Just Be Yourself by mizKitty  | producer of  FullMoon Graphics and  24-7cool.com and  ink2art The web is about people. There are words and art and games and naked bodies everywhere. You can buy things and some people steal things. I prefer the artwork and the people.... and I buy lots of things. My web site is about people. It may not be apparent on your first or second visit, but if you come back with any regularity, it will feel like you're visiting a friend. That's what I want you to feel, 'cos that's how I feel every time I talk to my visitors. My husband thinks I'm nuts. "You're writing that like you're talking to an old friend! What are you telling them that for?" He doesn't understand. That's how I am. He also thinks I'm naïve. "There's a lot of kooks on the Internet!" That may be, but there's a bunch of neat people out there too! I believe that an important ingredient to a successful web site is to be yourself, whether you're showing your artwork, telling a tale, or selling your services. Be yourself. Be honest. I deal with clients that I never meet face to face, and I used to worry about how I projected myself over the phone. Was I professional enough, did I sound okay, was I making a good impression? Instead of trying to be something that I wasn't, I just started talking. I just began talking like Kitty.... Take it or leave it, 'cos this is it! It works. You can have the most mind boggling web site, with all of the latest bells and whistles, but in my opinion, unless you welcome your visitors with a little piece of yourself, they won't come back. We have a tremendous ability to meet and share ourselves with people all over the world! How cool is that?! We are all human beings (now, this is where I get mushy) and we truly are all on this earth for the basically the same reasons. The web is an extremely influential medium. You have the power to raise awareness, change opinions, and actually make a difference! I find that thought overwhelming! So, maybe I got carried away here. The moral of my story is simply be yourself. It will shine through anything else that you have on your web site. It will be the stuff that people come back to. It allows you to sleep well too, when you read email from little girls who tell you that they want to be just like you when they grow up :) Copyright 1999 © KA Mead 7/26/99