I suck at building color palettes from scratch. I've read a dozen tutorials and watched a handful of videos and if you asked me to put together 5 colors that look great together I couldn't. I think building great color palettes is a genetic predisposition, like drawing or writing good poetry or liking mushrooms. If you're not born with it, you won't have it.
That said, the Internet does a great job at augmenting our deficiencies. You don't have to be a color aficionado to choose a great color palette. All you need is a basic understanding of the effect of color on emotion, a little good taste, and a tool like COLOURlovers or Kuler by Adobe.
Color and emotion
This topic has been covered online that there's no need to rehash it here. Emotional Reactions to Color is an excellent primer on how different colors effect emotion.
Knowing how color effects emotion is only helpful if you know what emotion you want your website to convey and to evoke, which are two different things entirely. You may want to convey confidence while evoking calmness or serenity. Maybe you want to convey excitement while evoking curiosity. Your color palette can help.
What's more, you know how color effects your own emotion. When browsing color palettes, consider how the colors make you feel. Your own reaction is likely to be similar to that of your audience, unless your audience has a different culture, but that's a post for another day.
Preferences are good
It's good to consider your own preference when choosing a color palette. After all, the website/app is yours and should communicate your own personality and ideals. Choosing a color palette solely because it will create a specific emotional reaction is a bad idea if you don't like the colors.
My own preferences are apparent on this very website. I like grayscale text and background and tend to use non-grayscale colors to bring attention to certain elements, to tie similar elements together, and to add a touch of flare (but not too much). I didn't create this color palette, either. I browsed COLOURlovers for 5 minutes and chose Homage to the Chefs. Easy.
Don't over think it
It's easy to over think design aspects of a website, but don't do it. Move quickly. It's a living organism and you can always go back and change things if you don't like them in the morning, or next week, or next year. Always maintain forward motion and don't let the small decisions slow you down.
Advanced
If you want a more in-depth introduction to color theory, take a look at An Introduction to Color Theory for Web Designers.
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