Online marketing seems to have the business world divided into two. There is the online world of cyberspace and the offline world of the street. Most businesses specialise in one or the other. Some combine the two to the greatest advantage. Some would benefit from the combination of the two but some clearly belong exclusively to one or the other. Nevertheless the question whether a business is going to use online marketing or not is inevitable if a business wants to reach an increasing number of customers. Deciding on this may depend on a number of factors even though the main deciding factor seems to be the ability of the businessperson to handle working online. So many marketers are intimidated by computers and strongly resist any suggestion that they would greatly benefit by up skilling themselves by becoming computer and internet savvy.



Apart from the intimidation factor of online marketing a very important issue is: Where are the customers? If the business is very local depending on people coming in off the street there normally isn't much need to go online. For example the local barber shop or preschool. Nevertheless even these might benefit from some online exposure or using the internet to communicate to customers e.g. sending email reminders and messages. The internet could also help these businesses earn a little extra income by selling business related products. The best marketing procedures for these local businesses though will be offline, using a variety of print and mass media.

The internet is more suited to those businesses wanting or needing to reach the wider community outside of the local area. This is the wonderful aspect of the internet people can do business with anyone else even if that other person is on the furthest part of the planet. Even people in developing countries such as the Philippines can do business with those living in developed countries, enabling many people in developing countries to earn a western income and thereby skyrocketing their living standard. This does not mean that online marketing is particularly easy or even cheap but what it does mean is that those who take the time and effort in making online marketing work can fulfil their entrepreneurial aspirations through modern technology. There are many free ways that marketers can market their products on the internet all the internet marketer really requires is a computer and internet connection.

To be truly successful with internet marketing it is important to know how to gain available resources and frequently how to apply work at home ideas. There are a number of resources available online and many people willing to assist the newbie. However, sadly there are also a lot of scammers online who take advantage of internet marketing and make it very hard for any one new to emarketing from making a sound profitable start online.