It all depends on the type of website you are creating. Some sites need minimal graphic design with a tightly woven back end and so forth. So I would say:
1. decide what you want you site to be; more graphical, moreso informational, discussion forum
2. decide how you want your user to get around on the site (ie. frames environment). I feel the worst thing a web designer can do is drop their user off in no man's land.
3. I usually like to have a color scheme. (As of write now, I am trying to do an entire site strictly based off of the blue color wheel. Inlcuding the graphics.)
4. Then sketch a design if you need to of the basic layout
5. Figure out what graphics you want or what messages you want to send with them
6. Do it!
Viola you are done.
(These are extremely basic instructions....haha...)
One thing I want to caution you, is do something at your skill level or you will get frustrated. Don't get me wrong learning new things is the whole point, but I am saying don't learn PHP without having a strong grasp on HTML
ADIZ
