1. Learn assembly. (Random tuts/books and the specs)
2. Learn your environment. (MSDN etc)
2. Learn your tools. (lena151's Ollydbg serie, Tiga's IDA serie)
3. ?????
4. PROFIT!
http://woodmann.com/ (also follow the links at the bottom),
http://tuts4you.com/ ,
http://arteam.accessroot.com/ , irc://irc.efnet.net/cracking4newbies