A little over six months ago, having a lot of time on my hands, I decided to move my reading journal online. I had become used to noting in a little black daily calender thoughts that occured to me as I read, and I wanted to explore this new phenomenon, blogging. I decided to do a blog about books.

I set out to do due diligence. I had to keep in mind the two main criteria: a blog site had to be easy to use and inexpensive. I have two Web page editors already, and a fair amount of dated knowledge about HTML, but what I really wanted was something online that was as easy to use as my little black book.

As for expense, the first thing I saw when I Googled "blogger" was Blogger: Create your Blog Now — FREE—now, that's what I call inexpensive! At that price, I could afford to try it out, see how easy it was.

Blogger's simple sign-up procedure and "choose one" professional templates could not make the process simpler. In ten minutes, I had a blog online and my first post written. Okay, I admit I cribbed my first posts from my little black book. But the beautiful ease with which I got them online was a revelation to me. I can do this! I can blog!

Since that day, I have become more immersed in this practice than I would have thought when I began. Blogging is seductive, you see. First, I had to tweak the template a little. The folks at Bravenet supplied a hit counter and a mini-poll. I added links to my favorite sites.

Then I read Blogger-in-Chief Biz Stone's article Promoting Your Blog. From a minor self-absorbed online journal, I could actually "market" my opinions. Would anyone come? Would anyone care?

I carefully followed Biz' advice. I connected with Amazon.com, and set up an arrangement to allow readers who are interested in a book I review to click through to the book's page at the US Amazon store. I registered my blog with Technorati and Blogdex. I linked up with the "sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, technology, and politics" at BlogCritics, discovering the power of cross-posting to one or two select sites.