By “marketing”, I assume that you are relating this question to global web marketing rather than localised goods and services marketing – which also has a place on the web. In either event, the key to good marketing is effective advertising, and I saw another post on this forum debating the merits of advertising being entertaining rather than educational. I agree (btw) with the poster who raised the point about having a good laugh about the subject matter, and completely forgetting the brand that the ad represented.

Advertising should be consistent and focused in one or two specific and relevant areas that you (or the company representing you) is good at establishing a profile in. To me, the time devoted to trying to compete with “big” brands, massive marketing machines and the millions using social networking to promote anything and everything is not rewarding.

It boils down to a money/time equation, and time well spent in isolating the correct channels for your advertising and marketing, is the key for marketing in 2010.

Once I have found it, my successful marketing strategies are going to be based around affiliates. There are plenty out there producing niche web sites that would match the quality of any of the sites with a seemingly endless SEO budget, and these not only offer me the opportunity for some free brand recognition, but also I only pay when I get results. Let everybody else battle for the space in cyberland and I will just focus on producing the content – I believe that was the point that Julie (above) was trying to make about working smarter and more effectively, and I agree!

The fundamental nature of marketing isn't going to change–it's about determining what products and services hold value for your customers, and how to obtain value from your customers in return. I agree with Julie; the key is to market smarter, using existing and emerging technologies, to convert traffic to sales.

There are lots of "systems" out there that purport to take advantage of "web 2.0" technologies to help with marketing. but as Julie suggests, having thousands of Twitter followers does you no good if none of them buy what you have to sell. Being in the top SERPs also does no good if it doesn't translate to sales.

Web 2.0/3.0 technologies can help in a marketing campaign, but the focus has to be on creating value for the customer as well as advertising the product. Andy has it right–focus on producing the content first. Then worry about getting the search engine rankings.