Internet Marketing (For Dummies?)

About a year ago I got interested in websites and Internet marketing. This was largely due to the fact that a friend of mine persuaded me to create my own website. So I did. And then I needed to know how to exploit one. A very difficult journey!

So I started to read a lot about the subject. I got myself into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) discussions. I defined web-page titles and headers. I checked whether the HTML of my pages met common standards. I learned about CSS style-guides. I wrote my own. Someone advised me to take back-links, the more the better. And I did.

And the website traffic stayed low, to be precise: next to zero. So what to do next?

During my holiday that year I took with me my Marketing Management book written by Philip Kotler, the 1990 edition. That was written well before we ever heard of the Internet bubble, let alone the collapse of that same bubble! And that brings me to my current subject: Internet marketing for dummies: That is me! As Kotler explains: In marketing, that is in market driven business development, you need a target audience with 'needs' and 'wants', you need a business and company image, you must provide products and / or services fulfilling needs and, and you must have a unique selling point (USP) compared to the competition.

So I started all over: We defined all those things. And believe it or not, this approach starts to pay off and deliver results! To put it simply, that is in other words, Internet marketing for dummies: Back to where we started, the market driven business development approach! And one more thing: Take it step by step, one step at the time!

Sometimes I feel that never ever anything changes: Principles stay principles. How is your Internet marketing doing? Are you successful? Ideas?