After pouring through pages upon pages of Newbie advice, I found the sections on using your own domain name versus a free hosted site (like Weebly, etc). While I want to go with my own domain name (ZaftigZoe.com), I'm concerned about the prospect of having to pay for it. From what I've been looking at, I'll have to use a card with my *real* name on it. Which, of course, scares a neophyte like me to pieces.

For the ladies with their own domains, did you register for it with a card in your name or is there a way to circumvent this?

...ANONYMOUS and OFFSHORE web hosting solutions.  They register the account for you so their generic contact info shows up on the WHOIS lists.

go with godaddy, You do have to use info, But you can request it to be private.

With godaddy, you don't need to provide 'real' information anywhere, (contrary to their ominous warnings) except when you enter credit card information.

Having a site isn't a danger, unless you're blatant about your work in the content of the site.  Just have a small gallery and a little info about your likes/dislikes, without addressing any actual business, and you'll be fine

Thank you for the responses everyone.

Absolutely appreciated.

If I may, the advice about using godaddy and keeping it private is certainly good.  But I think unnecessary as was also previously stated, you are never actually REQUIRED to put in real actual data!  Fake it girl, just make sure you can remember what you said

As far as paying for it, go to walmart or maybe even target and get a pay as you go credit card.  You can anonymously fill those things with CASH, so you never actually have to connect your real identity to a transaction.

and put whatever information you want for the domain name and hosting.

I have registered a number of domain names, and bought hosting a number of times where nothing even resembling my information was used...

Fake name, fake address, real AmEx gift card number.

When I purchased a domain name from GoDaddy not long ago, I used a Visa pre-paid gift card...and registered for private registration.