Greetings, and welcome to this y2k Gozarkian wrap-up. As always, however, if your desire is to opt-out of this occasional newsletter, please scroll directly to the end of this note for instructions. Otherwise, we invite you to take another leisurely stroll through our virtual neck of the woods.

For starters, I want to thank you for making Gozarks first Holiday online such a satisfying and heartwarming success. So far during December, which is only our eighth month of publication, you and1936 other readers have visited Gozarks pages 8589 times. In fact, statistics tell us that we had 77 visitors on Christmas Day -- which really made us feel good – and that of these 64 of you were returning for a second, third, or hundredth helping of the stuff we share.

Speaking strictly from a statisticians point of view, this puts our ''visitor return rate'' at 83% and --- according to the most recent market data I've seen on the subject, being able to boast a visitor return rate of anything over 20% is quite an accomplishment. So, thanks for making us unique!!!

But enough about numbers. We have several far more interesting topics to schmooze about. Heading this list, we are greatly pleased and quite honored to announce that our Hyper Tech / Gozarks team is now the official WPP (Web Presence Provider) for the Fairfield Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. We’ll have more news on this subject to share with you after the first of the year, but for now please find enclosed one bubbly-full glass of (non-alcoholic and calorie free) cyber-champagne and share with us in an ‘’Onward and Upward’’ toast!!!

Equally invigorating, we’ve recently added several new pages to Gozarks. Topping this list was the creation of our What’s New page  where you’ll find a chronological notebook listing each of the most recent updates and additions to our pages. Check there now and you’ll find that, just in the last week, we’ve updated 10 pages and added 4 brand new pages to our little e-zine – including a neat new photo on Cool Pics and the creation of a Prayer Offerings page.

Under the ‘’significant transition’’ heading, we were saddened to note that one of our most celebrated columnists, Mary Alice Beer, will no longer be writing her weekly Come Walk With Me articles. But take heart. She will not be leaving our pages. Her new column, ‘’Virtual Garden,’’ is now ready for you to peruse.

Also during December we added an eShopper  section to our collection of wares. Our thinking here is to provide y’all with an interesting assortment of ideas that will, hopefully, make the task of finding ‘’just the right gift’’ for your ‘’special someone’’ a whole lot easier and oodles more fun.

At the moment, you’ll find more than 15 virtual gift-idea boutiques linked to us on our eShopper page, ranging in scope from the outlandishly extravagant to the sublimely simple and sometimes free. Plus there’s a link to our Book Shop and our Poster Shop.  Please do feel free to window-shop and browse!!!

Stepping back to late November for a moment, we debuted the Crafting Business column  authored by Barbara Massie. Now you can look forward to twice monthly updates of her work, starting the first of the year.

On a similar front, the last time I wrote we had just introduced a new columnist, Hershel Raney by name. Well, we’re pleased to tell you that his musings on nature, people, events and the in-between, titled Random Natural Acts, is now one of our readers’ favorites. About this we say: Bravo, Herschel. Bravo!!!

In the coming New Year we have several resolutions we’ve set our cap to keep. Among these, we are determined to continue publishing a high-quality Ozark-centric e-zine, loaded with interesting and informative stuff that proves useful to you.

We can create a professional Webpresence for you, your product, or your organization for as little as $255 per year. And as always, qualified local non-profit groups are eligible for a no-cost Webpage in our "Good Works" directory.

Anyway, it’s been great fun chatting with you and now it’s time for me to scoot… but not before I wish you and everyone Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year… now and forevermore.

With Ozark hugs,

Justin Bonds, Webmaster

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