I found subscribing to magazines a great way to get up to speed with HTML - I subscribe to .NET magazine.
Interesting reading your link to w3schools. I thought they were a respected source, but that site really bursts their bubble!
I find using a free template then editing with dreamweaver a great way to learn html. Use the built in help feature to create websites.
I often tried to learn HTML with sites like w3school.The site is really good,but finally I have not the time to read that much and learn it.It took me to long so I had to visit w3schools again, but I almost forgot everything again.