Once you have defined your area of expertise and your target market, then you can get a pretty fair idea of what your content should be, at least to begin with. It helps if you start subscribing to other newsletters that target same subscribers you do. This will give you a more specific idea of kind of content you need to develop. But, let me stress again, this is only starting point.

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A side bar here! If you've followed seven steps of developing a guerrilla marketing plan that I laid out in an earlier article, these three questions should already be pretty much answered in that plan.

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Now that you have decided on area of expertise, target market, and type of content you want to provide, question becomes: How do I provide that content? The most obvious answer is through your own newsletter. But there are other options as well.

for instance, you could publish a series of reports or a book. You could write a column for someone else" s newsletter. You could do a radio or television show. You could do a series of audio or video tapes. Or you could do on line equivalents of any of these. But there is one important factor common to any and all of these possible tactics.

Your content must include original material written and developed by YOU! It certainly will not hurt to have material by acknowledged experts in your field, especially if their advice corroborates yours. But you must include ORIGINAL material. The more original material you can develop, better in long run for you.

Why is original material so important? It goes back to question we raised at beginning about what an opt in list is and why an opt in list is so important, which we never finished answering.

Having your own list of people who requested YOUR information allows you to build credibility for yourself as an expert in your field. But that works only if your content is your own ORIGINAL content. If you provide too much content written by others, you only build THEIR credibility with your subscribers, not yours! It is YOUR reputation as an expert you want to develop, not mine or anybody else's.

Besides, it was YOUR information they were requesting, not mine, not anybody else's. Give them YOUR information - information which is valuable, important and relevant and original. This will build their trust and confidence in you!

That trust will be useful in two ways for you, but that's subject of next article!

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Time is *all* we've got, in final analysis, so it *must* be used wisely and profitably.

And, so it came to pass that She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed looked at me critically - but kindly - one day and said, "Dear, why don't you take a rest from ezine writing...tell your subscribers about all *really* good ezines that you read...that way, you won't leave them high and dry...and you'll have more time for finishing that book of yours. More time for kids...and me, too!" Sherry arched one eyebrow, but smiled...sweetly.

She had a point.

Soothingly, she continued, "You can *always* come back to it...some day...when things are not so busy, hmmm?"

Strike two for Sherry.

I had to admit - it made sense. It was a real struggle, but with a sigh, I sent off last edition, with all necessary information about ezines I valued highly. If my subscribers didn't sign up to them, well, at least they had information to act on, anytime they chose to.

I held onto subscriber list, naturally, and email them from time to time, with useful and pertinent information. None has asked to be removed from mailing list yet.

Now, however, I could devote more time to those other - but necessary - tasks. You know, other ones that are about making money: getting e-books ready, promoting affiliate programs, developing business strategies and like.

Don't get me wrong - ezines, of course, are also about making money, amongst other things. And, as Sherry said, one day, I may start another up, for I know there's one lurking inside me, somewhere - but not in online marketing per se.

I know there's a niche for us, out there...it's only a matter of time.