It's a common condition - you've got an urge to publish on the web but have no idea where to start and don't want to commit to a full-fledged website...just yet.

Thankfully, there's an easy solution.

Though some websites such as Geocities or Freewebs offer free website services, if you are absolutely confused by the internet and balk at the notion of having to learn HTML all at once, there's a really easy solution that just about anyone can do: blogging.

What's blogging you ask? A blog is a web log, or a place to publish text and images in the spirit of a journal or an online report. Many use it for just that purpose, but a blog can be just about anything you want it to be, and for all practical purposes, it is a web page...and you can blog absolutely free.

The best way to go is blogger, where you can set up a free blog and choose from a number of very stylish templates.

Not only are you now publishing for real, you can do it very intuitively, using blogger's built-in controls. But the beauty of blogging is that Blogger supports raw html coding and allows you to modify the blogger template at will. You can experiment with HTML tags and learn how to code HTML links, HTML images, and even HTML tables, and blogger will even ensure to make sure that your HTML tags check out as you experiment with them.

Blogging is a great way to get familiar with internet publishing, and without even trying, you'll learn valuable HTML codes that you can put to use once you finally decide to set up a website.

AND, not only are blogs free, but you can even earn money from them through the Google Adsense Program. There's nothing to lose, and you might end up learning enough about HTML to set up your own website, and finally have things your own way.

No matter which way you look at it, setting up a blog is one of the best ways to enter the world of internet publishing. Get started today!

About the author: David Saharkhiz is a computer science major and National Merit Semifinalist at America's Clemson University. He provides comprehensive web-help and HTML coding tutorials, codes free HTML scripts, and works to help novice webmasters learn how to create a website.