If you want your own domain name then sooner or later you will have to tackle the subject of buying hosting. I went for Bluehost for one main reason. That it was more important for me as a beginner to pick an option fast and then act on it, than it was to find the perfect option. I have seen a lot of pro-blogs that use and recommend it and they had an option to get a free domain name on signing up. So that was good enough for me. It has cost me about $80 for a year's hosting and that allows me to host as many sites as I like, within reason. Like I said, the details don't matter to me at this stage. The most important thing was to get going and reach the point where I could start writing content and trying to promote it.