I've started playing this game on the strength of this thread ^^
I'm hooked, any tips for a n00b?
^^^ Both good bits of advice above.
Upgrading resources is hugely advantageous. Upgrading your TH too early is very disadvantageous.
To be honest, when you first start out there isn't a huge amount of strategy to work with, but...
Position your clan castle near the center of your base, to try and avoid people drawing out your troops during attack.
Prioritize the protection of your resources and defenses. Don't worry about protecting barracks, labs etc.
Taking your TH out from behind defenses can be a good strategy. You'll lose trophies from every attack as people will just take out your TH, but you'll often get away with losing very little resources. So you often get very cheap 12 hour shields.
Make sure that your attacks are beneficial in terms of resources. I see many, many players attacking with armies that cost a lot more than they get back in return, especially once spells are used too. Tally up the cost of your army, then you'll know how much resources is required to make an attack worth it.
Try to balance your defenses across your base, with their attacking circles overlapping as much as possible, while still covering as much of your base as you can. And make sure things like mortar's are hard to get to, because they can't attack troops directly beside them.
But as I say, this stuff should become more obvious later in the game. At first the bases are so basic that a lot of this strategy is irrelevant.