Google earned over three billion dollars through Internet advertising in the previous year, while the corresponding figure for another technological behemoth, yahoo, is in the range of about eight billion dollars. And a back of the envelope calculation, assuming that these are just the tip of the iceberg, reveals that the total ad spent in the World Wide Web should be in excess of twenty billion dollars.

This clarifies to a large extent the amount of money pumped into this medium by the Goliaths of the industry. In that case, one might be tempted to assume that Internet marketing and advertising is all about spending millions of dollars and getting loads of eyeballs and mouse clicks. Thankfully, reality is far from this.

As a matter of fact, Internet is one of the few media where millions of dollars of ad spending can very much be, balanced by smart thinking and good strategy. You do not always need to spend millions to attract viewers. You can actually channel hoards of visitors to your site by a combination of shrewd planning, meticulous execution and a long-term approach, like with for example- marketing articles online.

Information is the king, and there are about a billion unique queries in Google alone searching for all sort of information. And that is just a single day statistics. The alternative method to capturing mindspace of the consumer, as you guessed it, is by providing him or her relevant, updated and focused content.

Internet marketing, advertising, promotion and specializing in marketing articles is much more effective, cost and otherwise, when the consumer is led to believe that the advertisement is contextual, and is in sync with the requirement of the information need of the prospective consumer. The more unobtrusive and subtle advertising is- the better are the chances of a consumer endorsing the product.

Subtlety and unobtrusiveness goes hand in hand with cost efficiency, and that is what makes Internet a great place to hawk your services or products. While millions of dollar spends on snazzy advertisements with attractive models do manage to attract visitors attention, the attention spans generally tends to be short term to extremely short term. Additionally, the brand recall is minimal, and scratchy at its best.

However, an intelligent approach to occupying the consumer mindspace by providing them required content is inexpensive, as well as a long lasting process. A satisfied visitor will revisit the site, and in all probability, recommend the site within his or her social circle. And added benefit of a brand or site loyalty is always going to add to the return on effort and time invested.

The World Wide Web is still in the evolution phase, and is experiencing a lot of fluidity in its dynamics. New trends and consumer preferences have rocked old and well-established concepts about advertising and consumer psychology. Whatever may be the changes- the Internet and Internet marketing, advertising and promotion will remain as the great leveler.