Tools

OK,
before we continue on much further lets discuss tools needed to do websites.

MANY people think that good websites are made with good expensive programs. They are WRONG. The best websites can be made with all free software with a few exceptions of skills, etc.

When I code a website, I always either use: Notepad/Wordpad (It comes with your standard Windows OS), or conText (http://www.contexteditor.org/index.html). Both of those options are free.

When you make layouts, you can do it with free programs, there are people who are really really good with making layouts in free programs. Again it falls down to your skill level.
I have the legit copy of Adobe CS2 (soon to get CS3), so I have no problems there.

Remember even though you have expensive software, you still need to know how to use it!

Hosting. This is another area that will vary for whatever type of website you are making. If you are making a very personal or not so personal but small website... you can get away with a minimal free web hosting account. There are web hosts out there that host you without ads, but most of those web hosts would either be friends that you know with a server... or Post 2 host hosting.

Post to host hosting is where you need to post 10-20 times in their forum each month in order to keep the hosting package.

Like I said, I can't really give one webhost that would suit every persons needs. I'm going to be going over PBB game creation tutorials where you can make your own game where people can register. PBB means Persistent Browser Based. http://www.tribalwars.net is a great example of a really popular PBB game.

So this is the summary:

Free coding programs:
- Notepad/Wordpad or any text editor if you're on MacOSX/Linux/Windows
- ConText (http://www.contexteditor.org/index.html)

Art programs:
- Gimp (It's an art program free to download)
- Photoshop (costs money)

Hosting:
- http://freewebspace.net (Free hosting)
- http://freewebspace.net/forums (Free/paid hosting forum)
- http://webhostingtalk.com (Mostly paid hosting forum)
- http://superbhosting.net (I use them, if you wish to put me as a referral and you pay for a year I can get you some money off the bill the following month via paypal)

Next tutorial I will start introducing xHTML/PHP