Most likely, the camcorder you use for your Internet video will be the one that you already own. If you are looking to purchase a new camcorder and plan to make Internet videos, then by all means get a digital camcorder equipped with a FireWire (or i.LINK) port. A digital camcorder (Mini DV or Digital8) with digital I/O allows you to transfer your video onto your computer without having to redigitize. This will give you higher-quality video from the beginning.
If you have an analog camcorder, don't feel like you have to throw it out and buy a digital camcorder to make Web video. Your analog camcorder will work just fine if you have a digitizing card. Also, many streaming-only authors blast streaming video to the Web using tiny egg cams without ever laying video to tape.

Whether you're shooting your video with an analog or digital camcorder, your next step to creating an Internet video is to get the raw video clips onto your computer so that you can edit them together into a cohesive video production.
If you are using a digital camcorder, your easiest option is to use a computer that has a built-in and pre-configured FireWire or i.LINK port. If you already have a digital camcorder and a newer computer, you can install an after-market FireWire card in one of the expansion ports of your computer. If installing expansion cards isn't your cup of tea, make sure you take your computer to a competent computer nerd to handle the installation. Installing video-editing hardware is not for the technically faint of heart.
If you are using an analog camcorder, you'll need to use a computer equipped with a digitizing card. Many companies sell turnkey nonlinear editing computers with digitizing cards pre-installed. You could install a digitizing card on your current computer, but once again, if doing difficult computer upgrades isn't for you, have someone else do the installation.

Almost every computer with a built-in FireWire (IEEE 1394) port or digitizer card comes bundled with video editing software. Don't worry if the nonlinear editing software that is pre-installed in your computer is a "light" version that doesn't offer the effects and transitions that the full version of the software allows. Fancy effects and transitions are things that you will want to leave out of Internet video productions (see Tips for Shooting and Editing Internet Video sidebar).
When you're ready to save your project, your edited master will probably already be in a format (.AVI or .MOV) that you can post to the Internet for downloading. Many nonlinear editing packages now include options to save your file in a streaming format that will allow viewers to click and watch your Web video without having to wait for a lengthy download.