New & full of questions but for starters.......

.......how do you "stamp" online photos so that your name/company name/logo show up on them? And how do you keep your online photos from being copied?

Now, a little background......I'm 32 and have always been fascinated by the art of photography and why I never got more serious about it until now I'll never know. I've always shot on "dummy" mode but now I'm trying to learn about the technical sides of photography. Right now I have a Canon Rebel 300D with the 18-55mm lens it came with (I never use it), a 28-135mm, and my recently aquired (I'm so excited about this one!) 50mm 1.8. I just got it yesterday and I think I about wore it out, lol! I know it's not the best, but it's helping me achieve the kind of pics I've always wanted to get. My subjects 90% of the time are my kids but I also enjoy doing nature stuff and anything else that might be interesting. I'm mainly shooting on AV right now trying to learn the affects of aperture, toying with ISO and paying attention to what speed the camera chooses. I might get brave and post some recent pics for critique later. =)

Want advice?

There are many sources of information so see the stickies at the top of each corresponding forum, they are excellent for newbies, and many newbies don't seem to read them. They are the best bet for learning everything you need to know.

You must be very patient with learning, I personally learnt photography on field in motorsports, so I never started out THAT good on-the-job but with experience it's overwhelming how much I've improved. After one year of solid photography trying to improve everywhere where possible I'm still discovering many many new things. Try to work on composition above all.

For stamping, borders ect. I use a program called FastStone Photo Resizer - the only program I have been happy with enough to buy online. See their download page in the link below, it is free for personal use, and $30 USD (I think) for commercial uses.
http://www.faststone.o​rg/FSResizerDetail.htm

I hope this information helps you on your learning curve, and welcome to POTN, the best place on the web for photographers of all types and experience levels

Thanks for the advice! Yes, I'm trying to work my way through all the great infomation in the stickies - wonderful resources!

It sounds to me like you are on the right track! You might want to invest in an external flash and learn how to use that in with Manual mode on the camera. I learned this was useful for shooting pics of my cats, because I can get a higher shutter speed to catch them moving.
I still use Av mode much of the time especially outdoors.

Don't worry about buying expensive lenses yet, you will know when you come across the limitations of the ones you currently have. 28-135mm is a nice range to work with. Most important thing is to just have fun!!

You really can't. PrintScreen will copy any image. But as you asked, you can put your © watermark on it, your exif info in it, & maybe use a small non-standard, low resolution crop to make it hard to print.