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?

My first thought was that maybe they wanted to sell me the blog editor, but as far as I can recall, the editors I’ve seen recommended have been free.

So what’s the deal? Is there some advantage to using an editor that I am missing?