I agree with most everything KL said.

The hard part is sometimes in maintaining your online home.
Creating a website these days is relatively easy - there are several web authoring programs that are available, you just have to choose which one suits your tastes and proficiency. Til now I am still using Dreamweaver, since it allows me to switch between coding and design views. Apart from this, all you'll need is to purchase a domain name and get a hosting service - again, there are many alternatives to choose from, with prices tailored to what you'll need.
Creating and installing an online shopping cart and a forum in your site can be done conveniently these days too - depending on your hosting provider (if they supply you with a back-end interface like cPanel), they may have one-click installations of third party applications for forums such as SMF or phpBB, as well as online shopping cart software such as Cube Cart, OS Commerce, and Zen Cart. Installing them and getting them to work is one thing; learning the ins and outs of what your software can do may take time.