Setting up a blog and getting the word out through social networking sites is the most recent trend in Internet advertising for online businesses. Squidoo, Hubpages, and Twitter are among the most popular Internet advertising tools available today. These websites are not only used by small startups but industry giants as well, whether their core business is online or offline.

Twitter is similar to other social networking sites where you can build a set of contacts. It’s similar to blogging, only less tedious. Instead of posting a new entry to your blog with a 300-500-word article, Twitter updates consist of short sentences with a maximum of 140 characters. Twitter helps build online communities of people with shared interests, strengthens your position in your network, and complements your company’s Internet advertising activities.

Twitter provides you with a free Internet advertising tool so you can send your message out to existing and potential customers.

Other internet advertising options include search engine marketing (SEM) and display ads. However these are not free. With SEM, the advertiser pays for text ads that appear in search engines when users search for relevant keywords. The advertiser pay per click (PPC) and can track conversions and sales. With display ads, advertisers pay websites to publish banners and the cost is based on the number of impressions.