Getting Songs On The Internet (How?)

just a mic and some recording software, audacity is supposed to be good, goldwave might work too, that should be good for a start.

Check out the "In The Studio" forum. There are lots of us there trying to get started into recording.

I record directly to my computer and use Cakewalk and Music Studio7 and Sonic Foundry Sound Forge (not all at once!, but I DO occasionally take one mix from one program and re-mix in another), all accept .wav files, so, in essence, all I'm using is a cheap Radio Shack mic (that came with a 1/4" plug that needed to be taken down to 1/8" (you need to go from mono to mono for vocals) and it just plugs into the back of my computer. For my electric guitar it also takes a 1/8" plug, but this one needs to be mono to stereo), and again, just plug it into the back of the computer. If you're using an acoustic guitar, just play directly into your mic. (I think I have about $30 invested, nothing major at all and I get a pretty good sound, especially once I've added effects and mixed it correctly. I save the files that are created as individual tracks, (vocals = one track, guitar = second track, second guitar = third track, etc....), then take them into (usually) Cakewalk and mix them.

For a cheap, yet very doable, solution, I'm going to echo what was already said and suggest Audacity. You can download it here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

It's not as nice as Cakewalk or some other comercial software, but it's still a very quality program. Once you have it installed, all you really need is a microphone and a lot of time and patience :D ! Like elecktrablue said, to go the next step, you can buy some 1/4 to 1/8 converters (I got mine at RadioShack for under $2 apiece), and then you can plug your guitar and other equipment right into your computer. Well, that's I'll I have, hope it helps and best of luck!

This will illustrate what you need Connect your guitar to your computer