I would say one of the things that helped my brewing the most was learning more about the process. Looking back, the first year or so I brewed, I had no idea of what was actually going on. One of the previous posters mentioned getting Palmer's book. It's great! Also there are a ton of podcast. I highly recommend 'basic brewing'
http://basicbrewing.com/ as a starting point. Very informative and entertaining. One thing I wish I would have done when I first started is keep things SIMPLE! It probably won't be earth shattering, but SMASH beers are great for honing your process and getting familiar with ingredients. They also can turn out a solid pale ale or ipa. Hope that helps. Happy brewing.