Taken from 4Newbies

Lot of people get confused where to, how to and when to start web designing..
here are few tips and steps

Web Page Coding/Desgning:
1. Learn HTML (its the base.. you cant do anythng without it)
2. Learn CSS (learn it in detail for perfection, or atleast learn a bit of it, so that you can use it in basic stuff.. it is very useful)
3. Javascript (a little bit of it and basic concepts would be good for the beginners)
4. Dreamweaver/Frontpage (once you are familiar enough with html and css, you can use these tools to save your time.. I use dreamweaver for coding purpose, dont use GUI/design section of it.. and prefer Dreamweaver over Frontpage)

Graphics:
1. Photoshop (most commonly used tool for creating websites)
2. Illustrator (great tool for creating vector based graphics, not commonly used by webmasters)

2D Animation:
1. Flash (commonly used for intros and presentations, animated banners and all type of other 2d animations)
2. ImageReady (it comes with photoshop, useful for creating animated gif images/banners)

Programming & Databases:
once you are able to built a website, you must learn some serverside scripting languages.
1. PHP / MySQL (PHP is similar to Javascript and C++, and most commonly used for creating dynamic websites, mysql is database used commonly with PHP)
2. ASP (ASP usually runs on microsoft systems, its syntax is similar to VisualBasic and GWBasic, i myself use PHP, btw).

Where to Learn All this?
For HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and ASP, www.w3schools.com has some nice tutorials.
Other Tutorials websites:
1. www.tutorialized.com
2. www.good-tutorials.com
3. www.pixel2life.com

Useful Forums:
1. www.webhostingtalk.com
2. www.programmingtalk.com
3. www.sitepoint.com
4. forums.digitalpoint.com
5. www.yaxay.com