While most tourism organizations are by now familiar with Internet, far fewer have really gained an understanding of technologies, new resources, new communication opportunities, and requirements that they represent. These tips and explanations should prove a useful introduction.

While new technologies provide new opportunities, they don't change basics of marketing: people, product, price, promotion, and distribution. Know your target markets, understand their purchase decision processes, and offer them right product, at right time, for right price—and correct your course continually. Shaping purchase decision process and tourism experience

If you're just getting started in Internet Marketing, you may be awed by amount of "Internet Gurus" out there, all making millions of dollars (or so they claim) and for some reason seem more than willing, for a fee, to teach you their biggest, most intimate secrets.

I believe in one thing - If it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is!

While I have no doubt on specialized skills and techniques used by these gurus, it can get way too frustrating simply getting into all their hype, and find almost no value at end of day. Hype - that's one thing I agree these guru's are really good at. For some of them, unfortunately, hype is only thing they're good at.

So question, for those who are trying to master Internet Marketing, might be:

1) Can I learn anything from these gurus without paying money?

2) Who is real and who is not?

3) Whose methods should I follow?

Can You Learn Something for Free?

Most guru's have opt-in newsletters on specialized subjects like website marketing, Pay-Per-Click, search engine optimization or whatever specialized skill they have "mastered". Almost all of them ask you to subscribe to their newsltetter in return for some kind of "breakthrough" report, and promise to deliver "valuable information" weekly or monthly to your email address. Sound great.

Here's what happens 2 weeks later - You realize that "breakthrough report" is same old regurgitated information which you can find almost anywhere. You might also relize that "valuable information" never comes in full, without any hidden agenda. The "valuable information" is actually a soft-selling (sometimes even blatant advertisements) ad for guru's products, or even worse, some other Internet marketer's products.

I'm not trying to shoot down any marketer here, but irony is in their teaching. Almost all internet gurus would advice you to offer valuable, free information that benefits other people. Profits, as they say, is secondary to actually helping people and making a difference in their lives. What a load of BS. How come they don't practise what they preach? Of is that how Internet Marketing Game is played?

Fortunately, not all guru's are same. There are still some jewels to be found, and they offer some great information in their newsletters, such as: