View Full Version : Totally....
F***ed off today... Do you ever have one of those days where you look at the web sites you have been creating over the past couple of years and decide you have been approaching it all wrong. You decide it all needs changing you make your mind up which new direction you want to take and then you visit another thread or forum where someone is slagging off a simlar idea to what you were intending to go for.
I am sitting here slightly confused wondering which way to go. I probably make around £700 a month in phone lines and web cam but I still feel I am missing out on lots more possible income. My affiliate side is pants, probably less than $100 a month for gallery traffic and banners. I read about people starting links lists, free sites, TGP's and the likes but wonder where they get all the time from.
I have started 4 new blogs and as I do not want them to look like Splogs I have put a little extra effort into them but they probably take 2 hours of my time a day. Not a lot but then when you want to create a free gallery, buy some cheap content, update and tweak your current sites it is turning into an 18 hour day!!
Am I being greedy, am I trying to step outside my comfy zone without knowing enough, think I need a :coffee:
SimonSubAms
12-01-06, 10:59 AM
Am I being greedy, am I trying to step outside my comfy zone without knowing enough, think I need a :coffee:
You're not being greedy but you're reading about doing things everyone else is doing.
Go get that coffee, chill out and clear your head. When you've done that grab a pen and paper (yes, they still exist) and start writing down some ideas. Don't come back online until you've got an idea you want to work on and then work on it until it's finished.
The only thing holding you back is yourself and sometimes you have to walk away from the PC to think clearly.
Best advice I can give anyone, for what its worth, and its something I learnt a few years ago, another webmaster told me the same thing. "Dont try and do everything in one day" I was always like that charging around, working my bollocks off, long hours, 7 days a week. Trying to get all those 100's of projects that are in my head, up and running. But now I dont
You are probably spending way to much time on your blogs. I have about 20 blogs and spend maybe 3 hours a week tops in total on all of them. I may not have the best blogs in the world, but they bring me in good sales and good traffic. I update them twice a week now, thats all. Here is an example http://www.cumdiet.net/
The problem with blogs is, often webmasters dont get the best out of them and put way to much time in creating an "OK" blog.
In my opinion, there are two ways of doing blogs to make money. 1. Do brilliant blogs, really get it right, spend loads of time creating an absolute stonking blog. or option 2. Make loads of OK blogs, use them to generate lots of traffic to your network and make sales, but almost certainly not many bookmarkers or people saying "hey you seen such a blog" like they would with option 1................But most webmasters opt for option 3. They spend loads of time and effort into a blog or two, but never quite hit the nail on they head. What they end up with is a few blogs that dont do any better than a few crappy blogs, but which they spend 10 times the time on
Best advice I can give anyone, for what its worth, and its something I learnt a few years ago, another webmaster told me the same thing. "Dont try and do everything in one day" This is probably where I am going wrong, I am not organised enough, I really need to start allocating hours to one project before even thinking of the next.
I find that too many times, like today, I start off with an idea, start looking deeper into it but stumble on something else which would suit another site I have running and before I know it I am juggling both.
When you've done that grab a pen and paper (yes, they still exist) and start writing down some ideas. Exactly and again, I started doing this in word and I started trying to make the page look all fancy:noway:
free4porn
12-01-06, 11:51 AM
My theory is minimum sites so you can put max effort into them. Better to have a few sites making lots of cash than 50+ with little traffic. Fewer sites are easier to manage and usually cheaper to run.
Thats just my thinking but some people are able to run lots of sites with lots of traffic though...
Paul Markham
12-01-06, 12:18 PM
My advice, as if you did not know
I would be here :gaylords:
Is make a list of jobs you need to do and down to should do. Keep the list in your documents folder. When something comes to you put it in the list and get back to what you're doing.
At the end of the day read the list, tick off the jobs done and prioritise the ones left. Then go relax. Read the list at the beginning of every day and start with task one. When you delegate make the people around you work the same system.
As for following other peoples ideas and plans. We all have different skills and different skill levels, what works for them may not work for you, yes that also includes the above advice.
Do what you think is best for you. According to the general sense of opinion I'm doing it all wrong and do not have a clue. AND THIS IS POINTED OUT TO ME EVERYDAY.
Usually by someone making a week what I make a day.
The moral is what works for others may not be your best route.
To-Do-Lists and Calendars!
I use Firefox which has a calendar plugin, including a task list as well. As webmasters the first thing we usually do is open our browser. I then open the calendar as well.
What the calendar allows is to set specific times. IE - Doc put you on a course of anti-biotics that you need to take at specific intervals during the day? Stick it in the calendar so that you get a pop-up alert to remind you to take them and not work through the time and forget. Want to visit that webmaster radio show at specific time and day? Put it in the calendar along with the URL so that it reminds you.
Then the task/to-do list is things that need doing but not by a certain time/date (things with that go in the calendar). My firefox one has check boxes by the tasks so I can check them off as I go along. As I think of a new task that needs doing it goes on the list. There are daily tasks on there that get checked off each day and then I uncheck them before I close the calendar at the end of the day so they're still there tomorrow. One off tasks get checked off, and then deleted at the end of the day.
The list may (will) get very long. But you can see at the end of each day what get's done and at least know that stuff has been achieved.
This is a business. We all need to keep some kind of schedule and task list so we know when we have appointments, reminders for tax/accounting stuff, conferences, holidays, as well as day to day tasks.
The calendar idea sounds good. This is another problem that you have hit on the head. When you go out to work you get into a routine that the employer requests, probably leave the house at 8.00 start at 8.30 and race home at 5.00pm... Working on web sites (for me) there is no routine at present.
I prefer to write things that need to be done in my diary than use a computer application.
The calendar idea sounds good. This is another problem that you have hit on the head. When you go out to work you get into a routine that the employer requests, probably leave the house at 8.00 start at 8.30 and race home at 5.00pm... Working on web sites (for me) there is no routine at present.
I know the feeling.......
I'm trying out a white board.... have all the regular tasks listed on the white board by day... Then I try to get them done first and out of the way...... then spend rest of time doing more sexy stuff....
Dont forget the old saying.... 90% persperation and 10% inspiration.....
Also employ the KISS principal, as JT does and keep things simple...
I use Firefox which has a calendar plugin, including a task list as well. As webmasters the first thing we usually do is open our browser. I then open the calendar as well.
Oooh got a link for that? I'm a 'tomorrow person', why do things today that you can put off till tomorrow? This may be just the tool I need to kick my ass into gear :)
Oooh got a link for that? I'm a 'tomorrow person', why do things today that you can put off till tomorrow? This may be just the tool I need to kick my ass into gear :)
Looks like it's in standalone form now too
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/
Diary person here, page a day..... along with a Bic pen :)
(W.H. Smith, about a fiver)
It stays on my desk (God help anyone who even thinks about removing it) & my "To Do" things get entered for whichever day that they need to be done, if something non important isn't done that day then exactly the same entry gets entered a few days ahead until such point that it is done (I'm very Anal on this)
At the back of the Diary is general project ideas & scribbles etc.
All straight forward, easy to prompt at a glance & always fun to go back a few months or more to see what you were doing back then.
( That reminds me, better put a new entry in my Diary for next week to go & buy my new 2007 Diary, lol, told you I was Anal on it :) )
A more positive start to this morning and I do feel like I have lost my way a little which is good in a way. Before I started participating on this board I thought I knew a lot, now I realise that there is in fact a lot of learning to do. I liked the word 'delegate' something I used to be very good at and something I have definitely forgot how to do. I watched my 'web site' time yesterday and the biggest 'waste' was messing around trying to get a logo, banner or graphic to look nice.
So starting off with my biggest weakness, can anyone suggest a reasonable priced designer for logo's?
vBulletin® v3.7.2, Copyright ©2000-2012, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.