July 9, 2006 — Determination, drive and a competitive nature power Eugene Mitchell's entrepreneurial spirit. With a computer and limitless ambition, Mitchell has embarked on a journey that he hopes will take him to the top of the World Wide Web.
Mitchell, 32, is a Central High School Class of '91 graduate. By day he works for a subcontractor at Hovensa; nights and weekends he concentrates on building his web business.
Mitchell launched his Web site, www.comuniteez.com, in June, and it is already beginning to make its mark in the cyber world, getting hundreds of hits a day.
"People have signed up from the Caribbean, New York and Florida," said Mitchell.
Mitchell said his Web site is similar to the popular MySpace.com And it's much more than a dating Web site, he said. "Finding the love of your life is not the focus of the site," said Mitchell.
Comuniteez.com has e-mail, chat rooms, a place to build your own blogs (short for Weblogs), search functions and even classified ads. Mitchell hopes the site will be a way for people to form friendships all over the world.
"It's the works," Mitchell said, adding that he is constantly upgrading and adding on more features. "Horoscopes are the next feature I am adding," Mitchell said.
Web hosting is big business, Mitchell explained. The site generates money when visitors click on and purchase items from advertisers. As the site gets bigger, advertisers pay to have banner ads. Basically, the more that people visit the site, the more money the site can generate.
To increase traffic, Mitchell is running an ad campaign on Yahoo and Google. "The ads really draw a lot of people," he said.
For now, Mitchell is doing all he can to get more people to sign up. He spends hours online sending requests and asking people to forward those requests to friends.
He recommends the site to everyone — young, old, married and single.
"It's a great way to express yourself and find new friends, as well as business contacts," Mitchell said. He said a business person can create a blog describing his services and email it to contacts; blogs are also a great way to express yourself about community issues or politics.
Mitchell's philosophy is simple: Go after what you like and make it a success. "Just go and get it done," he said.
While some people are indecisive and hesitant to take risks, Mitchell forges ahead. "I like Web sites and I wanted to create my own so I took the steps to create and market my own," he said.
On the marketing side, Mitchell is offering special promotions for new member signups. Tickets are being given away for the upcoming Ne-Yo concert on St. Croix. (For those not in the know, Ne-Yo is a 24-year-old singer/songwriter whose single, "So Sick," was No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's top 100.)
Additionally, digital cameras will be awarded to the 500th and 1,000th person to sign up at the site, Mitchell said.
No one can accuse Mitchell of not reaching for the cyber stars. "I want to be the next Bill Gates," he said. And he's already got some philanthropic ideas in mind. "I want to be able to help the V.I. government out of its financial problems." Mitchell said his dream is to be able to donate money to the government to fix schools, roads and health care. "Just get it done, no excuses," he said.
No one can say Mitchell lacks confidence in his ability to get things done. He is on the road to seeing all his dreams come true and is not afraid to put in the work to get it done.
"I wanted a Web site and I got it, Mitchell said. "I said my site is going to be big; just give me a couple of years and it will be."
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