user9209: I have signed up to a chess website and there are very few people who are as bad as I am (rating around 800), so I have to resort to playing against people who are much better (1200+) and end up beating me very quickly.
I do analyze the games to see what went wrong but I am wondering if it's even worth going up against players much better than me, since I don't get to even the end game stage.

user3529: Playing somewhat stronger opponents is fine.  If they are too strong it does not make much sense.  However, there are a few things you can do that will likely very quickly improve your rating so that you have more opponents of roughly same strength.
1) Make sure you do not hang pieces.
The majority of games at the lowest level is decided by who makes the worst mistakes, blunders a quick mate or just hangs too many pieces.  You have to learn to avoid this at all cost!  So, play slow time controls and before each move make a blunder check to test whether your move actually hangs a piece (or even just a pawn).
2) Work on your basic tactics.
First, also your opponents will likely hang pieces from time to time.  So before really starting to think deeply see whether there is something you can easily snatch off.  Further, you should become acquainted with basic tactical patterns such as skewers, forks, discovered attacks, double attacks, and also basic mating patterns.  There are plenty of books covering these patterns at a basic level.  Note that it is not sufficient to just know the pattern, but you have to solve sufficiently many tactical exercises so that you really know it by heart.  At some point you will realize that, at least easy ones, you see instantaneously without actually having to look for them.  That is exactly what you want to achieve.
If you do a couple of exercises each day (first sorted by tactical topic, later also mixed problems, where the tactic you're looking for is not given), it is likely that you will very quickly see a dramatic improvement in your games.

user-1: As long as you're also playing players of your rating (and lower) along with the higher rated players it's okay. You don't want to be discouraged by losing every single game you play. Ideally you want to play people higher rated than you more than lower rated because it's like getting a free lesson - a higher rated player will be able to take advantage of your mistakes more than a lower rated player. 
At a 800 rating, you'll want to focus on basics (basic opening principles, tactics, safety, thinking processes etc.) and review your games for common mistakes to pinpoint weaknesses and then eradicating them. 
Of course, you'll also want to play slow time controls more than fast time controls as you want to be able to think about your moves and then be able to go back and correct your thinking. Faster games involve a lot of intuition and at your rating you won't really have a lot of it. So you'll want to develop that by playing slow time controls. Besides, you don't want to mess up games and then excuse yourself by saying that you didn't have enough time on your clock. 
Also, you should begin reviewing some (master) chess games. A decent beginners book is Logical Chess by Irving Chernev. Don't review modern GM games yet as those are generally a lot more difficult to understand. 

9209: <p>I have signed up to a chess website and there are very few people who are as bad as I am (rating around 800), so I have to resort to playing against people who are much better (1200+) and end up beating me very quickly.</p>
<p>I do analyze the games to see what went wrong but I am wondering if it's even worth going up against players much better than me, since I don't get to even the end game stage.</p>
 3529: <p>Playing somewhat stronger opponents is fine.  If they are too strong it does not make much sense.  However, there are a few things you can do that will likely very quickly improve your rating so that you have more opponents of roughly same strength.</p>

<p>1) Make sure you do not hang pieces.</p>

<p>The majority of games at the lowest level is decided by who makes the worst mistakes, blunders a quick mate or just hangs too many pieces.  You have to learn to avoid this at all cost!  So, play slow time controls and before each move make a blunder check to test whether your move actually hangs a piece (or even just a pawn).</p>

<p>2) Work on your basic tactics.</p>

<p>First, also your opponents will likely hang pieces from time to time.  So before really starting to think deeply see whether there is something you can easily snatch off.  Further, you should become acquainted with basic tactical patterns such as skewers, forks, discovered attacks, double attacks, and also basic mating patterns.  There are plenty of books covering these patterns at a basic level.  Note that it is not sufficient to just know the pattern, but you have to solve sufficiently many tactical exercises so that you really know it by heart.  At some point you will realize that, at least easy ones, you see instantaneously without actually having to look for them.  That is exactly what you want to achieve.</p>

<p>If you do a couple of exercises each day (first sorted by tactical topic, later also mixed problems, where the tactic you're looking for is not given), it is likely that you will very quickly see a dramatic improvement in your games.</p>
 -1: <p>As long as you're also playing players of your rating (and lower) along with the higher rated players it's okay. You don't want to be discouraged by losing every single game you play. Ideally you want to play people higher rated than you more than lower rated because it's like getting a free lesson - a higher rated player will be able to take advantage of your mistakes more than a lower rated player. </p>

<p>At a 800 rating, you'll want to focus on basics (basic opening principles, tactics, safety, thinking processes etc.) and review your games for common mistakes to pinpoint weaknesses and then eradicating them. </p>

<p>Of course, you'll also want to play slow time controls more than fast time controls as you want to be able to think about your moves and then be able to go back and correct your thinking. Faster games involve a lot of intuition and at your rating you won't really have a lot of it. So you'll want to develop that by playing slow time controls. Besides, you don't want to mess up games and then excuse yourself by saying that you didn't have enough time on your clock. </p>

<p>Also, you should begin reviewing some (master) chess games. A decent beginners book is Logical Chess by Irving Chernev. Don't review modern GM games yet as those are generally a lot more difficult to understand. </p>
