New web browsers come with incredible features. For example, Netscape has Netshow and MSE has Net Meeting. Place at top of your monitor just a simple, inexpensive, camera (most likely you have already a microphone and speakers) and voila: you are equipped to conduct your own online tele-conferencing!

Can we chat (and more than that)? --------------------------------- As you perhaps know, I host and moderate a MasterMind Chat -- details at http://loska.com/successconnection/chat.html Since chatroom doesn't like Microsoft Explorer - causing constant scrolling of chat messages - I advice participants and guests to use Netscape. Quite often this creates a problem. Many people say "I don't have a Netscape because I prefer Internet Explorer..."

Chances are that with you just opposite is true. You might use Explorer, not Netscape, or Opera, or Lynx, or WebTV, or ... maybe you don't even know which of them you are using!

Either way, if you are serious about your Internet business, you better get used to idea of having more than one browser. Not because of my MasterMind Chat (although this alone may be a good reason -- among my guests were Ken Evoy, Marlon Sanders and Tony Blake, you can gain a lot from chatting with guys like that).

However, most important reason for using more browsers is your ability to see web pages way other visitors do.

These are ways smart media organizations create community their customers crave. Here's how it works.

People are social creatures. Few of us like being alone for long. We prefer to work and learn in groups. We like to know there are plenty of other people who are a lot like us, people who are doing same things we are.

When companies create a community of like-minded customers for people to be a part of, lots of people respond. This can be particularly important if your goal is to keep new prospects interested and current customers coming back. Creating your own community is critically important during slow economic times when every customer counts.

Here are five cheap and easy ways you can create your own online community right away!

1. Start your own discussion board. A few years ago, you had to be a computer programmer to do this, but today anyone can create their own online discussion. The one we have at InternetWriters comes free from bravenet.com. You can personalize look of your board as well as put your logo at top. This makes discussion look like a regular part of your web site.

Expect discussion to start off slow. Line up several experts to launch conversations and provide follow-up answers. These can be experts outside your company, but it is usually more reliable to have experts from inside your organization. Using your in- house experts can help emphasize how your staff has ability and desire to solve problems for customers. If you want to create image of expertise, your discussion board is a great way to do it.