Internet marketing isn't real work?!

I just tell them:

And my Audi isn't real, and my new house I just bought isn't real......but your rent is real and your 1990 Honda civic is REAL.

I feel you because I can relate. I stay for long hours to work in front of the computer and they thought that I'm just playing around on the computer. Obviously they don't have any idea how the world of internet marketing works unless they poke their nose in it.

This is not mainstream field and 99% of people don't understand how it works. It's still big ponzi scheme for average joe, internet is just facebook and porn for many.

playboy said:

Why can't internet marketers get any respect? Everybody around me seems to think internet marketing isn't "real work" or "real business".

Click to expand...

Depends on what you actually do to make money, tbh.

These days, everyone is an internet marketer. To paraphrase Dan Levis, "you can't throw a rock without hitting an internet marketer."
No matter what they do ? spam pr0n sites, spam youtube, CPA gateways, SEO, microworkers, fiverr ? people will call themselves internet marketers, doing serious business, on the internetz.

You don't even have to be making money to claim your title. I've met people who didn't have slightest idea about what marketing actually is, how internet fits into the equation, where and how would they fit into the grand scheme of things (with their optional knowledge and optional work), but... it didn't stop them from claiming their [internet] marketing expert title and letting everyone know they're serious business people who are merely inches short from becoming next internet millionaires.

This might seem like an irrelevant pedantic rant, but it's a key reason why IMers are massively perceived as clowns nowadays.
When you mention someone that you make money from internet, that you're an internet marketer, what do you think ? what's the first thing that pops into their mind?

Most people will instantly think of 1. porn, 2. gambling, 3. porn, 4. youtube, 5. surveys, 6. newspaper stories of dotcom millionaires, milliondollar homepage and other crap, 7. spam, viagra, 8. porn.

Accompany that ? the general public perception of internet and internet as a business medium (and business itself) ? with average person's mentality, knowledge, idea of whatever internet and marketing might constitute (alone or together), and fact that every Joe off the street is working on his internet business (for years, with no apparent results), and you should have a good idea about why it might be hard to garner respect as an internet marketer.

Imo;

If you're a social/youtube spammer, classifieds hero, fiverr top seller, freelancer, article writer, small-scale blackhat exploiter ? you're probably not an internet marketer, and choosing a better suited title would be a favor both to people who actually are IM-ers, and yourself, in terms of focus and perspective.

If you actively use internet (websites) as traffic medium and part of the sales funnel (instead of mass-spamming/botting/exploiting whatever random websites out there), then you might indeed be an internet marketer.

As much as I'd like to, I can't really consider myself as either a businessman or IM'er, considering what I do to make living (writing in engrish, some freelancing). I could, but not without getting a good laugh from it.

Anyway, this is just my thinking on the broader issue of being or not being an internet marketer, hopefully no one feels offended after reading it.

Every time I talk about my work as web designer/seo people look at me with respect and maybe a little envy.
Maybe it's the way I talk about my job, but I don't think there could be nothing about internet marketing that makes people laugh at you.

There are two ways of living:

1. You care about other peoples opinion

or

2. You just dont give a fuck

Some people are simply ignorant and do everything they can to stay like that. Attempting to help them out of their ignorance is futile.

One day I made $$$ during that day as much as my mother earns in a month. Told her. She acted (wasn't really) happy. 1 week later she asked me

- X and Y kids of my colleagues have a great job at big companies. I wish you'd get a real job and do something with your life.

She obviously doesn't know how much they making in a month, if they love what they do or if really their life is that great. It is just her assumption. I replied:

- Because if I'd get a real job, I'd have a shitty life like yours, having to wake up at 7AM to go to work through rain and snow, every single day. Get to work and have to put up with asshole colleagues and an even bigger of an asshole boss, you know... like you tell me you do. Oh, and I don't think they'd pay me in a day, every day, the salary they pay the others in a month.