Which tools for which kind of marketing?

I was wondering if some of you gurus could suggest which tools you would recommend getting/learning first and and in what order if any for each type of marketing it would be good for. For instance, which tools would you recommend for:

-An Ecommerce site

-adsense revenue site

-creating viral traffic

-affiliate stores

-jumpstarting your own network of sites

-jumpstarting your own forum

-etc...

Or even if it is just a general toolbox.

I think that would be a great idea!! Being a noob and lurking a few weeks previous I can see this forum has such wealth of information(overload) and talented members with some being extremely helpful! Once you decide to commit yourself, you can waste so much time on gathering a ton of great stuff that doesn't apply to what you intend on doing. Not to mention how many times you change your mind. I think this is a process you have to go through to find your niche. Then having to deal with the road blocks along the way...Ugh!
For me ideally it was cookie stuffing but with trying to get a simple EPN account (after like 15 attempts) and no success this forces me to try different methods.
One day I'll hit something, I'm determined to make it work!
On another note.. I made my first $0.22 today! Yahoo! All I had to do was sign up for a paypal account...lol

I'm kindof a newbie myself, however I think the first and most important thing is learning how to protect yourself using proxies. There is a great sticky on proxies by apekillape. It's clear step by step instructions. You should always proxy up before Blackhatting.