Do I go static or dynamic?
To answer this question, you obviouly need to understand the difference in the two, and which one is appropriate for your website.
Static websites
"Static" primarily means that the site and its content will remain pretty much the same, all the time. In other words, there will seldom be updates to the sites content, menus, and images, and only occasional changes will be made. For the most part, databases and scripting languages won't be needed, which can affect your decision selecting a hosting company since you won't need certain script languages installed and can pretty much stick with straight HTML pages.
A static site is also much easier for a new website builder to create from scratch, as only the basic aspects of site creation are required, and may save you in both time involved and financial starting costs. So if your goal is to have a website that is going to remain unchanged, not have memberships, sell products or require user interaction, a static site will probably suit your needs.
Dynamic website
"Dynamic" is obviously the opposite of static. A dynamic website is usually updated frequently, so that it's content is always fresh and current. This can be by either the website administrator, or by community members of the site. Dynamic can also refer to the idea of having a lot of activity happening on the site. If you have been part of online discussion forums ( "bulletin boards" ), dating sites, file upload sites, auction sites, blogs, etc., these are examples of dynamic sites. These are usually going to require databases or flat file data storage, scripting languages like PHP, Perl, Python or ASP, hosting accounts that meet the needs of the scripting, and probably some security considerations within your site. You may also need an administration area to control what happens on your site, as well. ( Note that website administration areas are not the same as hosting account administration areas ).
Static sites can be built from any of the available ways to build a website, however some of these methods may be much more involved than needed, as you can use just the basics of HTML and CSS to create static pages. Dynamic sites will still use HTML and CSS, however they will need the additional scripting languages built into the pages to create the functionality you want.