Phone: When in doubt, pick up phone. If email is not getting job done with a particular client, don't hesitate to pick up phone. Voice to voice is means for building true confidence and that necessary personal touch.

Picture: Show your visitors, clients, and leads who you are. A site with a picture of owner feels more friendly and personal that an ultra-swift website without one.

Tell Your Story In First Person: Many biographies are most appropriate in a third person format. However, at your website it is more approachable to tell about your experience and background as if you were speaking with a friend.

Speak English: Don't show off your in-depth industry skills by verbally overwhelming your clients or prospects. Respect their level of knowledge by speaking clear and easy-to- understand English.

Experts abound in marketplace, but accessible experts are ones that set themselves off pedestal and into crowd. This is next step in personal, confidence building marketing with today's smarter consumer.

When I ask him to proof one of my articles, he gets this deer-caught-in-the-headlights look in his eyes. Even though I've begged him to be brutally honest, I know he's thinking, "What can I say? I don't even understand what she's writing about!"

I think I've finally come to understand that what we do on Internet is very specialized. Never mind that there are thousands of us doing it. Those of us who spend hours each day on Internet advertising, reading and learning, give so much of ourselves to this endeavor. When we're not online, we're brainstorming headlines, ad copy and articles. Internet marketing is in every fiber of our being. Keep us away from computer too long and we go into severe withdrawal.

I don't know about you, but marketing is both a challenge and an outlet for me. The challenge is to learn as much as I can absorb and use what I've learned effectively. The outlet is tapping into that part of my brain that is creative.

I have come to understand that to some extent I have to keep my life online and my life offline separate. I tell my friends just enough and then shut up (hopefully before they are frantically looking around for a means of escape). Nothing is worse than to have someone rattling on and on about something you have absolutely no interest in.

But that's okay. There are plenty of people like you who DO understand what I'm talking about. And I don't have to explain to you what an ezine is.

"There are as many ways to live and grow as there are people. Our own ways are only ways that should matter to us." Evelyn Mandel