Where do I start?

If you want to know the web inside and out, the first thing that you will have to learn will be Xhtml. It's a very easy language to learn and master, and I would say don't use anything but notepad until you know it in and out. Dreamweaver is great and it's what I use to develop sites, because it has a lot of shortcuts but you should know XHTML at an advanced level before using shortcuts. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to master.

HTML is the same thing as XHTML, only XHTML is standardized HTML. So in HTML, you can get away with "sloppy" code, incomplete tags, etc. and the browser will most likely still be able to guess what you are trying to tell it to do. Now that there are browsers on phones and smaller devices which do not have the same resources as computers do, they wanted to make the HTML more efficient so that the browser didn't have to waste resources trying to guess what the HTML was saying.

Maybe that's a little too much detail, but it seams to me that the natural progression should you want to learn web development would be:

XHTML
CSS (Be sure to pay attention to best practices which most books teach now)
javascript
Information Architecture (How to organize info to be user-friendly, accessible and practical)
Database design (You'll have to learn how databases work before programming to interact with them)
Web Programming language like ASP, PHP, ColdFusion (I recommend PHP because all of the software is open source, so you can download it for free - like MySQL)

Here is the best beginning tutorials on the web, for free from the committee that governs HTML, CSS, etc. If you go through and complete these today, you will feel 100% more confident in your ability to accomplish this great task you've set for yourself. Good luck!

This answer was edited by Jodi-Mesa 264 days ago.

Reason: add

Here are some other ideas That I posted in another thread about this.

online marketing, Google AdSense, selling things, etc etc.

The key is doing something that makes money, and has enough traffic to actually make money. Often, you can do things that don't require HTML skills.

http://www.webanswers.com/finance-investing/how-do-i-make-money-online -44db65

Before you even begin learning about the Internet, you need to arrive at some serious decisions as to exactly "how" you intend to earn money on the Internet. Will you be selling a product or a service? How will you entice people to come to your website to do business? There are millions and millions of sites out there with owners who dream of "earning money on the Internet" who have done little more than pay a lot of money to someone else claiming to be able to teach them how to earn a living on the Internet. Most of these millions of site owners never realize one cent of profit from their Internet business. After you decide "what" you want to do on the Internet, try starting out at http://www.showtheworld.com That is a free site with basic instructions on how to get things done. You might find that if you intend to sell a product, you would be much better off opening a store at eBay and using PayPal as your credit card processor. As for learning one of the Internet page languages, don't waste your time. Old coders never seem to die, but they are definitely obsolete. The smart and inexpensive way to design and publish a site today is using Microsoft Expressionweb which is the replacement/upgrade from FrontPage. You don't need a knowledge of language code to use this program and it is fully capable of matching the results of even the best code experts. You can save even more time and money by going to a credible "template" site and buying a ready-made site template. Good luck with your endeavor.

Liveaboard, there's a lot of ways to make money online. Some you can start today, without a lot of programming knowledge. They key is setting up an automated system that generates passive income while you sleep. People do this by writing blogs, opening online stores, becoming affiliate marketers, writing e-books, etc.

A good place to start is deciding what you are already an expert at. Since you know a lot about Mechanical Repairs and Construction that's a good choice. For instance, you could write a how-to blog on how to repair house boats. Start another on the Top 10 Best Places to Sail Around Maine, etc, etc. Monetize your blog with Google AdSense. You won't get rich overnight but you can earn revenue, just dedicate a couple hours a week and see how it goes. Nuture your site(s) for a couple of years - you need to give them time to grow. Don't fall in love with any single idea until it's proven itself. Try a lot of things and see what sticks.

WordPress offers blogs, so you don't need to do all of the coding yourself: wordpress.com . Of course there's tons of books on WordPress to learn more: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470149469?ie=UTF8&tag=webans-20&link Code=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470149469

Learning HTML or XHTML is helpful, I suggest online training at: www.lynda.com . They offer self paced videos that are a lot better than just reading books. Books are essential too, but learning through video really helps.

Think and Grow Rich is a good book for getting in the proper mindset:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593302002?ie=UTF8&tag=webans-20&link Code=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1593302002