Want to advance your career by becoming fluent in a second language? Forget French. Say so-long to Spanish. You won’t believe what lingo I’d strongly suggest before any of the romance languages!

We Americans rank about dead-last among industrialized societies when it comes to speaking a second language. There are many reasons for this — some valid and some a bit short-sighted. I happen to be almost fluent in Spanish but I rarely get to use it conversationally. I certainly don’t benefit professionally from my Spanish knowledge. For me it’s just a fun thing to do.

It’s difficult to get other professionals enthused about learning a second language, and I can’t blame them. We all are so pressed for time. We are spread thin. We can’t even catch up on our email. How can one commit the hours upon hours, weeks upon weeks, that it takes to truly learn a new language if she will rarely have a chance to use, let alone profit from it?

So why do I even bring this up? I had an epiphany the other day. I realized that I speak yet another language, and I use it and profit from it every day. That language is HTML.

“But you own a web design firm,” you proclaim. “Of course you use HTML every day!”

Indeed I do own a web design firm. But just know that I haven’t done any of the actual coding of new web designs for about four years, nor have I done any day-to-day website updates within that time. Those tasks fall to staff that are much more talented and proficient than I could ever hope to be.

So how and why do I use my HTML knowledge nearly every day? I use it in nearly every aspect of my role as Internet Evangelist for Promethius Consulting, LLC.

1. Business Blogging - This very blog is a perfect example. Some of the standard “off-the-shelf” packages such as Blogger and Wordpress can get you by if you don’t know anything about web coding, but knowing even just a little HTML can make your life so much easier! I would say that I dig into the code behind 90% of my blog posts. It’s always something, be it a broken link, a maladjusted table or whatever. Basically no problem throws me because I can look at the code and understand what’s going on. As a matter of fact, here’s a peek into an adjustment I did to the code to trigger the “quote” effect you see above. I added a simple html tag:
2. MySpace Development - Yes, to the utter dismay of our web development staff, I have created and maintain a MySpace presence for Promethius. I certainly didn’t do it out of my love of popup ads and MLM scams, but you can’t really call yourself an Internet Marketing company without mastering MySpace. It turns out that knowing even a little HTML is a major advantage in the MySpace world, and almost none of their users know any. The MySpace comment boxes, probably in an effort to be all things to all people, accept straight HTML code MIXED IN WITH NORMAL TEXT! This is really strange, but it’s a major advantage. Here’s an example of how I can easily stand out on MySpace with a little HTML knowledge:

Here is an example of a “normal” MySpace post from an average user:

And here is what a little HTML knowledge can do for you on MySpace. First let’s look at what I put in the MySpace editor:

And here is what I end up with in this particular MySpace forum thread post:

So hopefully the above images display what an advantage a little html knowledge is when going about your daily internet evangelism tasks. I do a whole lot more than just this blog and our MySpace page, but the lessons described above apply to just about all my other internet marketing activities.

Here is a link to all you will ever need to know in terms of understanding HTML to drastically improve your success in cyberspace.

Good luck!!

P.S. - Do you like this term “Internet Evangelist” that I use to describe my role for Promethius? Check out these posts for more ideas on how you can use the web to evangelize your product or service:

33 Places to Hang Out in the Social Networking Era

Fortune 500 Business Blog Wiki

Three Simple Tips from Pro Blogger