DevilKid

In my opinion I think MyBB is the best forum software around. It is really easy to customize and has a great UI. Never used any paid softwares so I can't give opinion on them.

Sorry you got an IMBA competitor here. I would be rolling for the forum licenses too and I am gonna win as I have summers coming in.
Still best of luck DK. Also hope you do good on exams.

Wow! Congratulations. I tried participating but my exams are taking over my life.. .
 
@Nathan, I like the idea about forum softwares as prize for the monthly competition, I would love to participate in it (and win if possible )

I think dreamweaver is a great software for you to design your website in. It is simple to use and really quick. It also has a side by side code and viewer. It is a great software.

I think it is all based on what 'you' want to do. I am in also the same case as you because I have tried learning PHP several times as well but failed. But I think if I do put in the hard work, I will succeed in it. There are more than enough tutorials out there for anyone (and I mean anyone) can start learning PHP. If you haven't seen The New Boston videos, they are quite informative and there are 200 of them so you could use them to learn PHP.

I use external CSS for sure. I think that it is more organised when you use external CSS because you don't need to type what style you want into every single HTML code you type. However, when I just want to make a minor modification to a HTML code and it doesn't have a ID or a class specified to it, I just use styling inside the HTML code. It just speeds things up.
 
Having external CSS also speeds up when you want to edit some part of your website's design without it making a huge difference to any other things.