Consider getting a VPS to play around with to learn how this stuff works before you expose your data to the internet.

Highly recommend this, especially when exposing your local server to the internet when you may still be a bit green with the security aspects of self hosting. Small VPS for under $30 a year are dime a dozen really, and well worth the price for the education you can get from them.

Even now, I have a small VPS that I regularly test things on before I put it on the production server.