Working From Home

Perspective from a work at home webmaster in Bulgaria

[vevs]

hi to everyone out there.
I've been reading the forum for the last year and have read about people who make tons of money online all by themselves. I've also been working from home as web developer and tried SEO for the last 4 years and since then I was able to take my hourly rate from $5 to $100-150. For those who wonder how I lived with $5 per hour I should say that I live in Bulgaria, Europe and the average salary here is about $400 per month :)
For these 4 years I've started all kind of online businesses - selling my own software products, making money with adsense, hiring writers and selling articles to people from US, etc...
However for the last few months I feel I need to change something with the way I work. After reading rfung post here [webmasterworld.com...] I realize that he has been in the same situation as I am and what he did is what I also need to do.

This year I made almost 100k working at home in a country where average salary is $5k per year. This is the biggest reason I feel confident in my skills and it stops me to quit my work at home job and look for a job in a company probably in US where I can meet new people, face new challenges and do something new. Besides, I am married and have a 2 years old daugher which makes it a little more difficult to move to another country. This is why I think that finding full-time job, being involved in a 6-12 months project, taking a master degree or even some interesting course will make my life and work more colorful and will teach me something new.

I guess most of you, who work from home, felt the same way for some time in their life and will appreciate if you share what you did to make it better :)

[SEOLinker]

vevs, wow! good to hear, really, I am also from 3rd world country, Ukraine, but charge something like $15 / hour atm. Also student, so happy now with this money but will need more. I am working with link building, article submissions, dir submission , onsite seo for US and other western clients. But man coming from $5 to $100-150... Do you do this with your sites (adsense, info products, etc.) or you just working as a freelance seo with other sites and get paid such money?! Just curious from where $100-$150 per hour comes:)

[percentages]

>I guess most of you, who work from home, felt the same way for some time in their life and will appreciate if you share what you did to make it better

I don't see why you want to change course at all!

Why do you need a Masters Degree? You already earn twice the average of those in the USA with a Masters?

Stay the course....next year make 200K, then 500K, then millions.

Education has its place, but, it will not teach you to do any better than you already know!

As for location, I understand why people might be attracted to the USA. It shouldn't be for money! I'm from the UK, and chose to move to Florida because I liked the weather!

You can certainly make as much money in Western or Eastern Europe today as you can in the USA! Only move here if you like the USA culture and climate!

[Essex_boy]

What about England? It activly recruits east europeans, we have so many here youll feel instantly at home and you wont stand out, amny of our offical publications are available in your native tongue.

East Europeans are all so looked upon kindly in general by the native population.

[Lex_Luther]

I was just checking out Bulgaria for a new place to live, I would like to get out of the United States. How is it living thier? Do you feel free?

100k in America is only slightly above middle class.

[Fortune Hunter]

I am also in the U.S. and I have been working from home for the last 3+ years and love it! I wouldn't change anything for several reasons. My income is better than working for an employer for two reasons I can charge and bill what I want, how much or little I make is up to me. Second and probably more importantly is self-employed people in the U.S. get some incredible tax breaks that aren't available to people working for employers.

I have a mentor that has been a consultant for 28 years, published numerous books and consulted for some very large companies. He started out working in his home and never stopped. He grossed over 1.4 million last year. Not bad for working out of your house with a commute time of zero minutes to get to work.

The downside is it can be a little lonely, you are pretty much isolated all day long and unless you talk on the phone to people you can potentially go all day with no human contact. I have found ways to work around this personally by being in networking groups and such.

I agree with others saying that a Masters is not really going to be useful if you are already pulling down the type of income you have. I would say keep doing what you are doing and never look back. I worked for others for almost 10 years before going it alone because I wasn't sure I could do it. Now that I am on my own I have never looked back.

Fortune Hunter