Most people think marketing’s just advertising or selling goods and services. Advertising and selling are part of it, but not the whole picture. Marketing is everything involved in identifying the wants and needs of a targeted group of customers, and then doing what it takes to satisfy those customers.

Of course, you’ll have competitors trying to do the same thing better than you. You’ll do market research on customers and analyze their needs. You’ll use what you learn to make decisions about designing your product, pricing, promoting (including advertising), distributing and trying to sell your product.

The Internet provides a way to identify and reach large numbers of potential customers. No matter how specialized your product or service is, good Internet marketing technique can reach the greatest possible number of potential customers.

There are many approaches to Internet marketing. Here are three Internet marketing techniques experts have found to be effective:

• Article marketing involves writing simple, helpful, informative articles that help your readers, instead of trying to sell them something. Then, you submit them to article directories or ezine publishers.

• Blogging, short for web log, is a form of online log or journal that became popular in the late 1990s. They can be somewhat informal or personal, or newsy, or whatever tone you think is appropriate. They don’t have to relate directly to your product to be effective. In fact, like the articles, independent, simple, helpful informative blogs are more effective than trying directly to sell people something. You can set up a website to host your blog, or you can use one of the many websites that offer free blog hosting. Be sure to update it regularly! People like fresh content.

• Online networking is, simply put, connecting with as many people as possible to learn more and share information about your business. Networking can generate many leads. There are quite a few ways to do this online, such as e-mail discussion groups, message boards, specialized Internet forums, and social networking sites.

Part of what makes these three techniques so effective is that they help build trust between you and your potential customer. After all, you’re not bullying them into buying something. You’re just trying to help.

So then, what is it, the Ultimate Internet Marketing Technique? What’s the secret? The secret’s simple: there is no magic bullet, no secret. The ultimate Internet marketing technique is whatever works. And these days, article marketing, blogging and online networking tend to work.