. Each has its own hierarchy when it comes to a home page or a category page or a blog post or product page. So it is smart planning to set up subdomains for blogs or online stores. Let’s get started with the theoretical portion of this book.