Before 1995, the National Science Foundation restricted use of the Internet and Internet marketing was not an option for businesses because commercial use was not available. That changed when the overwhelming public interest in the Internet grew and demanded that it become privatized. This allowed companies to market online and by 1996, over $300,000,000 had been spent on Internet marketing. Just one year later that revenue increased to almost one billion. Today, it is a very competitive arena and is responsible for many billions of dollars in revenue.

Internet marketing has given e-commerce sites a greater range of advertising capabilities and is increasingly essential for their success. It allows a company to reach out to a global audience to advertise its product or service. Internet marketing costs much less than other traditional marketing methods and in many cases it is more effective. Internet marketers have many marketing options. Banner ads, text ads, and email marketing are just a few examples.

Banner ads are one of the most popular forms of advertising on the Internet. A banner ad is simply a box that contains graphics or animation that sends the user to a predetermined web page when it is clicked. A banner can be any size, so it can be customized to properly fit into a web page. Banner ads are an effective method to distribute a company’s brand.

Text ads are also a popular and effective form of Internet marketing. A text ad is a string of text that links to a company’s web page. This method is sometimes used rather than banner ads so not to distract a visitor from the web page’s content. Text ads are also often used in email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing is another form of marketing that e-commerce sites utilize. Many sites will collect email addresses from their visitors by offering to send them information they may find useful. By opting to receive this information, the visitor is placed on the site’s mailing list. This mailing list is essentially a list of potential customers. On many occasions, a company will give the visitor choices of what types of information to receive. This can allow the site to more effectively target its products to the correct demographics.

Affiliate marketing is an Internet marketing strategy that has given e-commerce sites a larger audience with which to appeal. This method allows companies to have their products or services advertised by countless individuals whom are paid a commission on what they sell or by the visitors that they send to the company’s site. By using affiliate marketing, a company can have ads placed where they will appeal to its target market. This is because a webmaster will usually place ads on his/her website that is related to the site’s content, so visitors to that site are already interested in that subject matter.

Social Media marketing has become very popular with the explosive growth of sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Internet marketers are using the popularity of these social networking sites to increase their sales and their own site’s visitors. Social Media marketing gives e-commerce sites a broader mindshare and increases its branding recognition.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is another tool that e-commerce sites use to increase sales. SEO is the process of customizing the content of a website in a way that achieves a high search engine ranking when a user searches with keywords that are relevant to the site. By using this method, a company can more efficiently reach its target market by having its site’s content clearly defined and easily searchable.

An example of a company that has recently been successful with an Internet marketing campaign is Naked Pizza. This company has used Twitter.com to increase its daily sells by 15%. It uses the business-to-consumer model in its marketing. Naked Pizza has even replaced its billboard with one that specifically reaches out to Twitter followers. Its target audience is only within a three mile radius of its store, but Naked Pizza has effectively used Internet marketing to increase its customer base and its revenue.

Amazon.com is another example of a site that has seen great success from Internet marketing. Anyone that uses the Internet has seen their advertisements in one form or another. It has become one of the most successful e-commerce sites online today. Other than just having its brand all over the web, Amazon.com uses a strategy that is intended to attract repeat customers. It communicates its positive points of difference, or PPODs. An example of this is stating when a price has reduced on an item that a user has in his/her shopping cart. Amazon.com utilizes all aspects of Internet marketing to ensure that it remains successful.

EBay.com has not only become very successful through Internet marketing; it has also acted as a platform for other e-commerce sites to launch their marketing campaigns. Businesses are able to sell their items on the very popular EBay and direct customers to their other products and websites. Many businesses have noticed the significance of EBay to the online market and are doing very well in the online marketplace by taking advantage of what it has brought to the world of Internet marketing.

Internet marketing has had a tremendous impact on the global economy. It has given businesses and individuals the ability to communicate their products, services, and visions to a global audience at a low cost. It has also created many jobs across the world in the Internet marketing and e-commerce fields.