There’s a new trend in Internet Marketing. It’s the latest product and it’s causing marketers all over the Internet to scramble for their own “copy.” What is it? It’s competent programmers!

Yes, that’s right, the latest rage to hit the IM scene is computer programmers who can whip up a MySQL database with a PHP front-end before you can say, “I love Mike Filsaime!”

But why has this “trend” become so popular? It’s simple logic, really.

You see, in the early days of the Internet - before snake oil salesmen hit the surf - we programmers had our pick of the litter. We wrote code and created all kinds of fun.

Then YOU came along. Yes, you. The Internet Marketer. You came along with your promises of INSTANT RICHES and FABULOUS LIVES and ruined it all.

Not really, but that was how some of us felt.

Ah, but then you realized something. You realized that in order to really make it BIG online, you had to develop YOUR OWN PRODUCT. But how? You didn’t know how to code. You barely knew how to design a website without the help of templates and WYSIWYG editors. So what were you to do?

Find a programmer, of course. And so, we saw the rise of the “code brokers” - the sites that could hook up programmers with “webmasters” (aka Internet Marketers). And life was good for a time.

But then you realized that not all programmers were created equal. You discovered that in order to truly become god of the Internet Marketing world, you would need to find THE programmer.

And find him you did. And you kept him, didn’t you? You and he made a partnership and started working on project after project together. And you saw your profits increase, didn’t you?

Oh yes, they did.

They did, right?

Well, it’s a theory anyway. Only time will tell if this new phenomenon in Internet Marketing will pan out or not.

Tim Arview is a marketing consultant and freelance programmer based in the southern Illinois area.