Where can I find PHP tutorials and resources?

Every time you read a tech book, it will make more sense. Its like watching a movie several times to pick up on the subtle plots and details. Nobody was born knowing how to program...

You mentioned you intend to use creating scripting to attract users. Considering the time it takes to be proficient at a new language (especially if it is your first), this goal may be too high. Seriously, a good programmer would be a challenged! Try a script archive to suit your immediate needs, and learn PHP at a less challenging pace. The phpBB script that powers this forum, for example, would be a good starting point.

Get the PHP Cookbook. I forget who made it--probably O'Reilly or New Riders, but it's good. It'll show you how to get started with guestbooks and whatnot and push your towards more advanced scripts. I also recommend "PHP Functions: Essential Reference" by New Riders, but don't buy it until you know a little about the language. It'll come in handy down the road, but first just get a few thick PHP Books and read the first few chapters a few times.

Guestbooks are probably the easiest scripts to write. Make one.
Form Email is easy too, so try that next.

After that, start your website and try to think of ways to simplify things. This is where your PHP code will do the most for you. Automate.

After you get the hang of it, get a mySQL book or two. Dive into this. Using PHP and mySQL together will give you an enormous amount of power and flexibility.

For books, anything published by New Riders or O'Reilly is worth reading. Get a yellow highlighter pen and mark the heck out of your book.

PHP is an easy language. It is helpful to have a little bit of programming experience prior to using it, but this is not necessary. With a bit of self-discipline, anyone can learn anything. This seems like a good place for you to ask questions, so you're set with that, but another good forum is at http://www.zend.com. http://www.php.net and http://www.mysql.com will be your top two most useful websites.

Meh, in my own personal opinion (which doesn't really count for much but hey) I found that most of the books I looked at were way over my head, like you said, so I did most of my learning online, just learning bits and pieces until I actually understood what was going on... although I started out by learning javascript and that has probably helped me understand php a lot...
A few of the sites I went to were free2code.net and hotwired.com/webmonkey.
Like, I said, meh. Don't know if that'll help at all...

/jannin

The PHP manual comments are worth reading once your are a little more familiar with the language.

Heck yeah they are. But they'll scare any beginner or novice programmer to death! I'm pretty sure those guys all live and work in dark basements.

There is now a new topic for php resource links:

http://www.ozzu.com/programming-forum/php-resources-for-tutorials-books-script-archives-etc-t20713.html