If you are thinking about using Joomla as your base of your website. You have two options the most stable version Joomla 1.0.15 or the New version that is based off of web 2.o Joomla 1.5.

The newest version is really cool. There is a lot of great add features. But to get started you should got thru the Joomla! 1.5: Quick Start Guide.

This is the 1st step in building your site correctly. Do yourself a favor and dont waste time trying to figure it out yours self.

Follow this guide.