Since the turn of the century the internet marketing industry has opened up and has made available to the computer novice and novice entrepreneur all the possibilities that have been available to the computer expert and experienced businessman. The cost to do business on the internet is now minimal and the requirement to have knowledge and expertise in computer technology is also minimal and no longer an obstacle. If you fall into the latter category and would like to know how to capitalize on this new opportunity, please read on.

The new genre that is social marketing has hit the world wide web by storm. This is where the vast majority of persons who use the internet are. Many of you are already in social circles such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter. Many of you use Google, Yahoo, and quite recently Bing. These social networks now offer immense possibilities for the budding internet marketer and entrepreneur. This is where the action is and if you are not there yet - what are you waiting on?

The following facts should convince you:-

1. Nearly two thirds of everyone who go online visit MySpace.

2. Twenty nine percent (29%) of them visit Facebook (and growing rapidly).

3. Thirty five percent (35%) of them visit YouTube (and growing rapidly).

4. Users for most social media sites double every six months

5. For many top competitive keywords, two thirds of the search results on the first page on Google come from social media sites such as Squidoo, Hub-pages, ezinearticles, etc..

6. Social media site users make more and spend more of what they make (they make 20% more discretionary income than the normal person and spend 25% more on the internet than the normal person).

These above facts and statistics were determined by Comscore, a highly trusted global internet research company.

In terms of current traffic Facebook and Google now have equal traffic and YouTube has now outstripped Google as far as video searches are concerned - and daily traffic is now in the tens of millions in both cases and growing.

As budding entrepreneurs, what do we make of these facts and what should we do about it? There is no question that the future of business in on the internet. To ignore this is to place yourself at a great disadvantage. What you can do is to prepare yourself properly for doing business there. The immediate things that one can is to first use domain names related to the service or product (for effective branding) and to likewise use email addresses in your presentations, among other things.

Along with this new wave of social media sites, there is also a commensurate wave of social marketing called attraction marketing which is gaining currency. Attraction marketing allows persons interested in your offerings to come to you rather than you chase them. This form of marketing is an altogether more ethical and dignified approach than the traditional network marketing model which prescribes approaches to your prospects initially.

Attraction marketing prescribes that the user provide value to his prospect to the extent that a trusting relationship is built. The value is in the form of content about the offering provided over and over again and the prospect slowly beginning to see the value in acquiring the product or service. The challenge then for the marketer is to learn about the tenets of attraction marketing as well as the tenets of their business offering. Eventually these two will be combined but initially attraction marketing should be used when prospecting.

What then is the valuable content that you can offer? You can offer the prospect information on the tools that are now available in the genre of social (internet) marketing that is Web 2.0. These tools include blogs, email marketing methods, article marketing methods, telephone marketing methods, lead capture page technology, information on the best use of such social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Squidoo, Hub-pages, etc.

These methods are very inexpensive and would be very valuable to the internet marketer who has traditionally been confronted with expensive, time consuming and admittedly ineffective marketing methods and approaches. So that the onus now is on you to learn more about Web 2.0. The Renegade University can assist you greatly in this regard and is commended to you.

An important aspect of internet marketing with Web 2.0 is monetization. Monetization is the creation of a revenue stream when you deliver content (with Web 2.0) to your prospects. This revenue stream is an initial revenue stream prior to the recruiting of your prospects into your network marketing offering. Monetization is very important because it allows the entrepreneur to defray his expenses while he is building his network base. The Renegade University offers excellent opportunities for monetization to the entrepreneur.

Thank you for your attention.

Nigel Gittens.