Newbie- how does support work and response time for help

[Ritarun]

Hello! I am a newbie to web design, blogging and to themes. I am currently trying to get up to speed on how to switch several of my sites to a blog format so that I can join the trend of using the CMS of WP to manage my sites. I am also trying to master hand coding over using FrontPage templates that my sites are built on (I know-- what took me so long. ). Trying to read some blogs to understand how they work Trying to decide what features and layouts I want to start with in a template.

I have been trying to get a sense of how support works for the paid support. Confused. By posting in this forum and waiting for a response to be posted by the forum members? or does a "consultant" work with me by PM or what? Can't get a sense of response time since it appears that this forum just got changed due to going open source a few days ago. As is with most newbies I will need help right away and not have to wait a long time or I'll give up in frustration.

I have a couple of WP blogs started at the wordpress.com site to play with and am reading how to get the downloaded version installed on my server. Doesn't seem to be that hard.

Can someone share more information for this newbie?