To get a grasp of the importance of online marketing we really need to back up and get some historical perspective on the issue and then bring it forward to present times in a straight forward easy to understand language that really highlights the critical aspects of online marketing. Looking back at history and some of the major technological advances of the day we can get an idea of where and how history will repeat itself in modern day, all we need is a little foresight and some hard facts.

Take a look back into the 1800’s when the industrial revolution was taking place and some major technological breakthroughs of the day were revolutionizing different industry’s which affected the economy as a whole. Look at the steam engine which was converted into gasoline power and later perfected on the assembly line by none other than Henry Ford himself. He was able to go from making a few cars a day to mass production of the “model T” in a very short time making his product more readily accessible to the public for much less than that of hiscompetitors. What did this mean to the current economy? Well if you were a farmer plowing your fields by hand and watching one of these strange contraptions rolling by it meant that you could probably imagine that if someone could figure out how to hook up a plow to one of those cars that it might take less people to do your current job. And that’s exactly what happened. The tractor was born and was able to do the work of a hundred men with one machine.

This was one major advancement of the day and for the people that could see the changes in the economy coming were better prepared to position themselves to capitalize on it. Another was the advancement in electricity and electrical appliances. People were now able to buy appliances that greatly reduced their workload and no longer needed to rely solely on coal or oil to heat and light their homes. A majority of the people either didn’t understand or care to take advantage of the changing economy. From farm to factories, and from man power to production lines were the major shift in the economy and many people unwilling to or unable to make the shift from the old way to the new way of technology lost their farms and had to go to work in the factories now just to survive.

Let’s jump up to just a few years ago to a man named Paul Zane Pilzer. For those of you who don’t know who he is let me explain. Pilzer is an economics expert and has been an adviser to many presidents, he is the only economist who predicted that the internet was going to revolutionize the world and that the next economic age is going to be the age of the entrepreneur. He predicts that by the year 2016 that 10 million new millionaires will be created through direct selling because of the internet and that if you don’t have an internet based business by the year 2012 that you might as well be out of business because you are going to get slaughtered in the new way of marketing.

Just like the farmers and coal miners of old there will be a shift in the economy. And you and I both know plenty of people who can’t grasp the importance of changing with the times so that we don’t lose our farms so to speak. If you can look far enough ahead to realize that the internet is going to be the only way to do business in a short while if you’re not using it you won’t be able to compete, just like the 100’s of farm workers that were replaced by one tractor couldn’t compete with the new technology of the time.

If you don’t understand the importance of marketing online and start getting some knowledge in that area now then when the shift takes place it will be too late to do anything about it and you’re going to be on the back side of the learning curve working for someone else rather than making your own money. I can’t stress this enough, if you would like some more in dept h history of what I’m talking about or would just like to get a better understanding of where our economy is headed then I recommend picking up any book by Paul Zane Pilzer. He is light years ahead of anyone else you are going to talk to in this category.

Let’s face it maybe a year or two ago it would have been easy to brush this information to the side as nonsense but looking at the current economic situation as a whole it’s pretty evident that times are changing and we had better change with them in order to survive. With all the jobs being lost and outsourcing to other country’s going on your best bet is to understand the importance of marketing online and implement those business practices if you plan on having a business in the years to come.