I have some advice that may help.

When you develop web sites and have to support them, you cannot help but be a slave to that site. Web sites are dynamic and consumable and change constantly, so why have yourself enslaved by that type of work. It will never end, and after a few years, most customers Ive worked with go off and hire offshore labor to build the next great site. If you are going to choose a profession that relies on your being involved 24/7, why not be a farmer or something? Thats why I think the whole concept of web development and hostingis not so great a deal, unless you can grow it really large, create large maintenance contracts, host it, then hire teams of in house people to manage it as a managed services deal.

As long as you provide a service like web development, updates and manage anything as a one many deal (mISV), you are a slave to the clock and your clients, period. You can never escape. Sorry, its just reality.

I know. I used to do a lot of that myself. Two years ago I changed how I work by changing WHAT I do in terms of technology. I still consult and charge by the hour like many of you, but this time I have started a small web site software business on the side to see if there was an IT "web business" that allowed me to do web dev (which I love), but sell it as a single product over and over. Now, I SELL a set of prebuilt web site papplications I develop one time. Its a much less time-consuming model, if you ask me.

I was afraid of getting into the same situation many of you are experiencing so decided to go this route, and after 2 years, starting to get some traction. So, I sell web software, where I build something really well, one time, and sell it online as a complete website application for small businesses. I now make money as I sleep and while Im at the beach, etc. and do very little work (between development cycles for new products). Some products sell well, some have bombed, but overall, Im impressed with how much much money it generates relative to how little I work on it. Sure, put in lots of weekends and evenings the first two years, but now its got legs and is walking on its own.

Thats the best model, if you ask me, as your most precious commodity is your time. Going the software route is a long dusty road, and takes a lot of time and hard work up front. Its also a risk as there is a lot of free code for sites nowdays. But it can pay off if you work and think hard about a web product you know a lot about and a lot of people may need. I now pull in extra money selling my products, and dont have to do anything. My sites handles the ecommerce, sells the software, and its deposited in my bank account. The only issues I have are rare emails from a customer that had an issue installing it or something.

So, if you are bummed out by the web dev route, try selling software. Thats my advice. Hope that helps!