"They Just Don't Get It!"

Does this sound familiar to you? Your friend asks you,
"What have you been up to?" You say, " I'm into
Internet marketing." "What's that?" You then proceed
to tell them how you market a product on the Internet.
You tell them about headlines, ad copy, advertising
and ezines. "What's an ezine?" You explain it's like a
magazine they would find in a drugstore; the
difference is it comes in your email.

Everything is going fine for about ten minutes until
you notice their eyes are starting to glaze over.
There's a brief pause and they say, "Hey, do you
believe this weather we're having?"

At that point, you realize that you're boring them to
death because they have absolutely no idea what you're
talking about.

For over a year now, I've poured my heart and soul
into Internet marketing. I have devoted myself
passionately to life within the computer.

I went from someone who had to ask my husband how to
turn on the computer to someone who can now copy and
paste with the best of them (okay…I'm a slow learner).
I trashed one computer in eight months and I'm proud
to say it will take me MUCH longer to trash my current
one.

I'm completely self-taught in online promotion and I'm
proud of what I've accomplished. I'm not a Net
marketing "guru" and I never will be one. But I'm not
a "newbie" either.

It's only natural for me to want to share my passion
with friends and loved ones. But I slowly came to
realize that I'm speaking a foreign language to them
when I describe the inner workings of online marketing.
I have yet to meet someone in the "real world" who
knows what an ezine is.

My husband will tentatively ask me how my day was. When
I launch into advertising with autoresponders, viral
marketing, I can see his shoulders start to slump and
this look of resignation comes across his face. It says,
"Oh, %#@*& ! I just had to ask!"

When I ask him to proof one of my articles, he gets this
deer-caught-in-the-headlights look in his eyes. Even
though I've begged him to be brutally honest, I know he's
thinking, "What can I say? I don't even understand what
she's writing about!"

I think I've finally come to understand that what we do
on the Internet is very specialized. Never mind that
there are thousands of us doing it. Those of us who spend
hours each day on the Internet advertising, reading and
learning, give so much of ourselves to this endeavor.
When we're not online, we're brainstorming headlines, ad
copy and articles. Internet marketing is in every fiber
of our being. Keep us away from the computer too long and
we go into severe withdrawal.

I don't know about you, but marketing is both a challenge
and an outlet for me. The challenge is to learn as much
as I can absorb and use what I've learned effectively.
The outlet is tapping into that part of my brain that is
creative.

I have come to understand that to some extent I have to
keep my life online and my life offline separate. I tell
my friends just enough and then shut up (hopefully before
they are frantically looking around for a means of escape).
Nothing is worse than to have someone rattling on and on
about something you have absolutely no interest in.

But that's okay. There are plenty of people like you who
DO understand what I'm talking about. And I don't have to
explain to you what an ezine is.

"There are as many ways to live and grow as there are
people. Our own ways are the only ways that should matter
to us." Evelyn Mandel