Tips for extreme beginners:

1. Don't get frustrated because it's hard to find things in the telescope. You do get better with practice. Much better. If you have a finder scope, take the time to align it with the main scope properly before trying to observe things. It's easiest to align it during the daytime using a far-away object like a tower or a street lamp, but a bright object like the moon or even a radio tower (with flashing red light) works fine at night.

2. Get a good star chart. Really. A planisphere is good, too -- you can see where everything is in the sky at any given time.

3. Stay away from cheap stuff. Cheap equipment doesn't perform well enough - you won't use it, so why spend the money on it? You don't have to buy the most expensive stuff, but don't by the cheapest, either.

4. Read up on the subject. I highly recommend NightWatch by Terence Dickinson as a starting  point.

5. If you are trying to decide what type of telescope to buy as your first instrument, do these things:

• Avoid cheap "department store" telescopes. Remember, if you buy a toy, it will perform like a toy (if even that well).
• Forget about magnification. Go for aperture. Go for quality. If you see a scope which advertises its magnification, it is probably crap. The manufacturer is trying to prey on those who don't know better. Bigger is better when talking about aperture, not magnification. A general rule is to get the telescope with the largest aperture you can afford (provided you have storage space for it...)
• Although I don't own one, I get the impression that the Newtonian-style telescopes give the most bang for the buck, with the one drawback that they often do not have tracking capability (i.e., they have Dobsonian mounts). It becomes very tedious indeed to move the telescope every 20 seconds when your object moves out of the field of view. Note that you can find some Newtonians with tracking motors, and even some with computerized GOTO capabilities. But if your budget is limited and you have to compromise, it is better to have good optics that you can move manually than to have a poor quality tracking telescope that you never use because it is, well, crap.
• If you plan to travel to dark sites to do your viewing, you may value portability over some other aspects of your telescope. When you dread lugging your not-very-portable equipment around and setting it up, you'll usually choose to do something else (like watch a movie).
  
• If you have unlimited funds, buy a huge Ritchey Cretien. If you don't want one, buy me one.