As I understand it, your question is that you want to learn the basics of website creation and maintenance?
I guess I'd start by making a small website. It appears you have done something of this nature as you said you have been designing websites on and off for about a year.
So what is your current level of skill? do you have links to what you have already done?
beyond that, just spend a lot of time with it, the path will present itself to you as you run into questions and problems.