By everyone I’m referring to all my friends who know me as just Dustin. Not Dustin the Internet Marketer.

You see, so far I have not really shared this blog with anyone that has known me for a great deal of time. A part of that, I think, comes from back when I very first got into sales. I always enjoyed working in sales because I got to work with people…but I HATED trying to sell anybody anything. The worst part was when you had to get your momentum by starting with your friends and your family. Not that what I was selling wasn’t something they could make good use of, but I just hated being the sales-guy to my friends and family.

In my time of working in direct sales, I have sold Cutco Knives, Kirby Vacuum Cleaners, Herbalife, and came real close to joining Quixtar. Not that there’s anything wrong with selling any of that stuff, but in each scenario it was always “practice on your friends and family” – ugh!

Well, as a budding internet marketer, I’m not trying to sell anything yet. In fact, I’m not even to the part where I find a niche and go for it yet. So far I’m just doing some reading, some learning, and jotting my thoughts and experiences as I go. Yet there is a part of me that wants to keep this separate from my “real life” and that actually bugs me.

What just prompted this was finding myself on facebook and seeing that I have friends who are just friends I’ve known since high school and then friends who are in the IM world. I was thinking, “I could post a status update letting everyone know that I’ve started a new blog” and then thinking “oh, but then all my friends would see that.” I know it’s nothing to be ashamed of! I’m not trying to do anything dishonest or illegal. Heck, I’m not trying to sell anyone anything! And yet I find myself overly concerned about what they’ll think if they see that I am getting involved in internet marketing.

From an experienced internet marketer’s standpoint – is there anything that can be said about this? Perhaps it’s some kind of fear of failure that’s doing this to me. Perhaps I’m afraid that people will think I’ll fail. Perhaps I’m afraid of what people will think if I do fail. I do know this – I do not intend to fail!

There is a certain irony in all of this. I want to do this so I have the time to be who I really want to be. Yet, I find myself concerned about what the people who know me in “real life” will think about Dustin the Internet Marketer.

“Just Dustin” and “Dustin the Internet Marketer” are really the same person! So what gives? Any thoughts?

This intrigued me. Why? Well, for one thing, I am essentially new to Internet Marketing. I am pretty new to blogging as well (having only started in February of this year), but I am ’sorta’ getting the hang of it. That’s actually a little “difficult” for me to admit because I am an IT Manager for the company I work for. I am SUPPOSED to know all this technical garbage, right? I’m not new to the concept of internet marketing, but new to the practice. So new, in fact, that when I hear the term “IM” I still think “instant message” not “internet marketing”. How’s that for green?

Anyway, I thought I’d meet Anna’s request and post the complications I am coming across as a budding Internet Marketer and blogger. The plan is to record my progress and troubles as an internet marketer who is just beginning. That way people can go back and, who knows, maybe even learn from my fumblings!

One thing that I just learned from Anna right before I started this blog is that Wordpress.org is “the” way to blog. I asked her about this. I had heard this from other people. Heck, I had even heard my wife mention that she wishes she’d stated with Wordpress. My personal blog is on blogger, and it seems pretty straightforward. So – for those who want a seedling’s understanding of the “why” on this…

If you can afford to purchase a domain name and internet hosting, then Wordpress.org is the way to go because it’s rich in features that Blogger doesn’t have, it’s highly customizable, and has options and features you can use to get more traffic. If you can’t afford it, that’s ok, but you need to know that you can’t just move a blog later on. All the backlinks, all the work you’ve done to build search engine ranking, everything will essentially be lost if you try to move your blog over from Blogger to Wordpress. So – I think I understand that now. Thanks, Anna!

So if you happen to find yourself interested in my pursuit of online success or just have some thoughts you’d like to share, let me know! I officially declare this the beginning of my Internet Marketing Journey. I don’t know where I’m headed with it yet, but hopefully we’ll soon find out!

Stay tuned for more thoughts!