No matter how good you are at your chosen profession you can only physically connect with so many people in your lifetime. Even very best professionals can gain from input and suggestions from vast number of professionals available to you via Internet. Well chosen connections may well mean difference between success and just treading water.

My business is writing and global marketing. I started taking networking seriously after I set up my RAW Power Writing website and started often tedious and seemingly unrewarding process of self marketing. I read several article on best ways to market my business and benefits of networking were soon clear to me as a resource to achieve my aims and much more.

I previously thought term “networking” referred to often sleazy sales techniques and spamming, neither of which I wanted any part of. I soon learned different and started seeking professional people all over globe in order to not only expand interest in my business but to find people of a like mind to me with whom I could share my experience and advice. With over 25 years experience in global marketing after having lived in 10 countries and having done business on ground in over 50, I felt I had something to offer. Most experienced professionals have something positive to offer others and are willing to do so, given opportunity to connect. Networking provides that chance.

The type of person you seek to join your network is important. Though you can not “vet” entire network your direct connection may have, you can vet direct connections themselves before asking them to join your group. In most on-line networking groups you then have opportunity to review credentials of anyone asking to join your group before you admit them as trusted contacts. In others (such as Ecademy; www.ecademy.com/) you are notified when a member merely views your profile, giving you opportunity to view theirs in turn and then decide whether you want to ask them to join your group.

Generation Y--The second-largest crop of young people in America's history, offspring of Boomers—80 million of them, nearly 27 percent of U.S. population—are in their late teens and 20s, and already a market force to be reckoned with.

The Millennials are here big time! “They’re demanding their own music, defining their own trends and starting to matter to advertisers, to retailers, to politicians,” chirped a recent Chicago Tribune editorial. What’s more, they are (or soon will be) buying cars and homes, getting married, starting families--and are going to matter very much to American business.

Neo-traditionalist in many ways, Millennials are not cynical about marriage and having families. These young people value such intangibles as personal fulfillment, family well-being, freedom, security—lives on track. As a result, count on Millennials to step up to issues and needs most of us have no matter which generational cohort, market segment, or stage of life we're in. “They don't want to make mistakes of either Generation X or Boomers, to wait until panic stage to have babies,” writes columnist, Suzanne Fields.

A High Dose of Reality

But no matter how great their marketing potential, Millennials with ground-floor incomes may be struggling to negotiate rent and other living expenses on top of college loans that Christian Science Monitor estimates average $17,000. Or they may still be living with Mom and Dad!