Im very new to wordpress, ive created my first basic theme which seems fairly simple to edit so far. I want to create a more complicated layout next but im unsure on a few things. I want to add some extra text areas on the home page which will be out of the main blog loop, how can i add these and make them editable via the admin panel?

Easiest way is to set them as widget areas and use text widgets to edit the content.

Just read up a little bit on widgets and it seems quite simple so i will give it a go