Internet marketing is still a complete mystery to a large
majority of Internet users. For many net users, online
marketing is seen as some foreign area of the web, populated
with silly get-rich-quick schemes and unsavory characters
ready to rip off the innocent and uninformed consumer at
the click of a mouse.

In fact, Internet marketing could not be further removed
from this unfaltering picture. In reality, Internet marketing
is populated mainly with hard working professionals promoting
and selling high quality brand products by many of the world’s
Top 500 companies.

Worldwide there are now over a billion Internet users,
representing one large global consumer base or marketplace.
The total amount of goods sold online has been steadily
increasing each year as the Internet gains in both popularity and
familiarity. Studies have shown people shop online because of
lower prices, a wider selection of products, easier comparison
shopping, and many just prefer not having to travel to stores
to make a purchase.

Handling all this online e-commerce is a whole sector of
companies, hosting providers, web designers, advertising
agencies… and so on. All this online commerce has also
given rise to a relatively new creature — the professional
Internet marketer. Someone who makes a lucrative living
helping facilitate, in one form or another, all this online
activity.

Still Internet marketing has gotten a raw deal.

If you mention to any group of professionals that you’re
an Internet Marketer and that you work full time on the Internet;
you will receive some very skeptical looks and more than one
arched eyebrow of disbelief.

Regardless of this lingering skepticism, Internet marketing
has become a viable alternative for many disgruntled professionals
dissatisfied with their working hours or conditions. It has become
a viable alternative for many people from all walks of life, from
the college student to the bored housewife to the retired doctor…
all are enjoying a part time or full time income from the comfort
of their homes.

And since the Internet is now practically available to everyone,
anywhere in the world — Internet marketing is a level playing field.
Anyone can make a full time or part time income from the web if
they truly desire it.

There are many forms of Internet marketing. There are many online
business models you can follow. There are countless ways to earn
a good honest income from the Internet. Which path you take
will be largely determined by your own work habits, your background
and what marketing style you’re most comfortable with.

Here’s a quick rundown of the most popular forms of Internet
Marketing:

1. The Brick and Mortar Store Online

Most major companies and retail stores have created online
versions of their brick and mortar businesses. Even if
consumers don’t buy online, many use these sites for
gathering product information before buying in the
real world. A factor many savvy businesses are exploiting
in their overall marketing strategies.

2. Online Services

Many service industries have moved online, everything
from travel to banking to dating! Again, the Internet
can be a profitable extension for any service company.

3. Internet Products/Internet Gurus

Internet marketing has a whole history of pioneers who
have forged the methods and techniques of marketing online –
opt-in lists, mini-sites, article marketing, pay-per-click
advertising, joint ventures… a brief history populated with
such names as John Reese, Marlon Sanders, Ralph Wilson,
Yanik Silver, Corey Rudl, Ken Evoy and countless others.

A whole new industry has grown around ‘How-to’ market online,
info products, workshops and web seminars — teaching
people how to market on the Internet. A marketer creating
his own product can prove very productive; as seen
by John Reese’s 2004 launch of Traffic Secrets, which earned
over a million dollars in one day. (Without a penny of paid
advertising!)

4. Online Advertising and Promotion

Pay-Per-Click advertising such as those offered by Google
AdWords and other companies presents another viable marketing
route. Keywords (the exact words typed into a search engine)
fuel a large portion of the web’s activity, keyword marketing
has become a major driving force behind most of the economic
transactions on the web. This is a very lucrative sector for
those Internet marketers who know exactly what they’re doing.

Then there is the whole section of SEO experts and consultants
who command high prices for positioning companies or products
in the top positions on the major search engines. Acquiring
organic Top 10 search results (SERPs) will greatly determine the
profitability of your online product or company.

5. Affiliate Marketing

One of the least understood, yet one of the most profitable
forms of Internet marketing is affiliate marketing. An online
marketer can join any affiliate program and promote its products
or services on the Internet. You market the products, find
customers for the company and receive a cut or commission
for each sale you make from your marketing efforts. These
commissions can run anywhere from 2% to over 50%. One affiliate
click can earn you anywhere from a few cents to several
hundreds of dollars.

Major third party affiliate programs or companies such as
Commission Junction, LinkShare, Amazon, Shareasale…
acts as a brokerage or go-between representing thousands of
Top Brand companies such as Sony, Apple, Dell… to online
affiliate marketers. Marketers can join a program such as
Commission Junction or LinkShare and be able to promote and
market hundred of top quality products or services online. They
can consolidate their affiliate marketing through these
third party programs.

Perhaps the most common business model for the majority
of online marketers is the last example, or a combination
of advertising and affiliate sales. Many work-from-home
professionals have adopted this business model. They have
created site or sites on the topic that interests them and
of which they have or have gained some expert knowledge.

Once these sites become established and gathering a large
amount of targeted web traffic each day, making a nice income
can only be a matter of putting the Google AdSense code on
their pages and placing a few appropriate affiliate
links on their sites.

The more traffic these marketers deliver to their sites,
the more income they earn. The more unique content they create,
the more income they earn. The more web sites they design,
the more income they earn.

What many people outside of the web marketing field fail
to realize, the Internet is a 24/7/365 business. The Internet
is always on and working for you. It is automatically producing
income for you 24 hours of the day, while you’re sleeping, while
you’re enjoying a nice meal with friends, or even while you’re
on vacation.

Internet marketing can provide you with a lifestyle that is totally
liberating — you can live and work anywhere in the world. You can
be your own boss, set your own hours and work from the comfort
of your own home. Plus your whole online Internet business can be
automated so it basically runs itself.

Internet marketing is totally flexible. You can adjust your workload to
suit your own work habits. Internet marketing is scalable, once
you have learned how to make your first dollar, it is only
a simple matter of repeating and scaling up what you did to
earn that dollar. Computers and the Internet makes it just as
easy to handle a thousand sales as it is to handle one sale.

As Internet marketing becomes better known, it will gradually earn
more and more respect. It will become a well recognized profession
that many will aspire to and follow as a life long career. Mainly because
Internet marketing will give you the freedom rarely seen in any other
profession.

It offers you mobility, a high standard of living, and a working
environment that can’t be beat. It gives you the freedom to follow
your own interests and hobbies; all the while turning those interests
into viable revenue streams that supports the lifestyle of your
own choosing. When it is all said and done, earning a living just
doesn’t get any better than this.