Marketing has the general objective of persuading a person to buy your wares. While in the real world, the standard way of marketing hinges on creating a compelling campaign to get to sell one's products, Internet Marketing is a slightly different veer from the real-world way of approaching sales and marketing.

On the Internet, marketing involves more than just the catchy ads on Yahoo, or the classic text ads by Google AdSense. Online marketing is a multi-layered world altogether, with different marketing approaches, as applied to different niches.

There are two kinds of provider to consumer transactions in Internet Marketing:

-B2B or Business to Business

-B2C or Business to Consumer

Business to business or B2B transactions, as the term implies, are transactions between two business entities. These transactions could involve either International trade from supplier to retailer and vice versa, Internet Marketing Network system leaders to prospective home business owners, business process outsourcing to offshore service providers, among a wide array of transaction methods.

The conventional manner of marketing between these entities involve informational websites that only describe the company's services and products, and oftentimes, prices are not quoted. Most of the negotiations are behind closed doors or between the parties involved, and most marketing moves are done savvily, via email.

Business to consumer, B2C transactions, are more common and open. Since the advent of eBay, small businesses, and even home businesses are given a greater platform for sales. Auction and shopping sites like eBay allow small companies, and even individuals, to trade in open marketplace sites. Bidding activities are public, but final transactions are private.

Social networking websites have also become great places to conduct product promotion, and even host sales and conduct commercial activities in. Some social networking websites have even become mini-eBays for individuals, establishing them in effective businesses without costing them anything else but time and the capital for their products.

On the other hand, shopping websites like Amazon are less personal: Amazon is more a shopping system than a marketplace, unlike eBay, but it still allows individuals to shop in privacy and comfort.

Online commerce is a brave new world for sales and marketing. Thanks to technology, sales are done at the speed of light, to the convenience of the consumer. Whether on the business to business, or business to consumer paradigm, online commerce is a novel approach to marketing that is here to stay.