Hi, I know a friend who owns a webhosting company. Hosting plans go as low as $5 support there is also great. You can get help 24/7 which would be useful for you since this is going to be you first time that you are going to try this. His plans also include a few shopping carts and a shared SSL certificate which would be really useful to your visitors.
You may want to visit his site,
http://www.revolutionhosting.net
, for more information.
Also, if you have any PHP/HTML issues or any other isuues please feel free to contact me. Also, if you have a big budget and would like a fancy flash page contact me and I'll provide you with an e-mail address of a "Flash Master".