I had a beer and burger with a friend last evening, and we were talking about his new found interest in day trading.

His primary goal was to master the art of reading stock market trends, and earning a modest profit buying and selling stocks. He says if he could make a living doing that, then he wouldn't have any clients to deal with.

Right now, he's a freelance programmer doing a lot of Drupal and LAMP stuff for various dotcom companies. He works out of his house, but he's far from free. He has to be there in his home office, with his computer, and all his paperwork, so that he can conference with his clients, on a daily basis.

Client relations management can make or break businesses.

And that's why he wants to shift careers and become a day trader, he can invest his own money, and not have to deal with anyone else.

Where Internet Marketing Comes In

So I told him that's why I love my job. As an Internet marketer I don't necessarily have to be stuck at home. Technically, I do have clients, in that the affiliate merchants and advertisers are sending me checks. But, I don't have to conference with them daily. It isn't that often that we communicate, and when we do it's through e-mail. And now it seems I communicate with them through Facebook and Twitter.

That frees up my day time to where I can enjoy the day, doing the things I really love to do, and then spend the evenings working my websites.

I tell my friends that I retired at the age of 38. That's when I quit my "real job", and started doing this home-based Internet marketing stuff full time. I used to manage the research & development departments for some software companies. I had a boss, and I had to commute along congested freeways. I had deadlines, and I had employees to manage. It seemed no matter how much I poured myself into that job, my only return on investment was a paycheck.

So my advice to you?

Shift your career, or your work processes to where you manage less. The less you have to deal with, the more freedom you have, and fewer headaches to suffer from.

As an Internet marketer, I still have to do client relations management, it's just that the business model I'm working in requires very little CRM time.

If you publish several blogs, you could hire bloggers to write them for you. But then, now you're managing bloggers, and dealing with their personal issues, having to fire the bad ones, and all the headaches that go along with it. Maybe it's better to focus on the few blogs that monetize well for you, and you write them all yourself.

You may never develop the big influential blog network that other folks have developed, but then again, you're still earning enough to keep you alive, and you have more freedom.

The promise of a home-based Internet marketer is not making the big huge bucks, it's all the freedom and stress-free working that you get.  ✓