Many times people will IM me or e-mail me wondering what it is I am doing. I tell them I am working on my sites, which usually leaves them perplexed and confused. What sites? What do you do with them? Do you have a life outside of them? Well, here's the 411 on what I am doing with these "sites" ;)

I have been working on my own little websites for some time now - but mostly on some other server with a template thrown in. In the early Spring of 2002, I decided to try my hand at my own site with its own URL (you can go to register.com and find a URL that you like for not much money). My friend Chris had a server and so it was doable to finally have my own space. I started the Everybody Fan Club based on my Everybody zine which I started in 1991 (read more about that here). This, of course, is all for Madonna, one of my fave artists. Over time it grew and grew until it had a very loyal following online. Soon, my friend Chris moved to Texas and I had Nick take over the duties of hosting the server.



With the fun of making a site comes the fun of making more sites. I added a Hall & Oates site (another fave of mine), another Madonna site, and my own personal site. They all have the same fun and sense of style, if you look at them.

Everybody Fan Club - http://www.everybodyfanclub.com
MadonnaMemories - http://www.madonnamemories.com
Hall and Oates.org - http://www.hallandoates.org
Mariam's site - http://www.mariamayub.com

I use FrontPage and Photoshop to create them, and love to write so I am constantly working on articles. It's a true labor of love, though I have made money on banner advertising on Everybody Fan Club. My sites have also garnered thousands of hits (in May 2004, my EBFC site had over 100,000 hits!) and I also chart high on google for the site. This has brought me a lot of media attention as well. These are some of the outlets I have heard from - (yes, that's right, most of them contacted me)


These are just some of the back issues of the zines I have put out. 

Maverick Records, VH-1, New York Post, London Weekend Television, Goldmine magazine, The Oregonian, Caresse Henry - Madonna's former manager, MTV, Fredflare.com, The Chicago Tribune, Al Hirschfield Productions, M6 French TV Network, Gloss magazine, IMA International Music Awards, Chrome Dreams, MTV Video Music Awards, and many others...

I love what I do and while it's very time-consuming, it just means I have to work that much harder for a social life. The payoff is great though, in meeting new fans and being able to do wonderful events, (we've done many Madonna events - our biggest one was a birthday party in Portland, Oregon which was even broadcast on local radio stations and in local magazines!)

We did lots of promotion during the Re-Invention Tour when we hit Los Angeles and San Jose as well and it has paid off. I do have a small (and still unpaid.lol) staff for Everybody Fan Club including promotions and online promotions and yes, I still do the zine though lately I haven't had the time to do a current one (I'm getting on that now ;)) I also run contests on two of my sites which brings in lots of folks as well.



What's in it for me, you ask? Well, outside of meeting great fans, I have had a chance to really understand what it is like to work in the biz, represent the artists, take care of the fans, and be an online presence that's competitive. I hope it does prove worthy training for a future job, but even it not, I have still learned a lot of valuable lessons.

And now you know what my "sites" are!

Mariam