So that you will have them handy as a frame of reference, you'll want to bookmark the Google Guidelines for their search engine: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html/
To get you on your way, here's a handy list of tips for using AdSense:
Making Money with AdSense -- Tip #1: Start now!
It's as easy as falling off a log to generating revenue with Google AdSense. After you’re accepted to the program, just add a few lines of html code to your site (Google shows you how once you’re accepted) -- and voila! Within a few minutes, your site will begin displaying AdWords, and so you can start making money. Each day you wait means you don't...
