Internet marketing, while basic in concept, can quickly become complicated if you’re new to the arena. While searching the Internet for information, you will likely come upon concepts you’ve never heard of before that sound terribly complicated. Rest assured, as you grow your business you will become familiar with everything that has to do with Internet marketing. To get started, though, the basics will do.
What is Internet Marketing and how does it work?
While there are thousands of successful Internet marketers, there are just as many people walking around who believe that anything for sale online must be a scam. They truly don’t realize that people are making their dreams come true every day by leaving dead-end jobs and becoming their own bosses. They just can’t conceive of the notion that virtually anyone can start an online business and be successful.
Internet marketing, in its most basic sense, just means selling something online. Interestingly enough, the same people that doubt the validity of Internet marketing patronize retail establishments every day that sell millions of dollars of their inventory online. The good news is that you don’t have to be a major retail outlet to set up shop online. Anyone can do it!
Digital and Physical Products
Even something as simple as selling your children’s outgrown clothes on eBay constitutes Internet marketing. Many Internet marketers sell digital products, such as ebooks, reports, software, etc. Once the buyer pays for his purchase, he is able to instantly download the product. Buyer and seller are both happy.
Most Internet marketers have their own websites, which is just an online version of a brick and mortar store without all the overhead. You don’t have to have your own website to be an Internet marketer; you can get started without one by selling other people’s products. This is usually referred to as affiliate marketing and thousands of people regularly make a living doing this as well.
Other Forms of Internet Marketing
Writers, Graphic Designers, and coders, or people who write programs in computer languages are also Internet marketers. They produce a product and then find a buyer. They may or may not have their own website. Often, they are producing content for the buyer’s website. There are job boards and auction sites where talented artists and buyers can come together and negotiate deals.
Internet marketing takes many forms and if you are interested in a career as an Internet marketer, there are many types of Internet marketing to choose from. You may want to do some research to see what your options are and see what is available that coincides with your area of interest.
Most industries have their own jargon and Internet marketing is no different. Following, you will find a list of some of the Internet marketing abbreviations that are widely in use today.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization. This refers to optimizing, or designing your website in order to get ranked high in the search engines. This is accomplished by the use of keywords and other cleverly placed content. What most Internet marketers have learned though, is that if customers like your site, so will the search engines so don’t get too caught up in marketing for the search engines.
PPC – Pay Per Click. This refers to an advertising method whereby Internet marketers bid on keywords and then place ads based on those keywords. The advertiser only has to pay when the advertisement is clicked on. The premise here is that users who click on the ads are potential buyers; however, not everyone who clicks on an ad makes a purchase. For some Internet marketers, though, it is a profitable way to advertise their products or services.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions. This is a list of predefined questions and answers that users ask most frequently. Some Internet marketers choose to have a FAQ section on their sites. You might consider this if you get a large amount of customer questions.
HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language. This is one of the most popular computer coded languages in use. Although you don’t have to know how to write html code in your Internet marketing business, you may run across sites or programs that will provide you with a small amount of html code to use on your site. For example, when you sign up for the Google AdSense program, html code is provided for you to copy and paste onto your site for the placement of revenue generating ads.
IM – Instant Messaging. You may have clients that wish to communicate with you through the use of an IM program. There are many of these, which are free to download and use. This is basically a private chat program although some of these applications work with voice and video also.
ROI – Return on Investment. You will see this term used many times, especially when it comes to advertising costs or other costs associated with Internet marketing. It will be important for you to know your ROI as you calculate how much you are spending on Internet marketing vs. how much you are earning.
There are many other Internet marketing terms you may come across as you launch your business. This is just a small sampling. If you do come across any terms that you do not understand, you can do a search for an Internet marketing glossary, which will have a more thorough listing of Internet marketing terms and abbreviations.
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