Principles of Internet Marketing

by Ward Hanson

This book is very cleverly written and can be understood by those with only limited Internet savvy. However, the first 5 chapters focus on a “framework for internet marketing” that essentially teaches readers about how people interact with each other and the Internet in cyberspace. While very helpful for the Internet novice, I found this first section of the book lacking in marketing content, essentially only laying the groundwork for those with little understanding of the Internet.

The ‘meat’ of this book is in Part 2, where the author discusses Internet marketing themes. While some of these themes may seem old news to certain readers, the author does a fantastic job of laying them out in a clear manner. I found the most interesting and ‘non-mainstream’ areas to be ‘online communities’ and ‘building web traffic.’

The author’s take on online communities and in building significant value through them is dead on. This portion of the book focuses on how to leverage common interests to build communities. Once communities are developed, they can be used for various things such as providing new product development ideas, providing useful and timely feedback on products and services, to strengthen, build and promote the community, and of course be customers. This applies to both consumer and business communities and should be in every marketers mind.

One of the most formidable tasks facing today’s internet marketers is building web traffic and site branding. In this chapter, the author does an incredible job of laying out the various methods of building web traffic both to and within a web site. This is increasingly important as the World Wide Web grows in size and as users become less and less willing to remain at sites unless the desired content is readily available and in a user-friendly format. The author uses some excellent graphics to illustrate what entices users and how their expectations change over the course of a session.

In summary, this book is a must read for individuals involved in the internet and also for less internet savvy individuals wanting a deeper understanding of how people relate to the internet and how they can be reached.

Chris Gray