All you need to know about CSS

CSS allows you a lot of control and there are many, many attributes you can use to determine how your pages look.

We won't go into all the details and will focus only on the basics. Again, our goal is to create good looking pages as quickly and easily as possible, and not to win any web design awards.

Focus on making getting traffic and making money...Let's be honest, if no one sees your pages, then it really doesn't matter what your pages look at. And if you make money and want a fancy looking site, hire someone. Until then...

IMO, you should only be concerned with:
1. Having a good looking header.
2. Being "color coordinated".
3. Picking a layout.

And when it comes to layouts, the truth is, there's only a few choices:
One column
Two columns - Navigation left
Two columns - Naviagation right
Three columns

Thinking you need any more options will only blur the real issue and create too many choices...

Instead of using CSS for layout, I'm keeping it simple and have included the four basic layouts using old fashioned html tables.

This makes it as easy as 1,2,3...
1. Choose one of the 4 layouts
2. Add a header graphic to the top of it
3. Customize the CSS file to give your pages some "color".

Kurt's Quick Tip:
When dealing with the text for your content, only a few fonts really "work" so don't spend hours looking for the perfect font.

For your text, only use:
Verdana
Tahoma
Times
Impact (for headers ONLY!)

Of course, you can use more exotic fonts when working with graphics, but for your content, KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Another thing to understand is that if you use fancy fonts for text, your site's visitors must have the same font installed on their PC. If they don't have the font installed, the browser will make its own substitution, which can cause some crazy results. Again, keep your choice of fonts as simple as possible.

Note: You can use the fancy fonts with graphics. When it's a graphic, your visitors don't need the font installed to display correctly.

Also, unless you are really artistic, don't mess with too many colors. KEEP COLORS SIMPLE TOO.

Remember, it is more than OK to use the standard colors:
white background
black text
blue links
purple visited links

And, you don't have to do any extra work!!!

...As a matter of fact, if you're a noob, you should have a very good reason to vary from this. And just "wanting something different" isn't a very good reason.

Make sure your colors match and don't clash...What colors go with other colors?

At the top of the page is a link to a color picker. Actually, it's more than that, it also gives you selections for complimentary colors so you can be sure your pages are "color coordinated".

Click on this link to check it out:
http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html

Now, pick the color closest to the major color of your header.