golden tip: less is more
It's no use having a lot of text to read, poeple don't read much websites, they're no folders, leaflets or wtvr, short and strong paragraphs. Don't overdo design, make it clean and proffesional looking (looking, because it's not that hard) http://vanduyse.be/ is a site I made, it's nothing design wise but does it's job, also note the small paragraphs. another example: (http://www.market2target.be/layouts/ramatec/ramatec2.jpg)

Learn CSS, as it enable you to make nice things with barely no photoshop skills (just getting photo's the right size) as you see in last example there is the logo, and some photographs, anything else is CSS backgrouundcolors and borders (the example is more advanced than that but just to get you an idea)

usefull css links:
http://glish.com/css/ css layout basics
http://www.csszengarden.com/ advanced css layouts

use dreamweaver it has great css capabilities, it's mostly very logical, want a field with a double border on top, just put top border style on double, the others on none...

or be like me, be lazy for once and use a CMS tool like www.mamboserver.com install it on a webserver, find a template you like and use the extended controlpannel: an example what I've doen with mambo: http://www.thorhandbal.com/

hope this is usefull, you can always pm me for technical questions.

PS: You'll find a lot of info on SEO, tips, tricks but when applying CSS these should be kept in mind:
-> don't create classes for titles use redifened header tags (<h1> <h2> ...) this will clarify if you get familiar with CSS/dreamweaver.
-> use <b> tags for bold, not CSS, keywords in your text with bold tags wrapped around them seem more important to search engines.
-> opt for CSS-rollover (button) techniques over image-rollovers.

It's one of these days...