I’m an absolute newb with blender, and was following a tutorial when I got to “materials”…
But when I create materials, they won’t apply/I can’t see them on my object? Am I doing something wrong?
I am using Blender 2.71 on a 64-bit Windows PC. Any help is appreciated- Thank you! 
We know how to use Blender, but we are not wizards.
Post screens or blend file (upload to http://pasteall.org/ )
What does your object look like when you render - if it is simply black - then it’s likely you haven’t actually allocated the material to the object.
Select the object - go to the materials panel - select a material using the material browse button (the circle with the up/down triangles next to it). Alternatively - press the + button to create a new one (a new material will default to a light grey diffuse material - so at least your object will show something).
I think I fixed it- I can’t get anything but the original material to show, but I can edit that original material. Let’s just hope I don’t accindentally delete it! 
Adding multiple materials http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/06/15/tip-adding-multiple-materials-to-a-single-object/
For further help read post 2 in this thread