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Haven't posted in ages and I'll try to keep this brief. I'm 26 and I've been involved in web design & marketing for nearly 6 years now. I've accumulated most of the knowledge I have for the first part of these years by reading books and this forum. I basically know and do a bit of everything from design, html, css, usability, content writing, seo, link building, affiliate and even though I feel my knowledge of each individual field is quite superficial, I have somehow managed to made it work.
I now own and run a few websites which allow me to live comfortably and save more than the average person. Monetization is done via adsense, affiliate and direct advertising deals. The bulk of the work for these websites was done 4 years ago and they've grown organically. But I have never taken them for granted and I know they'll go downhill at some point without serious work. For personal reasons, I haven't been that involved in them for the last 3 years so I did not add much content or do much promotion for them and yet revenue is quite steady, even growing a bit.
I have always worked on my own because I felt it suited my personality but I've now moved to London from Eastern Europe (on my own) and I feel like I've now reached a crossroads and I'm interested to know if other webmasters have felt something similar at some point in their lives.
With me, it's a combination of factors, I guess:
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Any tips on specific resources/groups to look for in London would also be appreciated.
Thanks for reading
Welcome to WebmasterWorld after break
Since you have posted after long time you are already back on the track :)
Mere absence from active web development should not be reason for not able to start off again. The basic game of web is still the same as it was few years back , although lot has been done in the buzz created with Web 2.0
Since you are already familiar with various web technologies , a brief recap of all the stuff would be great for you. Just have a glimpse of tutorials at w3schools website and think of some new venture to start up with the cup of coffee in hand , sitting in your garden , watching children playing and running your brain to get some new idea to play with. :)
The interest in what we do is the only motivating factor which keeps people busy for years and years in what they do. Money is secondary factor , interests is what is the real important thing and money with follow for sure.
I suggest you to see what interests you at this point of time and start off web venture in that direction
Good luck , keep all of us updated :) and Welcome once again
The fact that your sites are still doing so well now, is an indecation that what you did years ago, is still very much effective today.
Because you still have income, you can afford to give your new projects time. Recap what you did, do some forum reading to see just what has changed. Sometimes a new project is enough to get the bug back! You will be amazed just how much you remember and how quickly you can get back up to speed.
Mack.
Has anyone tried office sharing/desk space rental? I'm looking at that option, physically going to work and mixing with other people might be good for me.
If you are doing well enough to look after yourself you could always employ some people and run a company if you want to have people working around you.
Forget the real job - I can tell you they will destroy your soul.
I agree. I would join some clubs if you need something more social. Personally, I think this kind of work is the best job I've ever had in my life.
I moved to office space around a year ago now and its great as you do get to interact with other people make new friends so its a lot more socialable than working alone.
And you will get to network and possibly pick up new cliets.
I've never been an employee so I don't know how regular jobs work.
You have to have get up early each day, take off those bunny slippers, and shower (often before 6:00 in the morning while you are still half asleep!), commute to work in heavy traffic, often work in a drab, gray, soulless, windowless cubicle, sometimes work for someone with an IQ that doesn't break out of double digits, and help write meaningless mission statements with terms like "synergies", "convergent technologies" and "capturing the vertical market space". You and your coworkers are often referred to by management not by your first or even last names, but as various FTEs (full time equivalent work units).
If you are lucky and work really hard you just might get a tiny raise at the end of the year that just might make your current salary keep up with inflation, that is if your job isn't shut down and taken over by someone in a third world country willing to work for 20% of what you were making.
Other than that, its great!
Research it, figure out how it all works/is/... what one needs to know. And build/promote/... a new site. After that you'll have energy to go back over your old ones, giving them a small refresh and put them back on auto pilot for a while. While you do it again for another subject.
Having the new site will also make you care for the new one and cuddle it enough so it gets indexed and can start to grow.
Same goes for web technology: never used PHP? , never done pure CSS? , never done validated xhtml strict? , ... use it next time to spice up things and keep it interesting. It also helps to spice up your CV should you ever need to work for "the man" (but don't do that unless you really have to, there's few places not infused with nothing but trouble.)
Oh, the daunting tasks of keeping up: just take them one at a time as your new site becomes a reality, it becomes easy enough (and you already know where to find the missing bits of knowledge anyway :) ).
I feel like I've now reached a crossroads and I'm interested to know if other webmasters have felt something similar at some point in their lives.
Let me guess - it's the lack of motivation which is getting you down, right? You used to be able to hugely inspire yourself: you leapt out of bed with a thousand and a half ideas, worked until you dropped, only to have another burst of energy the next day and so on for the rest of the month, season, year? It didn't matter that you didn't have other people around you, because your endless reserves of self-motivation filled the gap, right?
Now you're pretty tired of having to work on your own all the time, when everyone else gets to go out and work in an environment with other people, plus you're not even sure you see the point of working sometimes, since the money seems to keep coming in regardless whether you work or not - even if you know that your income is probably a little bit less than if you were able to keep motivating yourself to work.
If that's anything close to what you're feeling, then rest assured that others get that too - and, I have to admit, that's a fair approximation of what I experienced three years ago, too.
For some people in this industry, working for money is what inspires them. As long as they can think of another money-raising project, they'll be off again to make more cash. I suspect you are a member of the other group: the group which is motivated by freedom - the freedom to decide your own hours, to not have to work for someone else, to work only the days and times you want and not when you don't want. For a member of that group, once you start bringing in so much money from passive income streams that you can live a good lifestyle and still save quite a lot as well, then the reason for doing much work at all starts to become pretty hard to find.
My own solution in mid-2006 was to decide to go back to college and undertake a Masters Degree. That gave me the social landscape I was looking for, without the tedious unpleasantness of moronic, dehumanising office-routines and pressure of an ignorant boss breathing down the back of my neck (believe me if you're lucky enough not to have experienced any of this in your life, you really shouldn't be in a hurry to find out about it).
If going back to Higher Education is not really you're thing, perhaps consider undertaking direct outdoors volunteer work for a charity part-time or full-time.
Essentially, what I've found is that as soon as web-stuff becomes your secondary rather than primary focus and you can't always work on it anymore because you have other things to attend to and be responsible for, suddenly you feel more enthused and champing at the bit to get back to the keyboard because it's no longer "always there in front of you". Not to mention, that an extended period away from the monitor allows your mind to clear some space and... you'll be surprised at all the fresh ideas which start flooding in.
I hope it works out for you - if you want to talk more about this to someone who has been through it and hammered out their own strategies to deal with it, pm me. (I've just moved from London to Leeds this week, but I'm counting on being in London at least one day a week on average from now on...)
Thanks
I had the exact same problem...steady income rolling in without having to do much and without having to interact with people--I was bored stiff.
About two months ago, I moved to London (from Las Vegas) permanently to open a new business that involves working with clients directly. I meet up with clients and vendors at least four times per week and the outcome has been extremely positive and in fact has even helped my old business as I'm applying lessons from others.
I've also started a networking group here in London and have met a bunch of great people in the local business community.
