ALSO... when you get a website, do you have to register for anything?? (law-wise)

please give me recommendations on which web host to get!

ALSO (sorry!) .. what does it mean 'to host your own website'?

Calm down, Blossom, and let someone in the business help you with this: ME.

A domain is the name of a website and its address on the internet, like www.yahoo.com. Whatever name you make up for YOUR website can be registered just for you as long as nobody else has used it yet.

Your website is the collection of files that carry your message, sell your stuff, show your pictures and do all the other things you see on the web. The web pages are separate files, handled just like any other files on your computer. Pictures are also separate files that are called by the individual web page files to display in certain places on each page. Yet other files are used to control the appearance of text and graphics on each page. All those files exist together under a big "master folder" on a computer that's connected to the internet so other people can see your stuff.

So, your domain name is like the address on a house. Your website is like the house itself.

Domain names must be registered so there are no duplicates, and so the electronic address (the IP number) can be assigned and made available to the internet as a whole. That way, when someone types in your web address, a system of big computers matches your name to the address, which points to the specific computer where your web site is "hosted." You can think of this as a telephone directory. When domain names are first registered, it takes awhile for all the directories to be updated. This is known as "propogation time." Usually the update happens right away, but sometimes it can take a day or two for all directories around the world to be updated.