Just imagine you are a customer and you are looking for a solution to a problem. It might be that you need a new battery for your mobile phone, you may need to learn how to take great photographs with your new digital camera or you might need to find a wedding gift for a friend or relative.

As far as this experiment goes you can choose any problem you like. All I ask is that you go to your favourite search engine and type in a query to seek a solution to your problem. Once you get your search results, click through to a few sites and see how information is presented.

My prediction is that most web sites that you visit will tell you all about themselves, they will push their products or services and they will list lots of features. Very few web sites will attempt to empathise with you or your specific problem.

First of all, you may notice that you're not getting a whole lot of issues of this ezine from me. Why? Because I've come to understand that blogging is faster. It's more immediate. It's got a wonderful airstream of energy that follows each post. And because it's less formal, it's less work -- but still communicates just as effectively as an ezine ... perhaps even more so. This point was made wonderfully clear for me just this morning by Stacy Brice, who runs noteworthy VA training program, AssistU. Stacy sent up a very thoughtful comment to my 'Painless Self Promo' blog, under header 'The Future of Ezine'. Which led to an email, which led to a lengthy phone call. Stacy and I had a real heart to heart about this ezine vs. blog thing ... and here's what I've decided is state of things at moment.

1. We're in a transitional shift from ezines to blogs. This has mostly to do with people being reluctant to give up old comfy ways for a few minutes of learning new technology, downloading RSS desktop applications, etc.. It was like this just before we traded in vinyl for CD's, telepathy for cell phones and to-do lists for Palm Pilots. And some of us have never moved forward. Those of us who did are pretty happy.

2. Blog technology has finally leapt up to plate. It's happening; it's here; it's on cover of Business Week. Blogs can no longer be dismissed as fringe techie territory. They've gotten so easy to use, and read, that there is simply no denying them. Blog creation software du jour is typepad and wordpress. Typepad blogs exist on their website for a small monthly fee. Wordpress blogs exist on your own site for free. Typepad's more elegant. Wordpress is more basic and functional. I'm running a test to see which will eventually work better for me.

3. It's no longer all about list. I am still an advocate of ezines, but I believe list/email connection is rapidly unraveling. My own lists have declined in size as have those of every Net marketer I know. Ezines have peaked and crested in their usefulness and appeal. Meanwhile, blogs are hot. AND you can capture names on them. (See my blog for details on how to do that.)