As you learn to design, you need a place to show off the new web sites you work on. This is called an online portfolio. Most people make up a creative name for their portfolio, or simply use a varation of their name then add .com. Hosting for your online portfolio generally costs less than $10 a month. You create the site yourself, knowing HTML, CSS, and web site structure, and you place the graphics you made on the site.
The host is the company that holds all your web site online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
My portfolio is called Blue For Credit. I went with iPage Web Hosting because they were super cheap (in a good way) and their support is awesome. You can view it at blueforcredit.com.
iPage Web Hosting. Free Domain Registration, Free Setup,
Free Support -- All risk free!