well for beginners, i would recommend taking lessons. this will help you understand how everything works and will give you the knowledge to be able to improvise later on.
however on your own, there are many things you can do. for one, there are many tutorials on the guitartricks homepage. that should get you started. but the thing is, there is no right way to learn. myself, i'm almost entirely self-taught. i try to play the guitar everyday. it may be boring, but the best way to start off on the guitar is through repitition of licks and exercises. when your watching tv, have the guitar in your lap and practice as you watch.
the main thing is to find what way is best for you. if you llike certain songs, get the tabs off the net and practice those. i would still advise taking lessons, but there are many ways to learn. keep up with this site and you'll learn a lot.
To improve technique and of course trying to keep all as clean as possible. I know my own limits and speed limits and so on I never play anything I'm not capable of. That wouldn't make any sense. After three years of playing I tried to play everything as fast as possible and that sounded, I would say, like shit, and I didn't realize that if I'd play bit slower things than I was capable of playing then everything would sound much better.
--Aleksi Laiho - Advice to Play By
