Cheap hosting packages should have the option for you to have subdomains linked to your main account. These are used to help you brand your product and to focus on new product lines. All the administration for the subdomains is done through your main site, making it an easy process to administer for all your subdomain pages.
If your hosting company is any good they will offer you a multitude of software packages, all accessible by one simple click and giving you lots of free information and useful software. This includes link exchanges, forums, blogs and CMS.
POP Boxes are a useful tool to have, as your hosted domain can accept mail, using YOURNAME@yourdomain.com, and you can vary the YOURNAME to give yourself many accounts for different purposes. You will find that all mail for these domains will come to one mail account, or numbers of POP boxes available to you, and it shows you how many mailboxes with their own ID and password you can have.