PP - Best order of things?

[swag72]

I am new to this PP lark and to be honest I think it is great fun. Unfortunately my photographic skills are not yet good enough on their own :(

My question is really in what order to do techniques to get the best results. I am enjoying contrast masking at the moment. So should I play with curves etc before I do this or after?

Many thanks for your help to a novice PP'er!!

[JasonRS]

I found Scott Kelby's 7-Point system really useful for setting a workflow in my mind. I picked it up cheap from Amazon and a few friends have now purchased it after a cursory read.