Forum Moderators: mack
I think you have came to the right place if your looking for advice on getting started.
I would recomend you check out Brett's guide. [webmasterworld.com] It is a little old now but has stood up to age well and is still 100% there im my opinion.
Here [webmasterworld.com] is a post I made a while back that pretty much covers the basics.
This site has literaly loads of great info to get you up to speed.
Mack.