when a small business hires someone to create a website for their business, does the business normaly also hire the person to manage it monthly as far as adding content and paying the monthly hosting. have no idea that once the site was made the developer just hands over the domain passwords and says "all done and pay this place every month". never was really sure how they worked that out.

If it makes any difference, i am just talking about a small local business that doesnt require much change in content on a monthly basis. maybe little but some.

If it does not require much change you can ask the web developer to provide you an interface (something simmilar to blogger.com) so that you can update your website yourself.

It may be better if you put your web project requirements clearly in freelance websites like http://getafreelnacer.com/ and let many web developers bid for your project and then you may hire whoever you like.

yes sir that is usually the way it works. email me at therealcamron@charter.net i can help you out if you need a website made. (yea i wanna get paid buddy. not much just depends on what you want me to do)

yes, you hire someone to design your site and pay them monthly for maintness and you web hosting

I think a better way is to make a contract saying that the developer will be available for a certain period of time, utmost 6 months to be available for small/minor changes at least twice a month. The best? get someone you know, pay him/her for the site, and i'm sure you won't have a hard time to call in a favor for some changes from time to time. well, that's what I would do in your place. ;) Goodluck!