Website Tools
The following are great tools for your site.
HTML Editor - this is almost vital for working on your website. You can use "Notepad", but with an HTML Editor you can preview your page before uploading it. CoffeeCup has a free one and one you can purchase. Both are excellent.
FTP - this is a necessity. You need this to upload files to your server. CoffeeCup has a free and purchase Direct FTP available. If you haven't noticed yet, I am a fan of CoffeeCup software.
Form Bulder - you may need to create a form. Maybe you want one for link exchanges, or a contact form. CoffeeCup Flash Form Builder is easy to use for making attractive forms. While I do not recommend flash however, a form is fine.
Visual Site Designer - I strongly recommend you learn HTML. It really isn't that hard. If you are in a hurry to get your site up without learning HTML, then you might like a what is known as WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). I have never used Coffeecup's Visual Site Designer, but I'm quite certain it would work great. Another option is Lunarpages Quicksite. You can have your website live in under two hours. It includes free design and development assistance from Lunarpages.