Wow... I was actually trying to be funny and make a joke when I mentioned setting up a server in your grandma's basement... I can't believe how that escalated into a discussion. So much about my sense of humor...

My point was just to move away from GoDaddy since they are probably the worst choice for hosting an ecommerce site. As I always say - if they don't give you a summer house in Florida with your account, then it's not worth it...

Anyway, forget about setting up your own server. As Dr.Byte already said, you need to know A LOT about servers and server technology to be able to setup a good server and keep it safe from attacks. You need to maintain that server, and that takes both time and knowledge. There are probably hundreds of tutorials how to setup your own server at home, but you'll end up spending more time and money than you'd pay for a 2-year hosting plan with a high quality hosting provider. And, of course, let's not forget the security, reliability and performance that you're getting with a provider which you most likely can't achieve with your home based server. We all want to cut down our costs, but hosting is the last thing you should be cheap about because it's the first thing that affects your customer's experience - nobody likes a site that takes 2 minutes to load... And that's what you usually get with $1.99 per month hosts...

Schoolboy's suggestion to get a Reseller package is absolutely correct, although I personally prefer (managed) VPS. If you're hosting 8 sites for yourself and not for your clients, you might find it easier and simpler on a VPS than a reseller package. Perhaps I'm mistaking or it's just my own preference, but I didn't like my Reseller package and have switched over to a VPS solution.