Before you begin to create a web page you will need these three things:

• content
• any graphics that you intend to use
• an idea

Next, you will want to consider:

• Who is your target audience
• What are you going to say, or communicate, to that audience
• What will be your goals and objectives

Now, turn to practicalities:

• Surf the web to get ideas
• Select a good software program.  Macromedia's Dreamweaver is good, but it does have a steep learning curve.  Netscape Composer is pretty easy to use (and it is free).
• Decide how much of the design you will do yourself and how much help you will need
• Review the principles of sound web page design
• Have a reference source available for when you get stuck, either a good book (see Jud's webliography) or an online source
• Do some preliminary planning, a storyboard or a layout sketch will help enormously

In reality, beginning to create a web page is not much different than approaching The Blank Page when trying to write something.

So get started.  Remember you are going to be making a lot of changes and revisions along the way.  Just get started.  You will want to:

• Occasionally look at your page as if you were a user/viewer
• Constantly make sure that the information you are providing has relevance
• Continually refine and revise your page.

Let's look at an example.