The photographer is more important than the equipment used. You can have the most expensive photographic equipment known, but if you can't operate it, your results will still be bad.
Forget the professional photographer unless you want to spend a lot of money (or you have some impressive anatomy and the hots for the photographer
)
If you have a web cam, you can create an image for the internet. Most web cams have a "capture" mode and will save the frozen image in a web- and email-friendly format. (jpg, in case you were wondering) Plus, you can easily preview your images.
Most any digital camera will capture an image suitable for sharing. Just keep in mind that most digital cameras create images that are waaay too large to share. You will have to resize the camera image downward to make it much more internet-friendly.
As for the tech specs: 300 x 400 pixels @75 dpi. is a nice size for an image. Saved in the jpeg format, the file size is small enough that it won't bog down email programs. Yet, the image is large enough to show all you want.
I have an Olympus Stylus 300 digital camera. It is middle-of-the-road. What is nice, though, is that it came with a remote. I can trigger the camera without having to work a timer, etc. The remote is tiny enough to be unnoticable. So if I want to take pics of myself with the camera, I set it up, frame the area I will be standing, and then place myself in front of the camera and shoot.
I can't do that with my web cam. I have a Logitech web cam. It came with QuickCapture software. Problem is, the controls are on the computer. So if you want to capture a "full frontal" shot, someone has to help you. It is good for "head and shoulders" shots or parts of your body. Just as long as you can hold the cam in one hand and operate your mouse with the other, you can get good images to share.
And don't forget that your image will show you
and all the junk piled up behind you, your reflection in your tv or mirror, or some other stuff you really didn't want others to see. So don't get so wrapped up in capturing you that you capture more than you intended.