>I am looking at developing an web based app that I created as a desktop based application. Please don't laugh but.... Where do I begin?

Join the club, Jeff
I'm doing a couple too.
First you have to make a couple of choices
The most significant choice is the platform - you and your clients will be living with that choice as long as your apps are running.
For the database programmer as I see it it's really a binary choice - MS or Open Source.
I started down the MS path but lately switched to Open Source - PHP/MySQL. There are lots of other Open Source options but I choice those.
It was a tough choice- the MS tools and support are really good- but with a little extra work and research up front you can do what they do and wind up with an app that has a much smaller footprint, costs a lot less and runs on just about any web server.
There are lots of really good jobs out there for MS web developers and that's hard to ignore, but I suspect that will change over time.
Good luck!