About publishing to an FTP:
I had no idea what an FTP (file transfer protocol) was until I called 1&1 customer service for help. It is a great thing. In your web browser, you can type "ftp://" and then your web address (without the www). example: ftp://chapelofthecrossrec.com This will ask you for your user name and password that you get from your domain hosting service. (No, I won't tell you mine to help with the example.) :-) With 1&1 it is not the name and password to log into our account, but a separate one just for the FTP. Anyway, once in, it just looks like a document folder.
If you are using a word processor to create your web page, then when you save it as a web page it creates a file and a folder. I found that I had to save it with the name "index". So, I had index.html and a folder titled index_files. On the FTP, there is a file and a folder with the same name. Simply replace the ones on the FTP with yours and your website is published. (I actually had to save the file with the name index. If I tried renaming the file, it didn't work because it didn't link correctly to the files.)
If you are using web design software, then you can click on file and publish site. Then just follow the instructions. When I publish, FrontPage tells me that there are files on the FTP that FrontPage didn't put there. It asks me if I want to delete those. I answer "NO to all." The reason that I answer "NO" is because I use 1&1 for my photo page and for my weather, I am afraid that the files on the FTP might be necessary. They certainly don't hurt. One day, I may call 1&1 to ask them.
Your domain hosting service might have another way to publish. You can always call them. Just make sure that you have your site created and that you are on the internet. When I was having problems, 1&1 was actually able to watch my screen to tell me what I was doing wrong.