Your own first home page
Your home page is the metaphor
of your business. 
How to get started, all by yourself 
Or To Hire Me To Do It
Or To Hire Me To Teach You
Creating your HTML pages 

Learn how to find HTML editors/converters
You can find lots of HTML editors and converters out there, on the Internet, by doing a search with AltaVista, or one of the other search engines.

Netscape Gold 
The Gold editions of Netscape have a Web Page Starter, under the Help menu, and "Edit document", under the File menu. This is nice, because you can see the edits right on the screen.    A later version,   Netscape Communicator,    has an Editor portion called Composer.

Word Processor >>> Then A Converter
If you feel more comfortable with your familiar word processor, or if you have lots of doucments already in .RTF format,  or  .DOC format,  then this is the way to go.  You can use Microsoft Office Word,   among others.

Make a document that looks like you want your home page to look. The easiest files to convert are from Word For Windows v6. If you have this word processing program, use an  .RTF file output from Word For Windows.

Then, the easiest thing to do is to convert such a document with one of the hundreds of HTML editors/converters out there on the "net", with a 30-day trial period.

I liked Web Publisher (but it costs too much after 30 days).   Web Publisher (SkiSoft)

Or another good one that just converts well, but also converts to Windows Help files, which is nice, is EasyHelp/Web.
EasyHelp/Web (Eon Solutions)

WebMania is another good one.    I have a legal license for it.

Fine-Tuning It
Then, after such a converter processes the Word For Windows document, use a simpler text editor, like Almost Reality, which is shareware, but is more HTML oriented.
Almost Reality Downloads    You can go back in, and make some letters into headlines, add graphics, etc.     "Tweak" it.   [ I could not find this one there anymore.]

Adding JavaScript Bells & Whistles
For JavaScript generation,  frames,  and forms to take orders online, it is hard to beat WebMania, which you can download at WebMania      A lot of the HTML editors have add-on buttons and user-input "gadgets" that are a little more advanced than plain HTML.

Check Your Pages
When you have your pages ,    check them with Netscape, or other browser. Some say to check what your pages look like with every other kind of browser that there is.   The two major ones are Netscape and Internet Explorer.   Some like Front Page.

Loading Your Page To The Internet Provider Server
When you get ready to load the home pages up to the Snowcrest server, you need to use FTP.      I may have to be the one to do that,   if you don't know how yet,    so you can send the files to me, as attachments on an e-mail message.  If you haven't learned how to do that yet,     send me a floppy disk of ready-to-go files.   Each person's home page space has a different password and user name.

Check Your Links
When you have your pages loaded onto the server, check all the links, before publicizing it.
A good program for checking these links is Linkbot,   which offers a trial version that you can use on a small website.   It is very efficient,   but expensive.

Publicizing Your Page(s)
Do a search with "http://altavista.digital.com/" or your favorite search engine, under "publicize" "home page". That will bring up a big list of home pages with URLs of search engine directories where you can "add URL"---yours.

To be sure that your pages are indexed under the categories that you envision, be sure to use a META statement in the header of each page. This is what the search engine robots look for,    when indexing your site,    in addition to whatever you might have told their "add URL" page.

Thinking of sending a notice to newsgroups, about your page(s)?     Think again.
See     Bad Move, How I Got Branded A Spammer     and learned an awful lot about human nature.    Don't even CONSIDER notifying usenet newsgroups about anything for sale.

Don't forget Link Exchange, a cooperative banner display organization. You display their member's banner ads on the top of your web page,   and the members will display yours too,   on their pages.     This brings attention to your pages in all the far corners of the World Wide Web.

One good way to advertise is thru the Ebay Online Auction,    http://www.ebay.com/aw/
You put something up for auction,    as a "seller",     and then people bid on it.    You can use fancier HTML tags in their text area,   and add images,   too.

Keep Checking To See If Your Pages Are Accessible
Check frequently with AltaVista, one of the most thorough indexes. Do a search with your name,   or the name of your product or page,    between quotation marks.    That will remind you of the power of this search engine method of advertising.

AutoResponders is something new that I have discovered,    but they appear to be a service that you must pay for by-the-month,    and that may be beyond your budget,   at the beginning.
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q&kl=en&q=email+autoresponders&search=Search

Accepting credit card charges by email or telephone is possible,   but these companies charge a service charge by-the-month,     also.     One alternative is allowing them to pre-authorize a bank draft,    by email,   and you can print out a bank draft,    go deposit it,      and then treat them as if they had made a credit card charge.
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/herbs/YourChek.htm
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/herbs/MyList.htm
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/herbs/ordrherb.htm

The most fun of having a website is getting to make all the web pages that you want to,    and you can publish your writings there,   without getting approved by some publisher censors.
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/herbs/products.htm
http://www.snowcrest.net/soza/herbs/packherb.htm