I'll check them out then, though, I was hoping to pay just a cheap flat rate and be good for the year. My debit card tends to
not be filled very frequently.

*looks over the post, and puts on her work hat*

-$40/year for a domain is obscenely overpriced. Go to Namecheap.com or Name.com, you can get a domain for less than $10/year.

-For a hosting provider on a budget, I recommend NearlyFreeSpeech.net. They're a fantastic company with great ethics, and they use a metered billing model that doesn't get expensive until you start getting into huge traffic figures. I have a forum hosted there that gets upwards of a quarter-million hits a day, with significant bandwidth usage, and it's $15/month. A brand-new site, or even a moderately-active portfolio, would cost pennies, probably like $30-40/year.

-The problem with using any sort of pre-built template in any content-management software is that your site will look exactly like thousands of other sites using the same software. This is especially true for popular systems like Wordpress; ever notice how so many blogs tend to look the same, and many are identical? It's because they're all running the same handful of templates, just with some changes in color scheme, if that. Additionally, those pre-built templates tend to be kinda awful for any site that's trying to emphasize creativity, like an art portfolio. Talk to me privately, maybe we can work something out for a custom layout

-The same problem above applies to freebie sites like Weebly, with the additional problem that it's almost impossible to make a site look good on a service like that. Much like Freewebs and Geocities, think of Weebly like a Myspace page; fun to play with, an ok starting point for learning how to put things on the internet for the first time, but don't show it to anyone unless you're trying to get a laugh, or unless they're the sort of person who still uses Myspace.

-Pre-built content management systems (CMSes) are the way to go, but choosing one largely depends on what exactly you want your site to have. If it'll primarily or exclusively be image-based, Gallery2 or Gallery3 are fantastic applications, I use G2 on my website (http://www.softpaw.eu/). If you want something to update regularly, like a blog, Wordpress is great, and easy to use. If you'll have a wide variety of content, or a large organizational structure, Drupal is pretty good as a general-purpose CMS. Whatever you do, don't touch Joomla with a ten-foot pole, it's the most awful CMS on the internet, and it'll give you cooties if you spend too much time with it.

abby never quote ur domain name if ur not gonna buy it right then, cause the moment you check a domain name and you dont buy it, when u come back to check it again they raise the price :<

i use godaddy.com the price is pretty good for domains and hosting, and the customer service is good.

pirate adobe dreamweaver it makes, making a website very easy, just takes some time and watching a couple of tutorials

Searching for a domain only affects pricing and availability if you search with a shady company like GoDaddy or Network Solutions. And GoDaddy may be cheap, but they flagrantly violate ICANN standards/policies (the organization responsible for all domain names), such as the aforementioned price-gouging based on availability searches. Additionally, GoDaddy was a key supporter of SOPA, and still supports various censorship legislation.

Namecheap.com and Name.com (different companies, but similar) are priced almost identically to GoDaddy, without questionable ethics or underhanded/shady tactics.

hmmm, interesting