When I first started getting interested in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies I read up on as much as I could non-stop. I suggest just searching ideas you have about BTC in your head on Google and see where it takes you. That's what landed me on these forums because almost all the Google search results had a cluster of threads and forum posts from Bitcointalk.org. The best thing I took from all of my researching was that BTCs and Altcoins aren't a get-rich-quick scheme. Unless the price of coins quadruples tomorrow, you won't make a dreamy large profit overnight. I'm not sure I can site a piece of information was better than another, but I can definitely say these forums was the best site I found. Got a question that you think is dumb, who cares, just post it. Worst thing that will happen is people will ignore you and not respond, and you'll have to go find the answer on your own. Most likely your question has been already asked so do some searching before posting too.
As for mining Bitcoin specifically, it's about impossible for a newbie to make any profit off this right now unless you are willing to fork over a lot of costs up front to buy or build a good mining rig. As for cloud mining BTC, it seems too good to be true right now and by using a simple Bitcoin profit calculator I dont see you getting your money back.
As for faucets, right now they are a waste of time. If you have the patience to type in all of those captchas all day, and the mindset that you are only getting fractions of a penny & the price of BTC will go to the moon one day, then yes go ahead and use faucets. I liked them at first because it got me hooked on Bitcoins though, then I pulled out the trusty calculator and stopped. If my faucet wallet pays me out at every 0.00005500 everyday for 365 days straight, I would make $14.05 per year. That's without any of the faucet payments decreasing or increasing.
Here is what has worked for me that has started to turn me a small profit:
-I found a site that will pay me small amounts of BTC (very small, but its something) for my posts on here (Bitcointalk.org). There are minimums and rules, and unfortunately the referring site has stopped its promotion to newcomers, but there are others out there. Just search on here!
-I have bought some BTCs through Coinbase and since then the price per coin has increased. Not a lot, but its positive. I personally believe that the price will be much much higher than what it's been floating at lately, but when that will happen...well I have no clue. If you don't want to take the risk of forking up $700(ish) for a BTC right now, well buy 0.5 or 0.25. Coinbase does charge small fees.
-I have mined some Primecoin. Primecoin is an Altcoin that isn't as popular as BTC or Litecoin (the top 2 coins IMO), but it is easy to mine and can be traded on popular/trustworthy exchanges like BTC-E (www.btc-e.com). I joined ypool mining pool instead of mining on my own, but I literally use my home and office PCs to do the mining. Please use a Primecoin Mining Calculator to estimate your potential profit/loss before doing it though, the cost of electricity could outweigh your profits. Back to the mining, it took me about an hour to research everything I needed and literally 4 minutes to start mining once I downloaded the applications. The ypool webpage has an easy How To section. Once I started pooling some Primecoins together, I sent them to my BTC-E account and traded them for Litecoin and Bitcoin. Again, small profits, but I started doing this with $0 invested, and it's FUN.
In conclusion, I just wanted to share my thoughts. I'm very positive about Bitcoin and other Altcoins, and I think it can be done by anyone. It's still early on in my game but I have seen small wins and enough to keep me going. My plan is to start small and go up step by step.
If you have any questions/comments, feel free to post on here or send me a PM anytime.
Best of luck!!