Is internet marketing a pyramid scheme?

Written on September 15, 2008 – 10:40 am | by glasspearl |

Is internet marketing in its current form nothing more than a pyramid scheme? Is the internet marketing/SEO bubble likely to burst like the dot-com bubble did in the early 2000s?

If you are asking this question, you are not the only one. Yaro Starak in his blog article Is Internet Marketing Just Another Fools Gold Rush asks the same question.

With internet marketers offering advice on everything from Adsense to SEO there will come a time when doing what you are doing now will have to change, because we are always looking to improve. By nature we don’t stagnate we are always prone to try something new, until it takes off and everyone else does the same thing.

That doesn’t mean internet marketing does not have a place. You will merely have to find newer and more innovative ways to get your products noticed.

Someone somewhere is making money off an idea. This is called entrepreneurship!

From a South African perspective we are only at the beginning of the internet marketing stage. Try asking anyone what SEO or Adsense means and probably 1 or 2 out of ten (outside the field) will know you’re talking about the internet.

We have plenty of room for growth because:

Bandwidth is still out of reach for most people in South Africa, but it is becoming less expensive for home users. With the 2010 Soccer World Cup on the horizon, all sorts of upgrades are being made to infrastructure in the country. The city of Durban is already leading the pack by making cheap broadband available to residents and businesses alike, becoming the first city in the country to do so. Cape Town and Johannesburg are not far behind with the same offerings.

Inexpensive, basic laptops for school children are being made available through non-profit organisations in developing nations like ours. Already Scottsdene High School in a poor suburb of Kraainfontein is piloting a government project whereby every student in each grade has access to a computer throughout the day. This includes internet access.

With internet and computers becoming more and more accessible for everyone, in the next two years an entire population of internet users will enter the market. With all the information already out there, don’t expect this new market to start from the bottom! The amazing place that the internet is will just keep amassing new consumers who come in and in a month or two of surfing will catch on that they are being marketed to.

So yes, in its current form the SEO bubble will burst if it does not progress to a different level. We will improve though, because it is in our nature to want change.



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  1. 3 Responses to “Is internet marketing a pyramid scheme?”

  2. By Francois Viljoen on Sep 15, 2008 | Reply

    I don’t think there’s a bubble, but I do agree that the Internet in South Africa is still up and coming. At the moment we’re waaaay behind.

    In South Africa, for most things, it is still far better to advertise your products using other means than the Internet.

    I’m watching closely to see what’s going to happen as more people get cheap access to Internet…

    Francois

  3. By Glass Pearl on Sep 15, 2008 | Reply

    Hi Francois,

    Yes, there is loads of potential in SA and agreed that offline marketings is necessary to.

    Thanks for your input.

  4. By Andrew on Sep 17, 2008 | Reply

    Well, internet marketing is growing bigger and bigger everyday. Each day millions of surfers are using internet for buying products and the number is increasing minute by minute. So the internet market becomes an attractive place for many to make easy money online. You can be one of the most successful persons who are making easy money online from internet marketing. Making easy money online is possible but needs work based on the right information. You should choose the best ways to make easy money online.

    Internet Marketing Dictionary

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