If I had only $170 to start a website I'd do the following:
1) Find a reputable hosting company that offers a free domain for new users.
2) Spend up to a week seriously researching the niche I want to compete in.
3) Go back and ask myself if I really did enough research, figure out I'm an asshat, and then go do the proper amount of research.
4) I'd then pick 5 keywords with a competition level that is appropriate for a newbie.
5) I'd then look at my competitors for each of those 5 keywords and identify their strengths and weaknesses. I'd also get an idea of how their monetizing their website.
6) From there, I'd create 5 epic pieces of content - one for each keyword. I'm not talking about content that is simply combining information from the top 10 of each SERP. I'm talking about content that is so deeply researched that it puts you miles ahead of your low-competition competitors.
You should only be down about $50 at this point, tops.
7) Search for a free WP theme that has a lot of positive reviews and seems easy to navigate. We want good user experience here. Install it.
8) Install the free version of mailchimp...no aweber needed.
9) Visit the Design BST and have an inexpensive logo made. Slap that baby on your site.
10) Visit the Link BST and buy up as many links as you can afford from TheHobbster, Droplister, MandLoys, or Joe Hughes.
You're out of money at this point.
11) For the next month, do nothing but reach out to other webmasters in your niche (and complimentary niches) and do what you can to obtain about as many links as possible.
12) When you get bored of e-mailing people, write more awesome content, post it, and then start e-mailing people again.
If you did the proper research, created proper content, and generated REAL links, you should have some success. Obviously, there are a lot of holes in this plan. The answers are on this messageboard.
If you get stuck, PM droplister.
