As a newbie photographer, I think the most important thing is to take a lot of pictures!  You don't have to know what you're doing.  Just start shooting.  Use your phone, use a little pocket camera, use whatever you have. 

Look, look, and look some more at other people's photography.  What do you like about your favorite pictures?  Which photographers do you like consistently more than others?  Is it their composition that makes the picture satisfying?  The way they use color?  Their subject matter?  

Pay attention to what excites you, but don't try to duplicate someone else's work.  You will ALWAYS have your own slant on whatever you're shooting ... your own vision.  I can't tell you how many times I've tried to make a picture that is "like" someone else's, and it never looks like theirs ... it always looks like mine!  LOL!  Let your own taste govern what you're doing.

Get yourself a decent photo editing program.  Whether that's Gimp, Picassa, Photoshop, or some other editing software, I think it's essential in making a good piece of art.  Nobody I know gets a perfect picture straight from their camera.  Everybody crops for composition, fiddles with settings for color, enhances sharpness.  Once you get proficient with the software, you can learn to go farther than the basics and get into creating your own effects.  Don't expect the pictures you take to look like you want them to straight out of the camera.  Every shot has potential, but that potential needs to be brought out.  I've got hundreds and hundreds of photographs in my gallery, and maybe three or four of them came straight out the camera looking like they do on the screen. 

Above all, have fun!!  This is a hobby, not a life-or-death pursuit.  If you're thinking you'd like to be a professional photographer, go take a class and get serious, don't try to pick it up on your own via advice on an art site from amateur photographers.  :P

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."  ...  Robert Capa