Internet Marketing

Let’s start by defining the term.  Although it is constantly changing, at its essence Internet Marketing is the selling of products or services over the internet. It takes in a wide variety of practices and there are a number of different business models that can be followed.   Three basic ones are:

1. Affiliate Marketing: In the real world, we see affiliate marketers all the time – stockbrokers, car salesmen, supermarkets selling magazines, travel agents selling tour packages.  Affiliate marketers are middlemen – they sell a product they don’t make and take a cut, a commission or a mark-up.  No sale, no cut.  The best-known internet-based affiliate marketer is Amazon, but there are at least a bazillion more.

2. E-Commerce: You make widgets.  You put a website online to sell your widgets.  You sell your widgets from your website.  You are an E-commerce business.  Is there anyone left in the world that is not selling on the web?  Yes, but most real-world businesses have a web presence, even if they sell most of their goods in old-fashioned stores.  The lines are blurring more each day.  About 5% of everything sold to consumers today is sold online, with projections ranging as high as 20% in five years.

3. Email Marketing: Think catalog companies.  They buy a list; your name is on that list, so you get a catalog.  Or a thousand.   An email marketer can build a list organically or buy one, then pepper the list with emails until, well, forever.  The cost is virtually zero, (so long, Postal Service, been nice knowing you!) and the rewards can be substantial, $1 or more for every name on the list for well executed email marketing campaigns.  Of course that long-lost Ethiopian prince may do less well.

So what’s in it for you?  Freedom.  Peace of mind.  A creative outlet for your artistic self and your long-dormant fascination with statistical analysis.  What ever you want it to be.  The budding marketing genius inside of you is busting to get started.  Stay tuned.