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It’s almost that easy to start a blog.

According to the Pew Research Center, 12 million American adults blog, publishing on the Internet everything from the meals they eat to the lives of pet cats, to reports on terrorist plots, media sins and celebrities driving under the influence.

Authorities estimate that at least 50 million blogs have been created worldwide and say that number could double by spring.

Blogging is the product of relatively new technology and a primitive urge to communicate. All it requires is a computer and a line to the Internet. With those two conditions met, blogging, at its cheapest, costs nothing more than the blogger’s time.

The reward for that time is connection, whether your target audience is a few family members, a handful of friends or the entire world.

Washington-based blogger La Shawn Barber was writing a biweekly column for online publications when she discovered blogging about three years ago. As her blog gained readers, Barber dropped her column to concentrate on her blog. Her site, La Shawn Barber’s Corner, in which she comments on political and current issues, averages about 3,000 unique visits a day.

“My blog has done so much for me personally and professionally and not only that, but I love to do it. It’s a labor of love,” says Barber, adding that she’s been invited to speak at conferences, worked briefly as a blog reporter for MSNBC and had her blog featured on CNN’s Reliable Sources.

The term “blog” is a foreshortening of Web log. “Log” suggests a record, typically cast in words or images. The log is published, or posted, on the World Wide Web. But unlike other media, publication isn’t the end of the story; it’s the beginning.

Tech tidbits

Once published, if the blogger allows it, readers can comment on the posts, creating a dialogue impossible in other media. Some blog services offer “trackback,” an option that enables bloggers to send links or referrals to fellow bloggers’ sites. Bloggers can also use comments and trackbacks to increase readership of their own sites.

Within their posts, bloggers can embed links that, with a click, take the reader to another site. So bloggers who comment on articles or images they find online can link to the articles and send their readers directly to the source. The interactivity generated by bloggers is referred to as the “blogosphere” or World Live Web.

Self-study

Taking the classic advice to authors to write about what they know, the majority of bloggers write about themselves.

According to the Pew’s Internet & American Life Project Report, 76 percent of bloggers surveyed said they write to document personal experiences. The term blog is often considered synonymous with online diaries. Hosting services such as myspace.com and MSN’s Spaces encourage that connection.

Salimah Perkins, a Baltimore editor and poet, has been blogging for four years. Her posts are often a reflection of her day.

Recent posts include dinner with a co-worker at the James Joyce Irish Pub, reactions to her new job (positive), a visit by her sisters, a brief review of Jeff Bridges’ role in “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and her favorite way to make change for the bus. As the entries add up, readers develop a picture of Perkins’ life and personality.

She started her blog, The Baltimore Chronicles, after reading a friend’s blog and finding herself entranced.

Like many bloggers, Perkins adopted a nom de plume. In her case, the pseudonym, Kate Krupnik, freed Perkins to blog publicly on personal matters without exposing her true identity and possibly compromising a friendship.

Impact on media

While smaller in number (the Pew report estimates that 11 percent of bloggers write on politics and current affairs), bloggers who track and post comments on politics and the latest news tend to attract more attention.

No longer relegated to letters-to-the-editor pages, those who once might have only shaken their fists at the nightly news reports are now taking to the Internet to be heard, sometimes breaking the surface of mainstream media with a splash.

Recently, the celeb blog TMZ made headlines when it broke the Mel Gibson DUI story. Charles Johnson, at Little Green Footballs, exposed a doctored Reuters news service photo of Beirut, Lebanon, during the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

At the same time, traditional media outlets have sent their own into the blogosphere. The Baltimore Sun, for instance, hosts about a dozen blogs.

Thanks to Web sites and blog software packages, it’s possible to get a blog up and running in minutes.

“They have made self-publishing literally as easy as 1, 2, 3,” Perkins says.

Getting started

If you have a computer with an Internet connection, the first step is to choose a hosting service that offers space for free or for relatively low monthly or yearly fees. Some host services, such as blogger.com, myspace.com and livejournal.com, are free and, most important for beginners, require no additional software or coding knowledge. Others offer varying rates for different levels of service, frequently allowing you to test their service free for the first 30 days.

The beauty of the free sites is obvious. The drawback of free sites is that the hosting service may not provide all the extras of the pay sites.

Once you’ve established the blog, get ready for the hard part: posting.

No one can tell you what to post, but help is available from veteran bloggers. Maybe nothing is as informative as reading blogs, both those you admire and those you don’t.

Simon Masnick offers a blog how-to reference in his posting “Everything you wanted to know about blogging but were afraid to ask” at simonworld. mu.nu/archives/037779.php.

The post also includes links to numerous sites offering tips on blogging, blog etiquette, increasing readership and related issues.