[l3asturd]

OK, I've been reading for hours, enough to give me a headache. I'm new to Vbulletin. I just installed and started customizing a skin (or template, or style, which is which?). The problem is, I can't figure out how to make my start page look more like a start page, instead of the forums link. I planned on using Vbulletin to manage 80% of my site content, then adding external pages for a few ecommerce needs. Anyway, the page how it is now, just looks like a forum. I have an example site that uses Vbulletin and the Soness Style Template Skin. Their start page looks great, and then they have a Forums link on the left column. I know this is a major noob question, and I apologize up front. Even if you don't have time to help, maybe you know of a link that can walk me through changing the layout? Adding content collapsables? I know the code for the collapseable, but where do I add it? How can I put it on the left in its own column? I think you get the jist of my questions by now. I've read the Vbulletin manual and many other posts.
So here's my current page:

http://www.disctribution.com

Here's a page that I really like the layout:

http://www.biggaming.org

Any questions for me? Let me know. Thanks ahead for any help.

Vbulletin 3.6.7, MySQL 4.1, Unix based server