The Moving Target in Internet Marketing

Read a few books on internet marketing and you will get the impression you will be a success forever if you just learn the particular technique being discussed. This is hardly the case.

Internet marketing is an evolving field. It always has been. Given the relatively short life span of the web as a marketing medium, it is hardly a surprise to say the industry is evolving. We’ve gone from the heyday of banner ads to search engine optimization to pay per click and now to social networking and even video marketing.

Surely we are at the zenith, right? If I learn everything there is to learn about a particular type of online marketing, I will be set for life, right? Nah. Not even close. Maybe a few years. If you don’t believe me, consider the changes that pay-per-click marketing has undergone.

At its outset, PPC was about as simple as it got. Then Google jumped in with its brilliant/maddening Adwords program. Yahoo purchased Overture and soon turned that platform into a beast as well. A person who mastered PPC in 2000 and then went into a coma would be shocked if they awoke and logged into their PPC accounts today.

The future of internet marketing is also murky, but teasingly interesting. Google was beloved by all for a long time, but is less so now. However you may feel, there is little doubt Google is breaking into new areas at a rapid clip and will probably set the mark on new internet marketing platforms for the foreseeable future. Google’s latest effort to tie its online platforms to newspaper classified ads and the kiosks in malls represent just the start of something completely new.

So, what does this all mean to those trying to get a grasp of internet marketing? Is it too late to join the game and be successful? Of course, not. As the game evolves, there will always be room for new gurus and new strategies. Instead, the every evolving world of internet marketing simply means that you must love the game if you hope to stay in for the long run.

You will never reach that point where you finally understand everything and have no need to learn about new things. The game is always changing and you must have the passion to learn and change with it. If you don’t, you might want to look for something else to do because the game is going to look vastly different in 2009 compared to today. You don’t want to be the person waking up from the coma!