You understand the power of the social web so you set out to master the art of internet marketing. Perhaps you went through some training, attended seminars or read a bunch of great books. You get it.

It’s all about building traffic adding subscribers and ultimately generating a revenue-generating machine. You’ve heard all the hype about social media, SEO and information marketing but the truth is you need a strategy.

The backdrop is set for businesses big or small to become the next millionaire expert, advice guru or information marketer. Regardless of what business you have or what industry you’re in, you need to understand that the biggest opportunity in the history of marketing is here.

Peter Drucker predicted that there would be a evolution in society brought about by information. He argues that although information is conceptual, the meaning is perception.

According to him, the largest working group will become what he calls knowledge workers. The defining characteristic of these knowledge workers is the level of their formal education and training.

Since information is basically content with relevance and purpose, converting them requires knowledge, a specialized knowledge in which people must learn and understand in order to take action.

And relevance and purpose follows the rate of change that’s happening with our society.

We still follow the Maslow’s Law of Hierarchy, maintaining the same needs and wants, but with very different perception of how to obtain them, who to get them from and what to do with the knowledge.

Keep in mind that those needs somehow always comes back to health, wealth and relationships.

Where are the hottest markets with the biggest opportunities?

According to Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, online advertising has a $50 billion dollar opportunity simply because eyeballs are moving online!

People spend more and more time online (Some support data here) and the ad dollars just follow people to the web and this is where the change is happening.

Today every business is an information business, everyone idea can become the big idea and even if you don’t have a business yet, you can start from scratch and earn substantial income doing internet marketing as an author, speaker, coach, seminar leader, and online information marketer.

There is no doubt that this trend will continue.

In a paradigm shift like this you can defy conventional wisdom to create new markets without having to fight for competitive advantage, battle over market share, and struggle for differentiation.

Need more facts about this emerging trend?

Check out who’s spending the big bucks online already. There shouldn’t be any surprise that brands like AT&T, Amazon, Expedia or eBay are paying Google to be found online.

What most don’t realize is that there is a relatively unknown spenders that’s throwing gobs of cash at online advertising.

Take a look at the number 2 spender in June, Apollo Group, the company behind The University of Phoenix.

They are spending almost as much as AT&T who was trying to direct traffic to its site to sell iPhone 4s. According to Apollo’s income statement (as a public company), the company totally annual revenue is close to $5 billion with a growth rate of 25% per year for the last 3 years.

The company’s primary business is to provide educational programs, trainings and certifications.

Again, this goes back to the explosion of the information era and the need to have knowledge to stay relevant – the idea of becoming a knowledge worker.

STRATEGY1: CONTENT MARKETING

The main formula of a successful internet marketing strategy is content marketing. It’s about demonstrating your expertise by focusing on high value content delivery.

Great content grabs attention and connects prospects with their emotional needs, it’s the foundation to build your trust, gain credibility and establish authority.

Related reading:

• The 3 Most Effective Content Marketing Principles
• 7 Ways To Elevate The Perceived Value Of Your Content

STRATEGY 2: DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING

Whether it’s social media, video marketing, SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay-per-click), you need copywriting. That’s the foundation of direct response marketing.

From killer headline to thought-provoking copy the sole purpose is to get the reader to take action.

Related reading:

• 10 Reasons Why You Are Not Getting The Results You Want Out Of Your Marketing
• How To Get Inside the Minds Of Your Customers

STRATEGY 3: AFFILIATE MARKETING

The real concept here is to build relationship referrals with an audience that leverages word-of-mouth to spread your message.

Due to the proliferation of spam, affiliate marketing is often connected to MLM (multi-level marketing) which gives the idea of a pyramid scheme.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t real people focusing on serving their customers via the means of network marketing.

At the end it’s about making a commitment to deliver a quality and relevant experience for your readers and subscribers.

Related reading:

• The 6 Habits Of Highly Effective Marketers
• What Is Adding Value And How It Applies To Social Networking

The take away: People need information to find a job, solve a problem, buy a product, find a date, get professional advise and they want to do it the fastest and easiest way they can – via the internet.

So in a way everyone needs information packaged in way that it’s easy to understand. And that’s called “information products.”

It can literally be anything from ebooks, speeches, videos, seminars, in-person or online coaching, a service you provide or just an idea you have. They’re not limited to the typical products you see on late night infomercials (although they’re considered info products as well).

This is also why e-readers are selling great (Forrester: e-book sales to hit nearly $1 billion this year, $3 billion by 2015) because it’s a device that’s capable of connecting to the internet and access information products in any format.

All you have to do is to help people connect the dots by bring value that matters to what they’re looking for.

It’s time to challenge everything you though you knew about strategy and re-invigorate your approach.

Do you see your business as an information business? Have you purchased any information products online? I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback, thanks!