Tuning your snare comes down to personal taste and what style of music you are playing. I will explain here how I tune my snare and what works best for me.

The first thing I do is tune the bottom skin tightly. I criss cross as I tighten the lugs to make sure the skin is tuned evenly. I place my thumb on the skin approximately 1'' in from each lug as I tune, this helps as you can feel the tension of the skin.

Never hit your bottom skin with a stick. This skin is very thin and not made for striking.

Make sure the snare wires are evenly tensioned, which means the tension on the two outmost wires are the same. If you over tension you snare wires it will choke the sound.

I then tune the batter head. This is tuned tightly also, but not quite as tight as the bottom head. I repeat the criss cross method as above using my thumb to keep the tension even. Once I have reached the required tension, I tap approximately 1'' in from each lug with a stick, making sure the tone is even.

I then fine tune the snare, making sure the snare wires are not too tight or loose. I like my snare to have a loud crack. I like to hear a little snarewire overtone, but definitely no rattle. I like my snare sound to cut through the sound of my bass drum..

TIP Use a little Vaseline or grease on your lugs for smooth tuning.

TIP When playing your snare, aim for the centre and strike evenly.

Usually when I play time, I play what are called rimshots.

A rimshot is played by striking the centre of your drum and the rim at the same, 

It increases the volume of your snare significantly and gives the snare a very loud crack sound.

As a beginner you won't want to worry about rimshots at this stage. I will do a lesson on rim shots as the series progresses.

For now, you need to aim for the centre of your snare.

NOTE  Don't confuse rim shots with rim clicks.

A rim click is performed by laying the stick across the snare skin, holding the stick with the thumb, first and second finger, and striking the rim of your snare,
                
The stroke pivots of the butt of the stick. The butt of the stick stays against the snare skin, for a different angle.