Something to add about wordpress and hosting--a lot of hosts will be set up so that they can automatically install it for you.  Something like two clicks of a couple buttons, and done.  Wordpress also lets you set up a blog on their site, but it's limited in what you can do compared to installing it on the host.  And the pricing on webhosts-from what I've seen, a lot of em have unlimited bandwidth/storage for about $10/month.  Cheaper if you do 6 or 12 month plans.  I've been looking at domain registrars lately, and I've actually not seen too many that are under $10/year.  At least none that look reputable.  Another good idea is to listen to the Writing Excuses podcast on branding yourself.  Basically says to put up a website that fits you.  My example for that would be my own site--it's sorta amateurish looking, but if it were too polished and professional, it wouldn't fit me.  And it has lots of stars.   

Godaddy.com is about 10 dollars a year.

Sometimes there are specials for 8 dollars a year, etc on websites--registrars are not important. What's important is your hosting. Most registrars you can get the domain cheap and then transfer it around aat will and get cheap registration that way. It's quick and painless.

The worst thing that can happen is that a registrar locks your account, but then you can get ICANN to lodge a complaint, which came about after Pepsi sued a large registrar and won.

Wordpress, you can set into a shell pretty easily with one line of PHP and a little deleting.

http://www.racheludin.com/ <-- that is set up into a shell. It's a basic PHP insert line.

That means I can use the template for other subpages as well.

I pay 60 dollars a year. Shared hosting, but they have lots of servers. And unlimited bandwidth, database, storage and domains. They don't do multi-access subdomains automatically, but you can get it set up with a little hassle and no charge.