I use FrontPage Express, but I still fine-tune the HTML using a text editor. I can't really recommend FrontPage because I haven't tried anything else. (I believe it's free.) It saves a bit of time that would be spent on me trying to figure out what the HTML tags would be for things I don't do very often or have never done. Otherwise, I'd just do everything in the text editor; it's a lot cleaner.

I agree with Gargoyle about Geocities. I DO tend to avoid sites that have pop-ups unless there's something really good there. He's also right about the possibility you already have space at your ISP. Many of them feature a small (small only if you plan on putting up a lot large files) amount of web space as part of your membership package.

This may be helpful: Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design.