When you find a web hosting provider, they will provide you with what is called DNS information. These are little web address codes you will provide to your domain registrar. This syncs up the two, so when you type in "www.yourname.com" it leads to your actual hosted site and not a default page provided by your registrar.

Otherwise most standard web hosts offer quite enough storage, bandwidth, and email addresses for around $70-$100 a year... Often they will say "unlimited" which logically cannot be possible, but is for the average user. It means they don't impose stringent limits on what you can upload and store to your web site - Usually this is around 150GB of storing files (pictures, images, pages, web applications). In terms of bandwidth. First off what is bandwidth? That simply is a restriction on how much web traffic you are allowed... Generally it costs a hosting provider money to transfer the data from your web site to your visitors. Literally just going to a web site costs a hosting provider money due to the transferring of that data. However unless your site is gaining phenomonal amounts of traffic most hosting providers do not impose limits on this either. If your web site is so popular that enormous amounts of data are being transferred, that would be a good thing meaning you are probably gaining web traffic, profit and thus can look into upgrading your hosting package to a more advanced plan.

Storage is the disk space for your files, images, pages, web applications, videos, etc.

If you decide not to use a blog you will want to create your site through HTML code, the standard code for web sites. Learning HTML is considered to be a relatively easy programming language, but realistically many of us simply don't have the time to learn a new language or get that involved in web development. For this purpose there are applications that allow you to visually create a web site.

These are called WYSIYWG or "What You See is What You Get" editors. They are also sometimes just called web publishing or web development applications. Many hosting providers have simple applications built in that allow you to visually create web sites, however we recommend using a third party app and learning the basics of how to use it - to create a more professional site. Wikipedia has a massive list of these WYSIWYG editors, but picking one from the bunch is somewhat difficult.

One of the most popular ones is CoffeeCup HTML editor, which you can find a review of and download from www.download.com. The application is a one-time fee of $50 if you decide to buy it, however you are able to use it for free for 30 days before committing. Download.com in general is a useful site to compare other web publishing apps if you find this one is not right for you. Users looking to learn the more professional advanced way to do it should seek out a web standard product like Adobe Dreamweaver which is reviewed on Download.com here. The application is for usres serious about learning web development, 30 days to try for free, but $399 if you ultimately decide to purchase it.

The graphic design portion of your site is a little more confusing, because the quality of your site will vary based on how talented you are as an artist. Many companies can create logos for you such as www.logomaker.com (free) and www.logoworks.com for a more professional, customized logo - with a basic package starting at $299.  Designers will create various custom samples based on your description of needs. Such a service can be beneficial even if you aren't able to design a spectacular looking web site a good logo can be a valuable asset. Or you can download the application LogoSmartz, try it for free buy it for $50. Until you pay the $50 logos can be created with a watermark, so the application is defintinitely worth a try for those looking to save money and still have decent control over logo creation.

For the actual graphics and designing aspect of your site you can choose to have a web design firm do it for you, or do it yourself alongside the web publishing WYSIWYG tools listed above. Such applications do require some artistic talent, but many are simplified for users without very much inherent skill in that area.

You don't need to spend a lot (or any money) to create a great looking web site. Free Applications worth trying include Photo Pos Pro, GIMP and Saint Paint Studio.

For those able to shell out $599, and learn the totally professional route, Adobe Illustrator remains the web standard for web graphics, alongside Adobe Photoshop ($999) and Adobe Flash Professsional ($699). However for a beginning user there is no need to spend that much money to create some great looking pages. While these are wonderful investments for those looking for a career in web design, for beginning users they are expensive and have steep learning curves, so we recommend starting with the free ones we listed above.

Specifically elance.com, is a great place to do this. There are others, which can be found by doing a quick web search, but we've used this site and find the best responses and overall system to work well. What you do is post a bid on a project, whether it be complete site design, logo design, flash design - whatever, and design firms will bid to give you the best price possible and match your needs. Many will create basic custom samples for free to give you a sense of their work, and you will be able to read customer reviews, earnings, and learn more about the companies you are comparing before choosing one. Since many are located internationally, you can take advantage of currency differences and get truly affordable, yet professional services done for a fraction of what it would be to go local.