IM Tip #1 - Learn HTML

I’ve decided to start up a series looking into different skills and shortcuts people can take when starting out online. Some of these I knew when I first started but a lot of them are ones that I have picke dup over the last 2 years. These are things that would have made my life so much easier right from the off. So here we go…

If you are trying to making a living online, learn HTML.

If you are a new marketer then this is now key, it will also save you a few $$ along the way. I’m not talking about learning how to (and spending hours) create your own fully functioning websites. Far from it, take the situation I found myself in just an hour ago….

I’ve arrange for a good friend to email out to their list about Website Profit Formula, to give a little incentive I decided to place the pre-launch sneak peek inside the members area video on the main site. (This isn’t the point I wanted to make but strengthens my arguement) I had to locate the section of code on one page and copy and paste it to an open section on the main page (which took a little HTML knowledge)…

..anyway, this screw the alignment up pretty bad. I had white gaps between suposedly seamless images and text that ran from left to right through whatever it came across. The site was a mess. Now I could have done what I normally do when it comes to coding problems:

1) Mail the guy who created the site for me and ask him to take a look.
2) Jump on a forum and find a guy who could sort this for me.

Both might have cost a few $$, but neither were a suitable solution. I had someone mailing out for me and the first impression of my site counted. I couldn’t wait for an email response or to interact with someone on a forum.

So I jumped in and opened up dreamweaver in code view. It wasn’t long before I figured out the problem and had a readable site once again.

This only took me a few minutes (ok maybe 10 including the upload and test) to sort out and also saved me the hassel of finding someone, explaining the problem and then having to pay them of course.

Now I am no expert. I will never create my own sites and there will no doubt be solutions worse than this that I cannot fix on my own. But there will also be hundreds of little bits and bobs I can do and save time on by knowing some basic HTML.

I suggest if you are wanting to make a go of it online, you do the same. (It is how this whole Web thing works anyway, so), a little more understanding can go a long way. Especially for us marketers.

If you are interested in learnign some HTML then there is no need for it to cost anything at all. You will all have a text editor like notepad (Accessories folder in Windows), and head over to the site HTMLDog. The tutorials on this site are easy to follow and work through. The sites clean feel also means you are not trying to work out what you should be reading. You will also be able to find lots of other free tutorials on the net.

A good test once you are feeling confient is to open up the source code of a favourite page (View Option and then View Source in your browser) and see if you can make sense of all the code on the site.

Stay tuned for more IM tips, coming soon…..