When I made my first site in 2000, I went out and bought Front Page, and learnt it from scratch.
My first sites were pretty ugly too LOL But Uncle Bill builds software for clueless people like me, so I was able to breeze through and make money well enough.
I've really only begun to learn HTML and use Dreamweaver in the last year or so, which much help from DD and DD
I'm still a code nancy.
Of course, in 2000 there was room to move and learn slowly. In 2004 things are much harder for newbies I think.
About a year in I made this site:
Absolute Beginners Guide to Making Adult Websites I just wrote out what I had learned and thought others might want to know.
Quite a few bits of it need updating, but it documents how I originally made my sites.