I've thought about this for a while and I've come to the my conclusions.
One piece of advice for a complete newbie is
HAVE FUN.
Jump in head first with your eyes firmly closed
.
Buy a domain get some cheap (Linux) hosting (about $20 for both) find Fantatico in cpanel and install each prorgram (one at a time). Play with cpanel, find a free template, upload it to the site, change it in wordpad and upload it again.
The worst thing that can happen is that you will have to request your host to reset your webspace.
Now that is out of your system and you realise how easy or hard you found it to do and how cheap or expensive you think it is go and follow some more sensible advice.
If you are doing this as a hobby or a "9-5 job" the most important thing is you must enjoy it and
HAVE FUN.
Regards
Bob