I would like to do Web Design as a home business? What language do I need to learn?

What are all the languages or programsthat I need to learn to start making websites for local businesses.

I would like to do Web Design as a home business? What language do I need to learn?
That's a tricky question. Normally people would answer HTML or CSS, but before you can even think of building a website (I know where you are coming from). Who do you want to build websites for? Do you cater to SMB (Small-Medium Businesses) or are your goals outsrtetched towards Large Scale? Once you have decided who your target clients are (there is a such a thing) you will have a feel of the kinds of demands needed for each particular client.





Before you learn any web language research your target market(s) and clients. Then research the kinds of sites from industries that you want to work for or represent. Don't just look at the sites and comment on how "pretty" it looks. Disect the site's elements: Why did the webmaster decide (out of 45 other web layouts) that the current one is best? How does this site communicate to the target audience? What is it about this site that makes it so appealing and why?





Once you have finished your background (very important) research, from there you should be able to get a basic understanding of the kind of languages (not to mention web authoring programs) to use.





Example: One of your clients distributes computer hardware up and down the East Coast. She wants to expand her clientel to the MidWest towards California. You do not have to worry about business expansions, but you will have to concern yourself with SQL and ASP to manage the flow of an evergrowing database.





Last Example: You finally landed an account with MTV (lucky stiff). MTV's main bread and butter are teens (eventhough their target audience is like teens to young adults). You will have to figure a site to cater to teens. You will definitely need HTML, CSS and Flash (animation program, but a must nonetheless) to start.





I hope this gives you some insight on where to go from there. You must above all know your target industry before you figure out what languages and programs to learn. Though the above examples are for a slightly larger crowd the same approach works for all.
Reply:for websites u just need to know html code, and you can just copy and paste a lot of that.
Reply:You can learn HTML for free at http://www.w3schools.com/





After you learn HTML you need to know CSS and learn PHP, Perl, Java and ASP.