Online Marketing Theory: An Overview and Conversation.

With the Dot Com crash of 2001, we can see that many traditional 'dirt world' companies just did not understand how to market on the Internet.

To really lay the foundation for an author or small publisher marketing their books online it is important to get an overview.

Markets are conversations.

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

So says The Cluetrain Manifesto and you can read the whole thing online for free. And lest you think the Cluetrain is just pretentious dribble, I happen to know that Google has a copy in every corporate department library. What does Google know that you don't?

Read it.

Slightly more practical are the influential marketing ideas of Seth Godin. Godin's books like 'Permission Marketing' are landmark marketing books that put many of the Cluetrain ideas to practical use.