Part 1: Living RV style, "Cybergrrl" Inspirations and Lessons

What's it like traveling in an RV across the country? Is there a specific thing you miss?
I love traveling in the RV - it is comfortable, fun and relaxing. I wish that my cellular modem was more powerful, but the technology isn't the best yet, so going online can be frustrating from the RV. Still, being able to download my email while sitting in the RV at a campground or while parked at a rest stop is really cool.

What about the photo of your RV and a tow truck on your site? How is the RV running now?
The RV is in great shape, thanks to Fairbanks Dodge in Coconut Creek, Florida. They replaced my engine and fixed everything up. The tow truck photo is when I got towed in Maine after breaking down off I-95. That was at the very beginning of my trip, but I wasn't going to give up and spent my entire savings on a new engine.

That engine was later destroyed by a mechanic in Naples, Florida, so I had to purchase another engine through the Dodge dealer and it is working out really well so far. And I was able to get the mechanic to reimburse me for the cost of the engine.

Your latest book is very inspirational, can you tell us about it?
Cybergrrl @ Work is a guide for women on how to transform the way they work by using the Internet. The first half of the book talks about the Internet for your career - how to create and submit a resume online, job titles for the new millennium, best job search sites. The second half of the book is about starting a business from home or growing your existing business with the Internet.

How can women continue to embrace technology?
At this point, women are very empowered by technology whether it is the computer, using email, building a website. Today, technology is just facilitating communication. The Internet is all about communication. Women are great communicators. They need to use the tools that make communication happen on a more global scale.

For readers who aren't familiar with your amazing success, can you share the story behind your first site, cybergrrl.com, and how you accomplished it all on a shoestring budget?
I had been online since 1987 and creating online forums since the early 90s, but after discovering the Web, I built my first personal site and called it "The Web According to Cybergrrl." Basically, it had information about things I liked - London, sushi, Arthurian legend, Pre-Raphaelite art - and links to related sites. The site went up January 1995.

I also published information about domestic violence that I called Safety Net.

And I linked to women's personal homepages and called them Webgrrls.

The site won "Cool Site of the Day" in March 1995 and began to get so much traffic that my ISP - Interport - kept shutting me down.

I built the site myself and the first version had about 55 pages of information and took me about 3 hours to program. It didn't start making money until October 1996 when we got our first online advertiser, Toshiba.

Looking back is there anything you would have done differently in regard to your sites? Is there a lesson you learned the hard way?
Looking back, I think it is incredible that I created the first three websites for women, preceeding even Women.com and iVillage.com.

But I learned the hard way that to get the brand out there above "underground" popularity, you need money. And we should have taken an investment in the company far earlier than we did (we took money in 1998). Without millions of dollars, we couldn't market in a big way - everything was done grassroots which worked for the first few years, but wasn't sustainable.

Continued...