My opinion is that the best way to learn web design, is by actually doing it. You'll learn a huge amount just by running and improving your own website.
To begin with, you probably don't need to do a course, read any books, or learn about Flash, Javascript, Photoshop, programming, or even CSS or HTML. Just learn to use your web page editor (or WordPress), and get a basic site up ASAP. You can learn about these extra things, if and when you need to.
Making a website is a fairly big job. Don't wait until your website is perfect, before you launch it. (Unless you're going to be doing some significant promotion of it.) Publish a single web page, as quickly as possible, with the most important information on it. If you're a business, for instance, put your business name, a basic description, your address, opening hours, phone number, and email address on the page.
Here are some points to consider:
If there's a link to your site on someone else's site, Google will find your site, by following that link. However, you're better off just submitting your site to Google manually. Go here, and submit your website.
Any good web host will provide you with a page of basic data about the visitors who come to your website. However, Google Analytics provides vastly more information for you, such as Bounce Rate (the number of people who leave your site straight away), advanced location information (so you can see which city each visitor is from), and Site Overlay (which allows you to see your site, with numbers over the top of each link, showing what percentage of the visitors to the page left the page via that link.) Click here to have a look.
Analytics is free, and easy to install. It's also fascinating stuff. :)
Like Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools is a free service. It lets you see who's linking to your site, and displays other useful information. Click here.
I use Analytics and Webmaster Tools on all my sites.
The internet is full of shady alleys. Your visitors want to know if you're serious and reputable. Unless you're running a hobby site, you need to let people know who you are.
Always put your name on your website. An online business should also strongly consider showing a photograph of the proprietor, a physical address, and a photograph of the premises (if applicable.)