Internet Marketing

What Internet Marketing Is…(and What It is Not)

Every so often, I get asked the question, “Isn’t Internet Marketing about being a guru?” It’s a bit strange that people think that Internet Marketing is all about teaching other people how to market on the Internet, so I hope to clear this up a little.

Teaching people how to sell stuff on the Internet isn’t Internet Marketing–unless of course, lessons in Internet Marketing is what you’re selling. Lessons in Internet Marketing are something that more experienced Internet Marketers sometimes provide for the less experienced Marketers.

Internet Marketing is, simply put, the process of advertising and selling goods online. In my opinion, it doesn’t really matter what it is you’re selling, as long as you’re doing it on the Internet, you’re doing Internet Marketing.

I’m sure this definition frees up a lot of people who have frozen at the idea of Internet Marketing. They may have thought that you need to be some kind of genius or all-knowing guru of Google. It’s not like that.

You could know virtually nothing about how to rank on Google, how to write a good sales page, how to use Adwords and Adsense or Clickbank. As long as you’re selling stuff, even if it’s only on eBay, technically speaking you’re an Internet Marketer.

Internet Marketing also isn’t “spamming,” as many people would say. I’ll agree that spamming is often part of a person’s or a company’s Internet Marketing campaign, it’s not the thing itself. Spamming is not the entirety of Internet Marketing, it’s only a less savory part of online business, and most Internet Marketers wouldn’t want to use “Spam” and “Internet Marketing” in the same sentence.

Some people seem to think that Internet Marketing is only for people who strictly sell stuff online. I almost have to chuckle when I hear this. Nearly every major brick and mortar business has a web presence. Just do a Google search on “WalMart” and they’re spot one on the search engine results page. In fact, you can buy a wider variety of stuff on walmart.com than you can in any given WalMart store.

Okay, all well and good for the big guys, but what about the mom and pop stores? They also can benefit from Internet Marketing in my opinion. In fact, it’s becoming more necessary that they build a web presence, both for company growth and for reputation management. Let me be clear on this:  ANY and EVERY business can benefit from an online presence…no matter what the business is.

Internet Marketing is the future for every business out there, and it doesn’t take a genius or a guru to do it. It only takes someone willing to sell stuff and expand their company. Overnight, a 20 year old kid can start doing business globally on the Internet.

Once upon a time, you had to be an established Fortune 500 company to do that. Now all you need is an Internet connection in your living room and an eBay account to sell to people in China, Greece or England. Now, what are you waiting for?