Questions, questions, questions: Please email me your questions or post them here in comments and I'll address them here as quickly as possible.

It's clear from your comments today that some of you intend to build (or have someone build) your website and then host it with a hosting company, so I will try to provide a list of reputable hosting providers as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there are thousands of these companies and it can be difficult to compare them, but the basic criteria you should look for are:

• Cost: Setup, recurring cost, other fees; look for discounts for pre-payment over a term.
• Space: Disk space (the space for your files) is a cheap commodity and shouldn't cost much.
• Email Accounts: Most hosting companies also provide a few email accounts as part of the deal. If you already have email somewhere else, it might behoove you to move it all to once place if the email system and spam protection are good. Otherwise, the hosting provider that controls your domain will have to point certain records (your "MX" records) to your email provider.
  
• Bandwidth/Data Transfer: This is where you can get hit hard if your site is popular. Data transfer (also often called bandwidth, although the two are technically distinct) is typically a measure of how much information you transfer in and out of a website. Look at this very carefully if you plan on a popular site. Bandwidth costs everyone in the chain money, so unless your site is advertising-supported, plan on paying more for a popular site.
• Management: A good hosting company will give you some control over the site and how it works, including the ability to set up access, email accounts, etc. Try out their management interface before you buy. If they don't have one, run the other way.
• Support: Don't forget this one; it's huge. Call the hosting company before the sale and see if you can talk to a human being. Ask their email-based support a pre-sales question and see how fast they respond. A good organization should take care of you quickly, typically within a business day. However, this is a very low-margin business, so don't expect fast response time if you're not planning on paying for it. Many companies will, in fact, provide you with a higher level of service or prioritized support for a fee.

I'll add some links to popular hosting companies in the next few days.