I'm a little sad seeing some people with SC beta beeing noobs to the game, while progamers who spent 10 years playing it at the highest level have problems getting in.
Anyway, starcraft skill can be divided into 3 categories, first is the knowledge of the game, which can be found on different websites, but since SC II is pretty fresh, you won't find many good tactics and with each patch (and these are frequent) the game changes quiete a bit. The other two categories are macro and micro and are impossible to learn from anything else than experience. So play, play, play, watch your replays and think why you won / lost. Terran is a good race for new players, since it is basicaly a defensive race which shares most features with other races from different RTS games. Both protoss and zerg can be a bit harder for newbies.
Also don't expect to do much better without serious time investment and effort, Starcraft is a sport and there are people who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars by playing it.
If you are really serious, I'd suggest you to watch some live commentary (VOD's) from D9 (striderdoom) or GLHF.tv. They go in depth on profi gamers matches, but these might be a little hard to follow for someone who wasn't into e-sports before.
MY HYPE LIST: 1) Gran Turismo 5; 2) Civilization V; 3) Starcraft II; 4) The Last Guardian; 5) Metal Gear Solid: Rising
