Its been a mantra of mine that the Internet has brought nothing new to marketing - only new ways of doing old things. I've been saying it for around ten years, and I'm still saying it now. Certainly, as time went by I thought someone somewhere would come up with something - but no.

Of course Internet technology has added to how we go about marketing, but added anything new? No.

Viral marketing? Word of mouth - turbo-charged Internet-technology fuelled, but word of mouth nevertheless.

Email marketing? Direct marketing using the Internet as the medium of communication rather than post or fax.

Amazon? It's a book shop. Emphasis on shop. Oh, alright then, retail outlet.

Social media? Oh please - people have always talked about the products and services they have used or purchased, but now they can communicate with folk all over the world. At the same time. All day, every day.

Ebay? It's an auction. Or part of it is - it seems that most of the site has moved on from the online equivalent of a car boot sale, to being an online shopping mall where most goods offered for sale are simply being retailed, not auctioned.

Search engines? A way of finding things. Lots of things. Relatively easily, and very quickly - but folk have always looked for things - and guess what, they often found them.

Behavioural marketing / targeting? - give me a break. See my comments on this page - behavioural marketing - new?

Do I need to point out that online ads are ads - yes, interactive in that you can click on them to go to a web site - but that is only one technological step past having a phone number on an ad in another media.

And where do you think the term 'brochure-ware web site' comes from? Hint - the word 'brochure' kind of gives it away.

I'm going to end by rubbing in this issue of nothing new. Those who best know - or knew - how to practice the offline original are good at the online version. Too many [young] Internet marketers think they have to re-invent the wheel. Don't bother. Learn how to use the technology. Learn how to apply that technology. But also learn basic, traditional, good-old marketing.

For an extended version of this argument - including the question of 'distribution' on the Internet - take a look at there is nothing new in marketing on the web : 2.