I have a couple Ego batteries, a short 650mAh and a bigger 1000mAh. They are passthroughs so they charge with a USB cable. Then I just use Kanger T2s as my "clearomizer" of choice (clearomizer is just a tank that holds the juice AND the atomizer in one). Its a tank and atomizer all in one. Just unscrew the top, put your juice in, and vape away. Just gotta make sure you buy the lower ohm ones. The higher ohm ones work with Variable Voltage (VV) devices, but I don't use those or get into that too much. That's when it becomes much more of a modder and hobbyist type gig. I just want to vape and not smoke.

Batteries: I like the 650mAh ones because they are small but still last almost all day. Just make sure to get a passthrough and you can charge with a 5pin USB.

http://www.vapingme.com/joyetech-ego-c-650mah-1000mah-usb-pa.../

These are the clearomizers I (and many people) use: I use the 2.4ohm ones, but some people use even lower or higher ones. But these work good on my non VV batteries.

http://www.vapingme.com/kanger-t2-v2-sunfire-2-4-2-6ohm-clea.../

Kanger T2s cost like less than $5 each, and you can by replaceable atmomizer heads for $1, so I just have like 2-3 T2s I keep in rotation with different flavors, and then buy extra heads and replace the heads like once a week or every other week depending on how long they last. You can tell when they start to go bad, taste just gets a little burny and sometimes they might start a small leak on the inside that you can catch before it actually leaks. It doesn't run everywhere, more just a tiny little leak onto the battery and what not.

Ego batteries and a few Kanger T2s is what most people start with, it's really easy, and not too expensive. Then you just gotta find a juice you like. I've had good luck with the flavors from JuicyVapor, Vermillion River eJuice, and Backwoods Brew. And I order all my hardware (batteries and cartos/clearos) from Vapingme.com. Use code REDDIT and you can get a small discount. ;)

I'm smoking cigs currently at work, but I vape at home. Gonna quit smoking again and just vape in the evenings soon. I vaped with no cigs for like 6 months then fell back to cigs. The only problem with vaping is sometimes I'd get leaks and what not, and it just bugged me. So it can take a little more patience sometimes.

EDIT: Also, the /r/electronic_cigarette subreddit on Reddit is fairly helpful. There's a ton of beginner guides on the end. But as with most of Reddit, they are very circlejerky about expensive mods and certain clearomizers that personally I'm not a big fan of. The default advice there is to get a variable voltage Ego Twist battery, and a bunch of Viva-Nova clearomizers, but they take upkeep and tweaking to vape right, and that's not my thing. But there is a lot of helpful vapers there if you're interested.