I know how to define a pattern and save it in photoshop but i want to be able to zip it up and place it on my site for download. How do i actually get to the physical file itself to zip it up ?

OK i figured it out. Once you have created all of the patterns you want to add to the new set the you go to the edit>preset manager and navigate to the patterns and find your newly created one and highlight them and then hit create set. all done.