These days everyone has a cellphone. It is such a common accessory now, they have become almost as ubiquitous as wristwatches. And just like the little old wristwatch, they can be used to project your personality and make whatever statement you want to make. Your cellphone can be fun and colorful, business like and serious, or upscale and trendy. And the way you give your cellphone that character is much more than choosing a particular model.

First up, my favorite cellphone customization – ringtones. This is the easiest way to change the personality of your cellphone. It lets you recognize your phone, unlike when you and 5 people around you are still using the default ringtone built into your cellphone. With your own customized ringtones you won’t have to search for your phone again just to realize that it isn’t even you phone ringing. Custom ringtones are also great for letting you distinguish between your most frequent callers. You can assign a specific ringtone to different incoming numbers, so you know who is calling before you even check the number.

Second on my list of ways to add your own personality to your cellphone is ringback tones. Not to be confused with ringtones, ringback tones are the tones that you can set up to play when someone calls you, and they are waiting for you to answer. Typically they just hear a ringing sound, but with ringback tones, you can set your favorite songs to play for your callers while they are waiting for you to pickup (or until the answering machine picks up). The ringback tone service is not ‘free’ like ringtones, there are two charges that you must cover in order to set up ringbacks. First you must pay a monthly service (either $1.49 or $1.99 depending on your carrier), and then you must buy each individual ringback tone. This is also reasonably cheap – from $.99 cents per song to a few dollars each. This gives you access to use the ringback tone for a limited amount of time, which can be anywhere from one month to a year, depending on what the terms of the ringback tone you downloaded were. Adding ringback tones let you send a message or an attitude to your callers before you even answer the phone.

The third way to customize your cell is not about how it sounds, but rather how your handset looks. Getting a cellphone cover is a great way to dress up your cellphone, and along with projecting your favorite style or theme, it’s also an excellent way to protect your phone from damage. If you just want to protect your screen from scratches, you could just get a polymer overlay to protect the screen. Other options which allow you to choose different colors textures and designs include rubberized cellphone skins, one piece faceplates, two piece form-fitted plates, hard or soft once piece cases in any color or material you could imagine, or the ultimate geek accessory, the cellphone holster.

So spend a few minutes the next time you are at your local Best Buy or Future shop to look for some cool covers or cases to protect your cellphone as well as project the look you are going for. This might be a wild and colorful look, or you might want to project a more elegant spendy kind of look. And the next time you are surfing your favorite music sites, take a minute to look for great new ringtones and ringback tones to download and upgrade your existing musical library with. A combination of personalized sound and graphics will certainly make your cellphone stand out from the crowd.

Visit this great Ringback Tones site to read more about verizon ringback tones.