Internet Marketing is a daunting endeavour. There are two methods of Internet Marketing, one requires a large financial investment, the other requires a large time investment. Both methods work, the important thing a work at home professional needs to determine is the method that will result in the biggest profit.

Unfortunately, in Internet marketing, money does not define success. A business owner may have $10 000 to invest in their business, but have a product which needs a time investment to succeed. Of course, this person can hire people to write for them, promote their web sites, and build a client base.

Another person may have 40 hours a week, for six months, to build their business, but fail because their product needs a PayPerClick or a banner ad campaign to sell.

The first step in any Internet Marketing campaign needs to be research:

How does the competition sell their product?

What works?

What doesn't?

What can you improve?

Do you have the resources needed to improve?

Once the business owner picks their products or revenue generating program, and answers the above questions, it is time to determine which method can sell the product properly.

Banners and Buttons

Banner exchanges are good looking. Some are animated, others flat, and some are video based. They are expensive, but look great. Banners work when on a niche web portal or community, but rarely work when spammed across the net like a PayPerClick AdSense ad.

A portal website is created to attract visitors and send them to the product owner's web site. They sell social and image generating products. They successfully sell dating products, and cell phones, but may not be the best method of selling a plastic surgeon's clinic, or books.

Email Advertising

This method of advertising is rarely successful. The average open-rate is less than .01%, with the buy rate being 1% of that number. This means that a million emails need to be sent out to generate 1 ? 100 sales.

People are tired of emails. At first they worked if the web owner had something to give away free, but so many sites are tricking people, and so many emails have viruses attached, that few people open spam emails.

Pay Per Click Text Ads

The success rate depends on the web site the ad appears on. The Pay Per Click campaign needs to measure the cost per click through, not the cost per click, when determining whether a campaign is successful.

AdWords is Google's click-advertising program. Each search engine has their own PPC advertising program. Each are successful when used with the right product. Many Content Management Systems, full of pre-selling articles, can generate good results with most products. The trick is to have a product that is widely promoted.

There are thousands of communities built around music, small business success, medical issues, and online shopping. Any product that will appeal to these people, and can blend into the side of a website like it is part of the site, will sell well.

The second aspect is important. Google Ads work best when the Text banner appears to be a part of the website.

Sponsored Search Engine Advertising

This is a type of text PPC advertising that limits the exposure to the top of the search engine searches. The cost can be as high as $25 to have an ad appear at the very top of the search, in a highlighted box, but the click through rate is much higher than the same ad will generate from appearing on the side of a web page article.

Podcasting and Video Streaming

Internet radio, audio/video streaming have introduced a new medium to Internet advertising. Many product selling sites offer tutorials and sales pitches through audio and video streaming. These tools do not require a high level of skill, or more tools than most product owners currently have on their home PC, and their digital camera.

Newsletters & Mailing Lists

Attracting readers to web sites is half of the Internet Marketing battle. A portal that does not generate a mailing list is a waste of time and advertising money. Advertising in the newsletter is a great way to reach a target audience who is prepared to buy. These people subscribe to newsletters, and actually read the articles and ads.