Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Seriously now - if you're doing this full time, does it ever nag your mind that maybe its taking over much of your time, and, what's worse, you don't even care and you enjoy it? First thing I do when I wake is check stats. Last thing I do before I go to bed is check stats. I check stats a bunch times more during the day. And then again. Somedays I spend more time checking stats than working. Days go by sometimes when I don't talk to a living soul, except when I'm chatting, which lately is with other webmasters, so websites again.
All I think about is websites, new ideas, tweaking current sites, dreaming big. Mind you, I don't do nearly as much work as I do thinking.
Is there a point when spending your whole day living, breathing websites becomes unhealthy? I go workout and I go to the movies and talk on the phone and go out, but those are breaks on me thinking about websites. After I'm done, it's back checking stats...
If i were to describe this to anyone simply as a behavior, it sure sounds like an addiction :). Is Adsense/AM addicting?
Adsense Anonymous, anyone?
Adsense Anonymous, anyone?
I'm ready to join. Problem is I want to keep AdSense going but I need to find a way to sort out what is important to get done and what isn't. Like you I keep getting new ideas of things I could do but most take a lot of time for very little money.
I've been at this for well over a year and I think it's time I decide I've given it my best shot and until some significant new information comes along I need to go back to adding articles to my websites at my old regular rate. Not that I'm unhappy with AdSense, it bring in a nice bit of supplimental income.
I think it's a problem with any home business. Since you don't go home from work you don't realize how much time you put into it. I ought to set a timer every time I work on it. Then look at the hours for the month and see what I made per hour. Naw, I won't to that to myself. :)
Since May last year when I became aware of AdSense, my life has changed. I now spend at least 8 hours a day on the computer. I've since got 2MB Broadband and no longer turn the computer off, which is a bad thing really with it being next to my bed. I no longer have the time for a GF and can't really be bothered spending time with most of my old friends now. While most people my age are out having fun, I just can't stop thinking about websites, Google, SEO, AdSense, Affilliate programs, Domain Names... and in the meantime, I just keep checking Stats or reading threads.
My life is SOO different now. I wish I could just be happy with one hobby site but no. I wanna be rich. I may fail (probably will) but I don't want to regret missing this opportunity. I may not get another. Your so right about THINKING TOO MUCH. I now get too distracted sometimes just watching TV and if an idea pops into my head, I'll stop what I'm doing and go and check if the domain name is available! However only around 2% of my time is spent building content or websites that I will get around to publishing.
I am 'trying' to spend more time in the 'real world' but I constantly feel 'guilty' for being away from my Stat Counter. At least I acknowledge the problem. I've decided to commit 60% of my spare time to AdSense over the next 2 years. If I'm successful I should then be able to spend less time in front of a screen, if I'm not successful then I will try and walk away altogether.
Yes - Sign me up to AA. Maybe we can sue Google too when we're all locked up in padded rooms talking to ourselves about UPS Clubs and Google Dances...
Ok, actually I dont have one at the moment, but if I did, she'd be seeing me more in front of the computer than looking at her. Unless she's unbe-f-livingly hot, and she can quote my adsense numbers in a sultry sensual voice. A guy can dream right?
Just "buy" one from the cash you make with Adsense..
The better you do (with Adsense)... the nicer they get :-)
there are good deals on ebay.
Unless she's unbe-f-livingly hot, and she can quote my adsense numbers in a sultry sensual voice.
*gets idea for new very, very specialized niche website, runs off to look for affiliate programs*
...Gimme a week.
Seriously, I'm in the same boat. I even find myself checking stats and reading this forum so much that it gets in the way of sitebuilding. It's a hazard of gambling professions; at a regular job, I know what I'm getting and what I have to do to get it, but making money online is like shooting black-on-black bullseyes in the dark. Google's mysterious, astrology-influenced, hosted-in-a-secret-lair-in-the-Bermuda-Triangle algorithms only make it worse. So, of course, I check and check. Some deep, primitive part of my mind thinks that I can influence Adsense with the power of my mighty brain.
It's not working. Maybe my pyramid hat needs more tinfoil.
Do it again. And again.
But at least the market closes on weekends! (time to figure out how I screwed up last week...)
I don't "do" AdSense, but SEO for a small biz site is similar, perhaps not quite as high tension (Jeez, if those orders would quit coming in I'd have time to read Google's patent...).
It reminds me of trading online in the tech stock boom. Live market at 6 AM PST track and trade all day, plan stategy until zzzz.
Heh, I can totally see how adsense/affiliates are a bit like gambling which is sort of what the day trading thing of the dot boom days were about.
That's how I feel about AS/AM - we're in a 'boom' right now, and I gotta do double duty and take advantage of it. Unlike a regular job (yeeech!) the more you work, the more your payoff can be at the end of the day/month. Of course, that's in my head, I end up spending more time reading or chatting about it :) and in the meantime, the money just keeps rolling in (not a lot, but enough) - so perhaps a bit differently than betting or stockmarket, once you're making money, you really can't lose money - you can 'make not as much money', but you won't be in the red as in betting or stock trading(PPC aside).
But, I guess I am preaching to the choir - we're all addicts in some way or form here - even my dad, who couldnt be more computer illiterate, but whom I set up an adsense account for (so I can manage click fraud risk) and put one of my sites with it, keeps checking the stats 3-4 times a day, and bugging me to get more sites running for him. Hah, if I could do that, I'd be doing my own sites...
I can totally see someone who's not aware of the potential of AM/AS log in here and read what us fools are saying 'man, these people need to get a life' :) But, I'm like, isn't AM/AS the greatest thing ever? it can (and has) literally changed lives around, just like those infomercials on tv ;)
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one, but at the same time, doesn't help one bit with the 'addiction'. :)
(added) and btw, pardon my presumptionness, and this must be one of those thoughts 'group think', I feel anyone making a living through AM/AS is part of another 'class' than the 9-5 working stiffs waiting for their weekend to enjoy their own time. I feel very privileged, and yet maybe a tinge of guilt that I can enjoy my time all the time when everyone around me can't. Is this perhaps a bit like what people feel when they've won the lottery?
I wake up, i check my account, during the day I build, then at night I dream about all the possibilities,
Girlfriends, I have have no time anymore,
I am obsessed,
Power to the people, what a great way to reward, the creative, and motivated,
I think what separates it from conventional business is that it's neglible start up cost, and knowledge catalyses earnings,
What a great reward system,
I have never owned a server before,
But now I have a resellrt account, and am just about to open 3 unique internet accounts, tqrgeted with adsense.
This is the mnost exciting thing i have done in a long time,
s
The border that all my long time service contracts with my clients and AdSense are enough to pay all.
No new clients necessary to survive, when they come, it's a nice extra income.
My wife is now adicted to improve her English as fast as possible to translate my sites.
This is how I feel as well. It's exciting, it's the blending of a job with a "hobby," it's fun, it's rewarding, it's worth it.
I used to get made fun of for "wasting" so much time working on my websites. Now that my sites make money, people are asking me how they can do the same thing.
It's not for everyone--you need to really love doing it and you need to have that excitement for it. And if you do, then it's fantastic.
I was obsessive about my site before adsense, and still am. Now that there's enough money rolling in to pay for family holidays we would never, ever have had (going to Crete in a few weeks) I note that my wife has stopped calling it "Your weird hobby" and calling it "Our Googlebucks".
Whilst I check the adsense stats she is spending it on Ebay :(
Oh - did I say I was an addict too?
The addiction comes from the fact that I can ALWAYS be doing SOMETHING to make me earn more money. Between classes I can write articles, on the train home I can make keyword lists, on the treadmill or stairmaster I can read printed WebmasterWorld threads (yes I have been known to print them out), and at home I can watch TV with the misses with a laptop next to the couch.
But, to my credit I do have a goal. In one year my parents will cut me off financially and I hope my site can replace a real job while I am at graduate school.
(actually there is a magic tool, it's called self restraint but I don't have much).
I've been working from home for the past few years, and tomorrow I start at an office where I will not check the forums or my adsense stats. Hopefully I'll be a bit more effective with my time when I get home....
I think it is a certain personality type who get into the AA rut. I had it for about 3 months when I first got started with Adsense. I'd check and record the overall stats hourly looking for trends, print out the daily channel data, put it through the spreadsheet and analysis, from day to day. Optimized daily based on the prior day's stats, then started all over. Probably about 20 hours a day.
I really didn't do much else. During that time I quadrupled our earnings and made it into the UPS club pretty consistently . Then it was enough for me. I wasn't greedy. Along with the prior incoming money (our companies websites are my only job/income) I felt I could stop trying to earn more and just maintain. I now have a life again. We take at least a weekend vacation almost every month, go out almost every evening, and I only check the stats about 2-3 times a day Mon-Fri, and optimize almost never. We've gone back to expanding the site and income continues to increase about 5-10% month.
The only advice I can give others is make an achievable target and then once you get to it, STOP and don't get overly greedy. Adsense takes care of itself pretty well.
If I reach my goal then I am hoping to sit back and write an article a day and cash my monthly checks.
[edited by: Jenstar at 4:48 pm (utc) on April 20, 2005]
[edit reason] No URL specifics please! [/edit]
Adsense Anonymous, anyone?
Heh. All I can say is this is waaaaay tamer than my Everquest addiction (went cold turkey 765 days ago... I only occassionally get the shakes). I really only spend a couple hours a day working on my sites, and if I'm busy with other stuff, I just claim it a weekend and do nothing. Yes, I always check my stats when I get up and before I go to bed (ok, and other times in between), but that only takes a couple minutes ;)
we're in a 'boom' right now, and I gotta do double duty and take advantage of it.
I admit that is a lot of what keeps me motivated to work even if I don't feel like it. I don't know how long it will stay this good, so I want to make as much as I can... it'd be great to get to the point where I have enough to live off my investments or whatnot... just work for the fun of it. I'm graduating in a couple of months (Adsense allowed me to quit my old job and go back to finish my degree full time), and I'll probably be working a lot more on my sites this summer.
'Fess up! There's only 20 of us in this thread, come out!
(I was actually tempted to take it when it was still available, but figured it would get in trouble with copyright issues...)
[edited by: Jenstar at 4:49 pm (utc) on April 20, 2005]
[edit reason] No URL specifics please! [/edit]
No, I am clean since 1990.
My last big computer games porblem had been 1989 with the SSI game "A stellar crusade"
I was not able to stop until I won on the highest level "hideous" without loosing one single ship.
What you will realise about this stuff is that the TRUE beauty is that when my girlfriend shows up, I can just drop everything andgive my full attention to her, and guess what? My stats don't even notice! Don't get jealous either.
I've even be gone for a week or two and when I came back I just had to update my stats and tehy didn't notice I was gone. Sometimes I wonder if I even still work here!
So, enjoy the thrill, but remember that one of hte most beautiful things about this work is the freedom to choose when and how much you do, and that your pay is not linked to how many hours you work, but how smart you work.
SN
lol, someone DID take <snip>.com :)
Huh? it seems avaiable ...
EDIT: no it is not.
registrars where ot of sync!
[edited by: Jenstar at 4:49 pm (utc) on April 20, 2005]
so what happens in these meetings? do we go there sit in a circle and say 'hi, my name is x and I check stats 10 times a day'? and the crowd goes '*gasp* only?'
Actually I have no regrets about Adsense. I made my hobbie money before but with Adsense my hobbie money is much much greater and it looks like it will have to cover the misses hobbies too and vacations and such ...
to keep her happy. I guess I could sit in front of the goonbox for 4-5 hours watching reality shows on other peoples life in the evening instead wasting my time and staying home on vacation.
