To launch a server serving an HTML page you can use the following steps.
1.) On the create droplet page create a droplet (server) using the LAMP image (under the one-click apps tab). Any size will do for hosting static content.
2.) You will receive an email with a temporary password. Before you can start managing your files you will need to set a permanent password. You can do so by doing the following:
Enter the username "root"
Enter the temporary password that was emailed to you. Unfortunately copy/paste will not work here.
Enter the temporary password a second time
Enter your new password and retype it to confirm
Close the console window
3.) Now that you have a permanent password you will be able to log in via SFTP to manage your files. Any SFTP client will work but for this example we will use the free Filezilla client. If you do not already have Filezilla, download and install it.
4.) Click the left-most button on the Filezilla toolbar. This will open the "site manager".
5.) Click on "New Site" and enter the following information:
Then click "Connect"
6.) Your server's files will appear in the right hand side and your local files in the left. You will start out in the directory /root and your web files will be in /var/www/html so you will first need to go up a directory by double-clicking on .. in the right side pane, then navigate to /var/www/html
7.) A file named index.html placed in this directory will be served by your droplet if you enter your IP address into your browser.
That is the bare essentials. I would also recommend reviewing these tutorials
How To Set Up a Host Name with DigitalOcean - This covers the basics of pointing a domain name (yourname.com) to your droplet and how to configure DNS records.
Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 16.04 - This guide covers some basic steps to help secure your droplet and get started using it.
{Ubuntu Unattended Updates}(https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/automatic-updates.html) - This Ubuntu document covers how to enable automatic updates for your droplet's operating system.
If you run into any trouble following these steps follow up here and I'll be happy to clarify or help troubleshoot.
Another option if you would prefer to have a blog platform like WordPress would be to use the WordPress one-click image. This will allow you to get a site up and running easily but would not directly support just uploading html files.
You can edit HTML documents directly on the terminal window using the nano editor or the vim editor. Nano editor is easier for newcomers but i think learning how to use vim is better in the long run. Vim is usually a total puzzle for beginners but if you learn a few commands you will get it fast.
Now let says you are using the terminal and you are connected to your server and that you are on the folder where you have your index.html file (index.html which is the default front page of your website).
Then you would have to type on your terminal the comand: "nano index.html" (without the "") and it would open the index.html for you to edit on the nano editor. After you make your changes you have to save and close. (you have to learn how to do that on the nano editor as well but is easier to grasp than the vim editor)
Also, you could also edit any html document using Atom (a free text editor you can download from the internet) but then you would have to know how to upload your index.html (or whatever page you are editing) to your server.
You can upload any file to your server using Filezilla like @ryanpq explained before, or you can download an "FTP" plugin to use within Atom. (so you will have a program that does two things A) edit documents B) upload those documents to servers) How to find and install plugins on atom is something you can learn on the web. For example on youtube.
There are many other text editors (programs you use to edit web pages including those in the html format) but to my knowledge the best are: Atom, (free) and Webstorm (not free but you can try it for 30 days). I prefer webstorm cause it has everything i need included (such as the FTP and SFTP functionality to upload files), and even a nice terminal window there.
