#87 June 27 2000

Both Canada (July 1st) and the USA (July 4th) will be celebrating patriotic holidays soon. And since about everyone now has Net friends in both countries - it makes it the perfect occasion to get in touch!

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I really like the silly cards each day, but by time I get this newsletter, the week is almost over and I've missed most of the greetings. Is it possible to send them sooner? ** Cheryl

We are working to make this possible Cheryl. In a meanwhile Judy has put together the most popular weird holidays of past months for your sending pleasure. Enjoy!

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Thanks so much for putting this together. It saves hours of searching for the perfect site, and saves me from deviating from what I was looking for. Are there any party invitation postcards? ** Tricia

Tricia, the brand new site for this very purpose is brought to you be LoveStories.com. Invitations to Chatrooms, Romantic, Birthdays, Engagements, Weddings, Baby Showers, Anniversaries and Seasonal Fun. Just in time for upcoming holiday week.

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I am looking for some cute, VERY friendly and yet original cards. ** Alice

Perhaps this new site will suit your request, Alice. A few cute, hand-and-mouse-drawn pixel by pixel cards with captions like: "Friends like you are the most beautiful flowers in the garden of life"

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It's harder and harder to dream nowadays... without some friendly boost from the Net... Please, find us more fairies, dreams, wizards and fantasy ** Norma

Norma, this site is for you, stop by and send some magic.

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Are there card sites made by boys? I enjoy your newsletter, but getting tired of all those dolls and flowers ** Arnold

I am not really sure, Arnold, how old are the "boys" who created these sites. However the contents should suit your tastes okay. And some ladies would love that too.

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I am amazed where you find all these sites! ** MJM
I never stopped to think about it until your last news- letter... and now I wonder how it feels to be on the other side of the greeting card. ** Maria F.

MJM, all cardsites ever featured in this newsletter are the members of MyPostCards.com network, are powered by our software or are using our remotely-hosted posty services. We provide the back-end. We know all members. We watch and notice their success.

Nobody could answer better to Maria's question than the cardmaster in person. Meet Shelly Lane, whose site http://wings-and-things.net you liked so much last week:

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When I started my first cardshop in December of 1997, little did I know what I was getting into. I'll be the first to admit that I had no set goals in mind of what I hoped to accomplish with my personal web site by adding greeting cards to it. I had sent and received cards from other sites, so I had some idea that this was becoming a popular Internet pastime. But for the most part, it just seemed like a fun thing to do.

Recently, Natalie asked me to write about how being a cardmaster has changed my life. Only the most obvious things came to mind at first. For example, the most obvious benefit is all of the traffic and return visitors that first little cardshop has brought to my personal web site.

However, the less obvious but more profound change has been in my understanding of what our cardshops mean to the people who use them. Every single day, our cardshops bring beauty, happiness and smiles to thousands of people. We've taken what can be a rather cold medium called the Internet and have given it warmth and emotion. To those who are not articulate we have given a voice and a means of expression. That's quite a significant accomplishment for a little cardshop that started with no purpose. ;-)

So yes, I believe that "electronic" postcards can change lives. I also believe that cardmasters are a very special group of people. I am proud to be a small part of it, and I hope you are, too.