Most Warriors use Word Press due to it's flexibility, add-on options and ease of install.

There's many many large blogs such as Perez Hilton using word press and making a killing from it. I would most definitely start there if you have no programming experience.

Yes, wordpress is the place to start. If you want to look at a site that isn't 'bloglike' take a look at Joomla. It's a bit more complicated so may not be best for a beginner.

You also need to have a webhost that does PHP and MySql. Most of them do nowadays at no extra cost.

Following the Wordpress theme - you could just keep your blog on Wordpress. You have all the usual functionality for creating "pages" vs "posts" so you can make it look like a website. Then you can register your own domain name to point to your wordpress account, so it looks like you have your own host. The only drawback is that you are limited in the plugins that you can use - then again Wordpress is very well established so your site will get indexed quickly and often...

What is your website going to be? Will products be sold?