Well I am not the world's most prolific canner, but I do have a few tips I wish I had been told at the beginning.
If you are buying canning jars for the first time, invest in wide mouth jars, not regular. These are so much easier to use, and they work far better for many things, like pickles. It is much better to just get all wide-mouth from the beginning.
Buy the "canning" kit you see in a lot of stores. It comes with your grippy lifter, your magnetic lid pick-up, a funnel etc. The only thing I wouldn't do is get a kit with a pot. The pots can be really small and more for hobby canning. Invest in a really good huge canning pot with the jar rack. You can usually find these at hardware stores, farm supply, estate sales, etc.
I am not sure if you are planning on jam mostly or if you will need to can meat and acidic veg. If so, you will want a nice big pressure cooker for canning those items.
I am not sure if you will be preserving from your own garden, but outside of that, try to get as much stuff for free to preserve as you can. Any sort of community pantry with tons of free fruit/veg, (hardly any people take the free veg from pantries and it usually just rots, such a pity) a friend with some neglected apple trees, wild blackberries, etc. Preserving can be very expensive if you are buying fruit/veg to preserve. Getting free stuff ensures that you are actually saving money.
There are a lot of really great youtube videos on canning now, including some from Mennonite ladies who could can in their sleep...lol. Watch a lot of tutorials, start out with the right equipment, and good luck!!
