It is so true: you do only get one chance to make a first impression. That is especially important in teaching online, as you can only get students excited about and involved in your course through bits and bytes—much more of a challenge then when you are live in a classroom! Thus, each item you post—email, discussion message, announcement, team note, etc.—must be created with much thought, and perhaps none of these is more important than the first post to your class.