Internet marketing can surely be defined as any activity that involves interaction with some kind of online service. It's a broad definition, I know, but marketing has changed and you're not just trying to get yourself or your company into the hearts of people - you're trying to infiltrate Google's network, and that simply means you need to do stuff.

Every action we take on-line has the potential to affect other things. It could be as simple as writing a review about a product that we've bought or a place that we've been to with some links to a website or just mentioning a brand name. This one action could be the tipping point to move that website up a couple of places in the rankings or put it in front of a whole new bunch of people.

It's these interactions that Google is looking for and it gives an unprecedented amount of power to the average user, not only are we consumers of information, we mould it too. This is in stark contrast to traditional media such as newspaper, TV and radio - which are non-reactive, passive types of information distribution. But even here there is a place for social media as people take their reviews off-line and more and more TV now has an interactive element to it.

But what about this 'Internet marketer' job that everyone now has? Are we worthy? Well, I guess the broad answer is 'yes' because as every action has a re-action, that means we are in effect marketing whenever we chat, review or link to something - but can a marketer help your business? This is where the key difference lies between the professionals and many who just band the title around with abandon.

Certainly, if you're going to be investing in someone then you need to make sure you're choosing someone who knows what they're doing, but isn't that difficult? Well, to quote Anthony Robbins - "Don't rely on an expert, become an expert yourself..."

There are many places you can get good Internet marketing training from and you should therefore consider doing this first. Learn about as many aspects of SEO and marketing as you possibly can and then you will be in a much better position to understand when you are simply being sold to and when the so-called experts are trying to pull the wool over your eyes.