Originally Posted by brianf

In order to create a web site and put it on the internet, you must have hosting. Where the difference lies is whether the host provides accounts that are based on a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor or simply provides CMS's (content management system) scripts that may be auto-installed and assist you with the adding content to your site. Online wysiwyg editors are much like an online version Frontpage.
It depends. You might consider using free programs to start, so you have an opportunity to learn what you may need or not need in that type of software. Try Evrsoft First Page and Seamonkey are two free programs to try.

If you have little experience and do not believe that you'll have high traffic, your better off going with a shared server and upgrade to a VPS or dedicated as necessary.

Even if you find a template that you like, unless you have it designed, the look won't be unique to your site. In fact, a thousand sites may be using the same template. If you currently have a logo and have an idea what you want the site to look like, contracting with a designer will probably be relatively inexpensive.

Edit: There are many shopping cart type scripts available, both free and paid, such as OSCommerce, that can be installed automatically by many hosting account control panels. There are many themes available and it's not too difficult to change the logo and the color scheme.