Investment tools available to you over the Internet and some good books will give you everything you need to create a conservative portfolio. Understand your taste for risk. Judging from your question, it sounds like you've already figured out that you want to limit your risk. This is an important first step many beginning investors forget about. Decide what kind of investor you are.
Some investors are active.
They want to monitor the annual reports and quarterly statements of the companies they invest in. They want to watch the company's stock price. Beta is a mathematical formula that tells you, at a glance, how risky a specific stock is. For instance, if a stock has a beta of 1, that means it's equally as risky as the stock market. If it's greater than 1, that particular stock is riskier than the stock market.