I concur Marvin. When I designed my site, I thought I would be diving into a layout much like an annual report. I was so surprised at how different web design vs. page design is.
I believe the first rollover button I made with an image took me 5 hours because with every step I had to re-read the manual. I must have read this 3" binder 15 times, but now I can change things in a flash.
Like I mentioned above, though, getting relative type size to be consistent in all browsers - that still escapes me, so I did most of my design in Photoshop.
I too, like to know how things work and found learning html code to be like a crossword. Nothing was more fun than printing out my pages by source and editing the code while at volleyball tournaments.
I hope everyone gets a chance to try it.
You had mentioned your research, and I just wondered if there was something you can direct me to. But I am not going to worry about my "hits" or "visits", because unlike retail advertising it doesn't bring them in the door the next day. But who knows down the road.
You might like this site, it is about web design:
SitePoint