Best practices for storing and using data in the vB cookie

[davide101]

I would like someone to point me to a simple tutorial on the right way to write and read data from a cookie (the vB one in this case) using php.

Here's my goal: the first time a member visits my site, I want to show an expanded 'reasons to join' guest box. On subsequent pageviews, I would like to show a much smaller version. I think the easiest way to do this is set a cookie when someone visits and only show the big box if the cookie isn't set.

Can someone walk me through the 50,000ft view of how I should best go about this? I've never done anything with cookies and want to do this the right way in terms of coding standards and end-user speed.