Should I quit my job?

yes or no?

[StuntasticAudi]

I would like to start 2006 by being my own boss and do what i have always enjoyed and that is web design and marketing. I have just discovered Adsense 4 months ago and added it to one of my 15 million page views a month sites and saw how much money i could make. I made double from adsense in December then I make at my regular job.

I see the potential out there and I have so many new ideas of websites and can't wait to start them but I just dont have time to do it since i work mon-fri 9-6. You come home and you always have something to do and we all know that once you sit down and start programming it takes time and some alone time.

I have medical benefits at work so i know i will lose all that but knowing that I could be making $6,000 - $10,000 a month just from adsense is driving me nuts.

When do you guys think is the right time for me to quit my day job and me a webmaster for a living. I've always had a job and i'm just affraid to leave a place where i have steady income every 2 weeks that i can count on.

[dillonstars]

Can you go part-time? I know several people who have successfully done that - moved to 3 days per week at a job, and spend 3 days a week doing their own sites.... that way you get the best of both worlds....

Also if you go completely self employed then you could use consulting to supplement your income and spread your revenue sources...

As has been mentioned here already, if you do go fully self-employed, make sure you fully understand the tax implications and how much you will have to keep back each month for the bill. I currently keep 30-40% of my earnings saved for the tax bill... that wouldnt leave you with much money to live on at your current rate...

Last of all, your website's revenue may be seasonal... December is a great month for shoppers but terrible for travel. You'd better plan for seasonal dips in earnings if that is applicable to you site *before* you decide whether you can afford to quit your day job.

[Fugazi]

If you can make that sort of money off a website, you obviously know what your doing with seo and websites, so quit, if it doesnt work out, you should walk into another job quite easily?

Jobs come and go :)

[billegal]

I made way more from Adsense than what is listed by the original poster and now I make far less than what is listed (although on the upswing). My experience is that Adsense can fluctuate greatly.

This is why great businesses have multiple revenue streams. If one goes down, the others hopefully stay the same or go up.

Keep your job and thereby maintain a diversified revenue stream.

I guess this would be good advice for Google too.

[StuntasticAudi]

Thanks guys! I wouldnt mind keeping my job. Right now i'm a web assistant for a pretty decent size software company and work with some great webmasters that know a lot about pretty much any programming language out there. So i'm learning new things from them. I just wish I had more time to do my sites. Just knowing that I could be making so much more money from affiliate programs and adsense if I had my sites up is driving me crazy....but no time to do them. In 2 weeks i get my week vacation so i'll get things going then. After that we'll see how it goes!

[ikkyu]

I skimmed thru the thread and I didn't see any mention of your personal situation - ie do you have a family with kids or are you single? If you have a family then definitely keep the day job, you need the benefits and do the website in your spare time. Consider it a hobby that actually makes some money, 'cause when you have a bunch of dependents you learn(or you need to learn;)) to burn the candle at both ends without flaming out.
If you are single, then that would be a different story altogether, that would make it much easier to quit the day job and go nuts on your sites.

[StuntasticAudi]

I dont have any kids - just rent, car payments, cell, insurance, etc. I do have about $10k on my credit cards so i finally can pay that off.

[buckworks]

You should tidy up your financial situation before you quit your job. Above all, get rid of the credit card debt! Do everything you can to reduce your monthly obligations and get used to paying cash for things. Self-employment income can fluctuate wildly, and when you finally take that step it's a lot easier to ride the roller coaster if you haven't committed future earnings to pay for past spending. Establish the discipline of not spending money before you actually have it.

[JoeS]

See if you can work for your employer part-time and still work on the sites. If you can get health insurance and work part-time, that is even better.

However, if your sites are getting 15 million pageviews per month, I would definitely quit and see what Google can do for you.

I make a bundle and don't even get 1 million pages per month.