I spent an hour on my computer today listening to a promoter’s webinar on secret tips for online social networking. Actually I was working on a large commission so I alternated between glancing at the computer screen and turning the volume on my laptop as high as it would go and painting on the artwork at the easel. So what did I learn? Well it seems that the very serious marketers want to make their advice fit everyone.  Most of them want to be all things to everybody. So much of the advice is not for me….really.  They market advice because that is all that they do.  I am not sure where their real life is, but it’s not what you or I do! And I knew that this free webinar was a prelude to buying the $395.00 special for only $149.00 (plus $350.00 worth of bonuses) if you buy it within 48 hours! And honestly, I would not have begrudged the price had the webinar on social networking had something in it that I did not know already! But when the kind ladies mentioned that one way to devote the required computer time to say, networking on Twitter, was to use an assistant…… well I knew I was not in their reality world! I write on this blog and send out our newsletters and maintain our Facebook and blogs in between creating and finishing commissions, marketing for the commissions, and Steve painting and then photographing his work to go online…and running an Art business.  Driving to the art shows, the homes of clients.  We’ll be filming “how to” videos next week at the Burning Oak film studio and these are painting ones. My “Single moms Guide to Making Money as an Artist” is coming out shortly in the audio format (the ebook is online), I just sent the taxes off to the accountant, my Corgi is due to have puppies next week, the snow is coming back tonight as a wintery mix (again)…and in short, we share what we know in between our careers as people who make their living as artists. Our real world. And yours! In the recent past I added the care of children to that list and that alone is a full time job….so I felt a bit cheated when I listened to yet another webinar full of vague advice that is so far removed from real life that I almost laughed.  Because the laws and rules of social networking change daily. Absolutely NO one is an expert. So my point is for you to adapt advice to your world. We promote real advice for artists. We are not corporate nor do we care about a “glass ceiling”. Our livelihood is from our art products, not our marketing products We are not out to conquer the world or make a million bucks. We promote the ways and means to show other artists how to follow in our paths or forge their own way without giving up their real life!  And that really, is marketing in real life!