Web Marketing all-in-one for Dummies®

Chapter 1. Internet Business Basics

In This Chapter

• Understanding the Internet marketing process

• Creating a Web site plan

• Knowing who your customers are

• Setting goals for your Web site

• Calculating your Web site promotion budget

• Deciding what to do yourself and when to hire an expert

In 1995 — often called the "Olden Days" of the public Internet — the average computer connected online via a telephone line, reaching download speeds of merely 56 Kbps. We would wait patiently (often for several minutes) while images loaded, pages displayed, and long paragraphs of text rendered font sizes and color combinations to challenge our optical nerve endings.

And we didn't have many choices. For example, very few comparison shopping opportunities were available online. For many, the idea of having a Web-based shopping cart to accept product orders from a Web site was as far into the future of possibilities as owning a flying car.

Because of the manual effort and knowledge base required to create a Web site back then, business owners with forward-thinking minds but limited budgets would negotiate paying a few hundred dollars for a single basic Web page — or even a mini-page — just to have some type of presence on the Web. Web sites with multiple pages were restricted to the technical companies who could employ programming staff and designers. In short, having a presence on the Web of any kind was a luxury and more of a status symbol than anything.

Today, of course, the game has changed — considerably.