starting off with a WYSIWYG editor like FrontPage and Dreamweaver has 1 very big fall back. you're doing and learning (if that happens) everything that's in front of you. in other words, you don't understand some of the things you're doing and if it's right or not you won't know.

learning to hard code by using Notepad or some other plain text editor allows you to understand what each code does on its own. if you were coding layouts in CSS, there's a difference doing it in a WYSIWYG editor and hard coding it out on your own. knowing the code allows you to shortlist solutions when there's a problem.

as for homepages, some articles that might be of interest.

1. New Homepage Design Trend
2. Ten Web Landing Page Tips
3. Seth Godin Speaks Simple Landing Pages

Cheers.

The best one around.. www.w3schools.com