Burned out

Working on my site is becoming a chore

[shallow]

I've been managing and working my site for just over four years and I'm getting burned out and bored. I'm making a decent supplemental income so it's not that I'm working for nothing and don't want to give it up.

I've written over 700 articles since its inception, not to mention replying to hundreds of posts each year in a forum. But I've always understood it's vital to write, write, write to keep the search engines happy; that if I stop doing so for too long, traffic to the site will dwindle. If this is true, what constitutes "too long?"

I have more relevant subjects to write about than I can count, but I have sparse interest in doing so due to burn out. I occasionally hire people to write articles but that involves a lot of time corresponding, editing and laying out pages.

Anyone else experience this? Any sage advice would be appreciated! Thank you.

[lammert]

I am working in three month shifts. I.e. three months working on my sites, followed by three months looking after my two daughters and building our new house.

It works fine for me. During the three months off, the search engine rankings of the sites do not decrease. If you have a news related site or a blog, the number of subscribtions and returning visitors may suffer though.

[shallow]

Thank you for the reply.

No, it is not a news related site or blog; it is an educational, how-to site. About 70 percent of my visitors each month are new... they get their information and move on.

So maybe it wouldn't hurt to take some time off.

[SteveWh]

As you mentioned, your traffic might dwindle if your information becomes outdated or if at some point everyone in the world has seen it, but it wouldn't have anything to do with search engines not being happy because of a lack of new content. Search engines don't get bored. They will be perfectly happy with your site as long as its information remains relevant to what people are looking for, and Google even prefers content that's been around a long time.

[edited by: SteveWh at 12:32 am (utc) on Feb. 8, 2008]

[Marcia]

It's a good idea to maintain the "freshness" factor on sites. Try to force yourself to add something that can be linked to from the homepage and/or a well crawled interior section page, maybe one or two days a month just so it doesn't go stagnant.

I can well understand the burnout, I've gone crispy. What I've done is put myself on a voluntary haitus (or semi-retirement LOL), and mostly do just what I feel like: reading the news and following stories online a lot (especially the election), and picking up on some long-neglected personal learning projects. Some involves missing or outdated website skills, but doing updates and improvements is voluntary as part of the "project" and isn't a chore since it isn't part of the usual drudgery type work.

[ronin]

I've been managing and working my site for just over four years and I'm getting burned out and bored

Yep, that's about right. For me it was three and a half years, but from what I've heard I'm starting to think it's a common phenomenon that at some point around 40-50 months, weariness sets in bigtime.

For me the solution in the end was to go away for a year and do something completely different. Sure the traffic levels dropped a bit and so did income. But not too much - maybe 25% and then stabilised.

The crucial thing was that after about two months away from the computer, I started to have lots of new ideas about things I would like to do - ideas which I probably wouldn't have had if I'd been staring at the screen for all that time.

And the fact that I couldn't go and implement those ideas immediately meant that, at the end of the year, I was champing at the bit to get going on my web-based work again.

The bottom line: taking a year off completely revitalised my enthusiasm levels and didn't damage my traffic or income beyond repair.

[lammert]

The crucial thing was that after about two months away from the computer, I started to have lots of new ideas about things I would like to do - ideas which I probably wouldn't have had if I'd been staring at the screen for all that time

Exactly my experience. If you are working day after day at your desk trying to optimize your sites, at the end you only see the details. Once you are doing some other things for a few months, your view broadens again and many new ideas pop up.

I am working few months on, few months off for seven years now and I never had one moment I wanted to go back to my original schedule. Our brain is too flexible to be concentrated on one task several hours per day, 365 days per year. Diversify is a word you often see here in the AdSense forum to tell you that you need more than one source of income. But the word also applies to experiences, that may help to bring the most unique web solutions to others.

Don't see your current burn-out as a problem. It is the door to a new way of managing your resources and experiences and in effect can help you one step further.

[Habtom]

Once you are doing some other things for a few months, your view broadens again and many new ideas pop up.

Yea, I do believe that very rarely do ideas come when you are busy going through the details.

[shallow]

Thank you for all your helpful responses. Glad I'm not alone in my experience.

>>And the fact that I couldn't go and implement those ideas immediately

That's part of my burnout. I am not a web developer so when I have an idea and want to implement it, I must depend on another. That may mean waiting far longer than I want.

I'm going to get some things in order, then take off a few months. When I do get back to a regular schedule, it will be part time....with vacations.

Thanks again!