Drupal 6 - How to programatically create a content type I am creating a module to display a dashboard that shows various stats. One section will be for adding announcements. My thought is that the best way to do this would be to create a custom content type and then pull in the latest announcements from the announcement content type submissions. 

My question is how can I create that content type programatically with the proper fields? Where can I go to add those announcements once the type is created? And how can I pull the latest announcements to display on the page?

I'm new to Drupal, so I'm struggling at the moment to learn the proper way to do things.
You can use the Features module to export out the content type and the fields associated with it. Once you have done this you will have a .tar or .zip file of the export code in a functional module.

From here you are able to move that directory into your sites/all/modules directory and have a fully functional module.

Do remember to remove your content type and fields, before installing the module on your site. The new module will recreate them for you.