How do I personalize web pages to visitors?

I'm a true "Newbie". I know very little html, and absolutely no php or mysql. I understand that mysql is some sort of database, and php is some form of accessing that database. That's about it. But what I want to have is a sign in form for visitors to my website, and the ability to store that information securely somehow. I write short stories, and want to be able to have my visitors, or someone else they choose be one of the characters in each of the stories. So how would I be able to get their name into the stories? Also, I only want them to be able to see a teaser, just a couple chapters of the story, and require them to purchase the rest. How would I do this? I would also like to be able to give them the option of receiving a free full story if they refer a set amount of visitors to my site. How would I keep track of this? I have other things I would like to do, but where do I start with the above mentioned programing challenges? Any help would be much appreciated.

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Passing Parameters with Redirect with Header("Location:...

I have a 4 line php file (no other html code in it) that looks like this:

Code:
---------
$parm = $_GET["x"]; //pass this page a parameter in x=
header("Location: http://deluxdeals.com/?parm=" . $parm);
?>
---------
If I navigate to test.php it redirects ok. But if I go to:
test.php/?x=123
I get an error "No input file specified".

I want to call test.php with a parameter which it will insert into the url it's redirecting to. What am I doing wrong?

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