Before We Get Started!

Before we dig into all this HTML stuff, here are a few comments you might want to read:

I've been around the Internet since before it was public and started coding HTML when the World Wide Web was little more than a year old and there was only one reasonably good web browser called Cello. The web sure has changed since then, but HTML is still pretty much the same. Sure, it's got a lot more tags than there were at the beginning, and we've learned a lot of things about layout and "look and feel" and how it applies to selling things on the 'net (called: e-commerce by people who like fancy phrases for things!), but HTML is still pretty much HTML. You'll learn about that on another page.

The thing is, working with HTML is pretty easy and it's worth taking just a little time to find out the best ways and how to do it right. I see post after post on the eBay help boards by people saying, "Please help! I spent the whole weekend pulling my hair out..." and these same people said not two weeks before, "I don't want to take the time to learn HTML, I just want to make pretty listings!"

I get e-mails all the time from people who tell me, "I drive a car but I don't want to know what goes on under the hood!" The thing is, if you take just a little time -- less than the weekend of hair pulling! -- you can learn all the HTML you will ever need to create great listings, me pages and store fronts. If you want it all in one compact place, take a look at my Baker's Dozen tutorial CD. If you prefer a more detailed and complete course, see my HTML Template Design Course or if you just want to work through a series of tips and ideas, then proceed through all of the pages on this free site.

Whichever way you choose to learn HTML it really is worth the effort. You will be able to create great looking auction listings which most often help get more and higher bids. And you won't have to spend a weekend pulling your hair out.

There are a few things to think about before you get started:

• Don't bother with big fancy HTML programs like Front Page and Dreamweaver. They are too complex (and too expensive!) for creating auction listing. Not only are the totally unnecessary, they will probably cause you more grief than they will save!
• Do get a good text editor (you can use NotePad) or a good HTML editor like AceHTML or 1st Page 2000, both available elsewhere on this site (try: Wiz Picks) as these will produce clean HTML code that will work flawlessly with eBay.
• Never use word processor programs like MSWord or WordPerfect to create, or copy, your listings. These programs are fine for writing business letters but their patched-on HTML functions are the worst ever. Trust me on this one!

For most of us, learning new things, or even reading more than a paragraph or two, is something we gave up when we graduated from highschool or college. Heaven help us if we have to read a whole page of information. Most of us really aren't stupid, though we often tend to say that by way of excuse when we can't catch on to something right away. The thing is, being stupid or intelligent has nothing to do with how much, or what, we know. Not knowing something isn't "stupid", it's just lack of knowledge and simply means we haven't learned it yet.

Most of us are reasonably intelligent and we can learn if we actually try to learn the right way. Most of us, however, tend to be lazy about reading and if we don't read we can't learn. As you look at the pages of this site, I guarantee you will be able to learn anything and everything covered here if you will just take the time to actually read -- don't let your eyes glaze over and skim! There is nothing on this site that is too technical or uses words that are too big to understand.

Take your time and work through the pages on this site. I've tried to organize them in an order that will lead from one item to the next and make it easy to learn. If you came here just looking for one specific thing, then go right to that page, but if your purpose is to learn enough HTML to do the things you want with your listings then start at the beginning and work through from page to page.

YOU can learn. You can learn enough HTML to make using it easy. Just take a little time to read, take notes and practice what you learn. In just a couple of days you will be saying, "Wow! This stuff is great. Look at the listing template and me page I was able to make!"

It's always the right time to use good code!

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