Whats involved in building a website and getting it online?

Well, I'm a computer geek that specializes in building/repair, and really know my way around hardware. Software is a very different story. I know my away around operating systems,  can configure them, and know how to some fairly advanced troubleshooting, but that's about it. I have some (very) basic programming underneath my belt from a few high school and college courses in Java, C, and C++, and I'm getting my toes wet with some networking. I volunteer at a non-profit and after upgrading their existing computers and building a few new ones, they think I'm a computer god and can make them do anything (I'm pretty humble about my skills though). They would like an online presence as cheap as possible. I don't mind donating my time to this cause, but I'm just unsure how to go about it or if it's a task that's even within my ability.

The website doesn't need to be complicated. The organization is all about community activism, so I'd imagine the website would be about updates, events, and probably embedded video/pictures from gatherings, protests, and whatnot.

I'm wondering, how difficult is it to get a website online? And what's kinda the general process? I figure with all the tools and templates that web-hosting services offer, it wouldn't be too much more difficult than creating flyers (which I'm pretty proficient at). I'd appreciate any insight you could offer.

Getting a website on the internet can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. Well, almost...

You're going to need a domain name (like "teksyndicate.com"), a host (that will host the actual website) and obviously the website (content) itself. I live in Scandinavia though, so I don't have anything to say about which hosting company to choose.

Most people buy their domain name from the same place they get their hosting. You can usually order the two in one go.

For the actual content, look towards some of the many free CMS' (Content Management Systems). A CMS will allow you, and the organization it's for, to add new content without any coding knowledge.

The most popular, free, CMS' are probably WordPress and Drupal. Both of them are built with PHP, but are quite simple to get started with. Most people, even without coding experience, can set it up and it's easy to find templates / themes for them.