Think of a unique idea, built it and pay for creativity if you suck at it, and then just build and build, get traffic, slap on adsense.
Alright as far as creating a site from scratch on a limited budget. I would start by downloading GIMP. You can find and download gimp here: http://gimp.org. GIMP is a free graphics editor, like a watered down version of photoshop. It is very good though, and definitely can get the job done in most places. So that should cover the graphics area of a website. As far as the actual coding, you will need to know html and css at a minimum. You can learn about these on w3schools.com. Now as far as traffic, submit your site to some free directories (there are tons), and also emphasize keywords you want your site to show up for in search engines by using them between any of these tags <h1>keyword</h1> or <title>keyword</title> or <b>keyword</b> or <i>keyword</i> or <u>keyword</u> Code (markup): . These show search engines what the main focus of your site is and will help improve your ranking with those keywords. Also, don't pick keywords such as "design","animals", or even "cats". All of those are way too broad, and chances are your site won't even rank in the top 1,000. Pick something more specific like "web design in canada" or "pictues of the canadian bull moose". I hope this helped.
any words that are inside of tags such as h1,b,u,i,title, etc. are scanned more "heavily" by search engines.
your can put them wherever inside the body, but title goes in the header section. but gimp is a program, you have to install it
Guys what is going on with you? WTF is GiMP? To set up a website he don't need GIMP, but a CMS or Publishing platform and a host. If you choose to use Blogger.com you don't to pay a cent. If you like to have a more professional website than buy space from a hosting company; download Wordpress (wordpress.org) for free and set up your new blog/website. Ohh, you need an Images editor (like GIMP) to create a logo for your brand new site! Hmm, no you don't. Visit www.creatr.cc and create your own Web 2.0 logo. Go ahead
If you have a unique idea then that might get you some traffic quickly because people will link to it; it will get direct traffic and influence SERPS.
You can start with blogging in Blogger.com. Its free. signup and follow the simple steps. Else buy a domain name from godaddy.com. .info domains cost around $2. Buy a cheap shared hosting preferably with cpanel like ehost.net. It will cost you around $10 for a year. Now install a cms that comes bundelled like wordpress/ joomla/drupal and create the site. Write unique content. Submit your site to free directories. Write articles and submit to article directories.