Did you make the switch from corporate slave to independent consultant? If so, you may be part of the subculture known as "The Internet Marketer's Club." Out here on the Web, things are done a little differently. Nine to Five is a forgotten phrase. "Corporate casual" means tossing on a pair of lounge pants before booting up your laptop. Business meetings are held in the upper right-hand corner of your computer screen!

So, how do you know you're a club member? What's the big clue-in that you've crossed the Point of No Return and you're officially relegated to Internet Marketer Status for the rest of your days?

For me, it was when one of my internet pals just bought me a web domain out of nowhere. A web domain as a gift, wow! What a perfect way to show a fellow entrepreneur how much you care. Yes, the day I received a web domain as a present was the day I realized I was a Bona Fide Internet Marketer.

Recently I asked some other professionals when their moment of internet marketing clarity happened. Here are some funny answers I got in reply.

You Know You're an Internet Marketer When...

...you spend one day offline and return to 202 e-mails (mostly not spam).
...you dream in HTML.
...you dream in keywords.

- Ann Zuccardy, Vermont Shortbread Company, http://annzuccardy.typepad.com/vermont_shortbread_mmm/

You Know You're an Internet Marketer When...

...you brag about your high web ranking.
...you obsess about your page rank.
...you constantly check your page rank.
...you get depressed about your page rank.

- DeAnna Spencer, http://realestateinvestorsfriend.blogspot.com/

You Know You're an Internet Marketer When...

...You see a new product, add it to your marketing list, and begin thinking of ways to incorporate it into articles you will post online.

...You see an article online and think "I should write about that" and scroll to the bottom and your name is on it!

- Jan Verhoeff, http://wahmco.tripod.com/

You Know You're an Internet Marketer When...

...you get up in the "middle of night"--which is more like 3 a.m. since you just went to bed at 1 a.m.-- because you HAD to find something online or wanted to check your stats.

...you know there's a hurricane coming but you keep on trucking 'til the power goes out. Then you resort to battery back up on regular PC with about 30 minutes of work time left!

...you use a 'cheat sheet' to keep track of all the URL's that you own and run.

- Tara Burner, http://completehouseservices.com

You Know You're an Internet Marketer When...

...you dream in webstats, click through rates, effective CPM, cost per clicks, open rates, page views, unique user sessions, server response times, and the general flow of your web life.

...you can take off at a moment's notice to go anywhere, do anything, and be with whomever you want... as long as there is wireless broadband of course...

...you obsess about your reputation by not engaging in what 'those other guys do' that gives Internet Marketing a bad name.

And lastly...

You begin to think life is one huge A/B split testing planet.

- Christopher Knight, http://EzineArticles.com

Special thanks goes out to the members of Article Marketing Mania on Ryze.com, who contributed the material for this article.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is a freelance copywriting consultant, ghostwriter, article marketing enthusiast and self-proclaimed internet marketer. Trust her with your next e-book, article series, web copy or sales letter. Visit http://wordfeeder.com for more information.