You mean you want to host your website on your own PC ? If so, I would suggest you to consider about the traffic of your site, if it's too heavy..this is not recommended.. Just go for a good & reliable hosting company..such as the one I suggest to you..
You can buy your domain at name.com very cheap and host it at www.trustedhosting.info for free. If you want to host you site on your computer, then download xampp from here www.apachefriends.org
Say I buy a domain at godaddy.com... what is my next step... will they provide the page and the tools needed to make my website??? Or am I on my own with that one?
You can either use their hosting services or buy web hosting elsewhere and set the nameservers connected to your domain registered at godaddy to the nameservers provided by your web host.
You can try some Hosted with Good Service such as godaddy.com or hostgator.com. If this is just a begin with you, you can begin with some free hosting.
Xampp is good for home hosting, however Godaddy might not be the best registrar in the world for someone new to webhosting and such. A better choice would be 'domainmonster (dot) com' or 'dreamhost (dot) com
K, so let me make sure I understand this. I buy the domain name, then I pay to host correct? If so, after I pay to host, how is my website developed? Will it just be a blank page???
You probably will get a apache folder that says "Index of/" with no contents. You have to create your site; If you want to start from nothing, you may use Adobe Dreamweaver; nevertheless, many hosts like hostgator has many templates you can use. Another option is to buy templates (try templatemonster.com) or contract somebody to develop it. If you want a blog, install wordpress (veary easy with installatron or fantastico) Now, if you want forums like this one, buy and install vbulletin. Free alternatives are SMF, PHPBB and MyBB.
Ok. I've checked out godaddy.com hosting... if I host with them will they suppl tools necessary to make my website??
Godaddy has a site builder, not sure if it comes with or not, but it's not that expensive reguardless.
i think they do. Just checkout thier plans, "All plans include Google Webmaster Tools.". I think thats it.