Are you a retail business thinking about getting your business on the Internet? Are you new to the world of the Internet in general because you are a transitioning corporate manager, new start up business? Well one of the first questions that hit your mind is how will you attract new customers to your website. Well welcome to the world of Internet marketing. And don't feel bad, even for those of us on the Internet for a while; because I still encounter many of you who really have no idea what it is all about. So first understand what Internet marketing is and for the retail folks, also understand the differences from offline marketing.

Then because you are new to Internet marketing, the technology, the tools and the many acronyms and abbreviations that are often used in discussions on the subject can be confusing.. It is recommended that you find an offline relationship to these new on line Internet marketing acronyms as they all have a cousin or similar word.

Internet marketing is about attraction so in the offline world, consider that in offline marketing that those potential customers who walk down the street have been drawn to your retail establishment by those related businesses in close proximity to your business, by word of mouth or by your advertisement.

Consider that in the on line Internet marketing world, the concept is the same; just that the equivalent tools used to get that same customer are different with different names. Related Internet marketing terms drive similar traffic. They are keywords which drive people with common needs to your Internet website and tell-a-friends drive the word of mouth capabilities.

Another way to understand it is using another term some people prefer which is Website Promotion which is specifically geared towards the promotion of your website. Since a website can be many things (social database page, an affiliate website page, a Google AdSense page, etc) to many people we classify all Web Pages as a website requiring promotion. This is important because think of the way you search to find information or data on the web. Some of is see the results and we never leave the 1st page of search engines supplied results to look for more businesses. We assume because it is first it is the best and has most credibility. Not necessarily true but it happens. So consider how profitable you could be if Internet marketing or website promotion strategy enabled your web site to be found near the top of the search results for the keywords used in your industry.

However understand that there are literally thousands of things you can do in the area of Internet marketing to promote and advertise your Web site. We proposed to get started, save your money and use free tactics first to make sure your product has a market.