Although it may seem like a lot of hocus-pocus and smoke and mirrors, a web site is actually a pretty simple thing. It consists of small files, which are written in a language called hyper-text markup language. HTML is a relatively simple set of tags that tell a web browser how to display text and images. Before word processing programs became "what you see is what you get", or WYSIWYG, users had to tell the computer when to make text bold or underlined. Handcoding HTML is reminiscent of those days.

Anyone can create a web site using the tools on their computer - namely a web browser and Notepad. You do not have to be connected to the Internet to create a web page.

Of course, most people who create web pages WANT to have them on the Internet. Putting your site on the Internet means that you must have a space that will "host" your site. You transfer your files to that space, and voila!, your web site is on the Internet.

In order to get your files onto the ISP's computer, you will need a file transfer protocol program. There are several free or shareware programs for novices who are just getting their feet wet in uploading files. One of the best FTP programs is Ipswitch's WS_FTP. There is a free version and a very reasonably priced professional version.

Once you have your FTP program installed, you have to tell it where to put your files. Your ISP will send you the passwords that you'll need to access your web site on their server. You have to plug those passwords into the FTP program and tell it to "connect" to the web site.