[Toby]

NO NO NO! Do not go with a turnkey site. They are a huge ripoff.

Coming here and asking first puts you way ahead of most.

Research research and more research. Running an independent amateur paysite is alot of work. A few fundamental web skills would be a BIG help. For starters:
• basic HTML or familiarity with a decent web editor
• basic knowledge of an image editor for cropping, color correcting, etc.
• a solid understanding of the most basic concepts of generating traffic

Read the archives here and other webmaster boards and do your research, THEN come back and ask more specfic questions about what you don't fully understand.