Content Provider for Hire.

Now that you have your website up and running, what do you do with it? Why, upload some content for it, of course. And where can you find content? One source is Financial Strategies Online (FSO), a Connecticut-based firm that claims to have developed 2,000 pages of "professionally prepared, noncommercial content" designed to keep your customer around by filling their need for information. Participating banks simply link their sites to FSO's site, and customers have instant access to detailed information about matters ranging from home mortgage insurance to estate planning.

Executive vice president Greg Fern says the website's information has been vetted by a high-profile advisory board that includes lawyers, accountants and three former IRS commissioners. The firm was founded by Robert A. Behren, a lawyer and accountant who served more than 15 years as a professor in the economics department at the City University of New York. The pages are regularly updated.

FSO's target markets are community banks and smaller regional banks, which might not have the wherewithal to pro duce this sort of content for themselves. National and bigger regionals can afford to produce their own content although, Fem says, "ours is better." If you don't have a website of your own, FSO is ready to develop one for you.

The cost of linking to FSO's pages varies depending on a bank's assets, but Fern says the price generally is in the $3,000 to $10,000 range. To see the product for yourself, check Out the website: www.fso4banks.com.