are you actually making money?

[jhales]

So, how many of you actually make money running your own web sites or doing web design type stuff? how feasible is it to make it on your own these days?

[mdaiah]

Jared,
A very fair question and thank you for posting it. I notice that not many have rushed in to respond as yet.
My response to your question is:
1) Personally, putting up our website (School) is not motivated by wanting to make money. It is motivated by our desire to share education for a complex modernity.

2) In such a new field there is an oversupply of individuals offering services.

3) I have just written to about 40 hosting companies and am amazed at their ability to ignore the matter I wrote about and use my address for promotion. Naturally I delete immediately.

4) Quality must count. For instance I went to your site and the first thing that caught my eye was the word, "unrivalled". Now, that's the last thing your site is. It is highly rivalled. So no disrespect intended but I would not deal with a site with such a claim.

I would encourage you to keep refining your content. As an ignoramus when it comes to technical computer matters I find far too many sites are too obsessed with demostrating technical wizardry instead of good old fashioned ethical, reliable service. As most of the world is like me (ignorant about sophistocated tech. details) I encourage you to speak and present plainly, in images and terms easily understood.
In nature and mathematics 'elegance' is highly prized yet I find little elegance in so many 'fancy' websites.
thanks again for your posting I hope it gets good response.
Michael
www.humanecology.com.au

[jhales]

For instance I went to your site and the first thing that caught my eye was the word, "unrivalled". Now, that's the last thing your site is. It is highly rivalled. So no disrespect intended but I would not deal with a site with such a claim.

No offense taken, but that isn't my personal web site. That is the web site for my company. I am responsible for maintaining it. I wasn't really asking in response to our corporate web site. Rather I was just asking out of curiosity. I work for a ocmpany, they take care of me. But, it seems a lot of people (or at least some) of the people on this forum make their living with their web sites/web design businesses, and I was wondering how successful most are these days when people are hesitant to spend money on things like web design. I would have imagine it is difficult to make money doing this sort of work on your own.

[mdaiah]

Fair enough too jhales,

perhaps for some it's a bit like writing and being published - one doesn't make mcuh money from that but one does make friends, contacts and it opens up otherwise hidden opportunities.
Another example might be bands cutting CDs, they make no money but get to promote their work.

Still noticing the lack of rush to respond...mmmm is the tax man waching this site?
Michael

[AlanMCSD]

See your private messages.

[Moondancer]

I'm kind of curious about this too. I'm not making any money at it at all. Is it just that I'm not a certified professional or the economy or the fact that I'm relatively new at this or what?

[Reesa Marchetti]

Hi Everybody,

I'm making some money but I miss the days when I had steady employment -- and Webmastering was just a moonlighting add-on to my secure income.

I'm coming to the end of my first year without employment -- or UNemployment -- and it's a struggle, but I do enjoy being my own boss. All my attempts to improve my search engine ranking, my PAID search engine inclusion and my PAID local advertising have resulted in maybe 5% of my total income. Most of what I earn has come through word of mouth referrals from clients and friends.

I still spend as much as I used to (or more) on professional fees and upgrading skills, software and office equipment. But at least now I can deduct it from taxes.

Like any business, it takes time to build it up to the point of turning a profit. I finally did so this year but it's not enough to live off. Fortunately, mine is icing on the cake :-) of the income my husband provides.

Competition is intense in this industry, and you have to continuously keep up your skills and your knowledge. Forums like this are helpful, as are the occasional classes I take as needed.

I'm taking a PhotoShop refresher course right now. My clients appreciate that and are happy when I can offer them different options and be able to explain my recommendations to them.

[landsenterprises]

I am starting to get discouraged. I have had 1 site up for almost 2 months & another up around 2 weeks, I was getting a lot of hits with the 1st in the beginning, but it is less now, but no sales at all.
How long does this take to start seeing something?

Please visit my sites & give me some hints.
www.dominionmedical.us & www.travelfirst.net

Thanks for any help!

[venividi]

I work a lot before (research, studying the competition, drafting the project) and after (monitoring, further optimization) publishing a site, so my rates are a bit higher than the competition, which means that I often 'miss' a potential client. Well, I am not a good seller either :-).

However I make a living out of webmastering, not very comfortable, but adequate. I also do Project Management for site localization since I was a translator and I know the sector (and good translators) well.

Competition has grown very much, but I am unable to lower my prices, it takes me too much time even for a few pages. I write my code by hand and take days to optimize and check and monitor. But this approach works well for when a client sees business coming in through his site he comes back for changes, overhauls, expansions, translation, localization and maintenance besides referring me to other clients.
I've worked again at least once on all the sites I've done. As a matter of fact, almost 80% of my current work is on sites I've done in the past few years. Some clients even let me decide when it's time to make some changes or upgrade. So I do what needs to be done (I even buy domains I feel they should have) then send my bill and they pay without problem.

Valeria Vernon
Site design and localization
http://www.vernondata.it
http://www.e-passport.it

[Bizwala]

A loaded question... hehe

A year ago, I had my own business, specializing in SEO and Design. I received a referral from a former employer and managed their Search Engine Marketing. I was doing okay, nothing crazy but for a home business 60,000 a year creating results for 1 client and multiple others in design work, it wasn't bad either...

Today, my personal clients are worth close to 500,000 in annual (billable) business for multiple forms of online marketing including SEM, online software and design.

I am currently a partner in a web design and marketing company in Las Vegas, my SEM clients are in constant communication with me, they view me as their marketing consultant. I am constantly looking at ways to increase their business online as well as create a better website and user interactivity without compromising their current rankings. Their business is my first concern... I am monitoring visitors, rankings as well as results on a regular business. You could stop me on the street and I will tell you exactly how any of my clients are doing online.

I never guarantee rankings, I guarantee results. I feel that anyone who "guarantees ranking" are just looking out for themselves and not their client. I receive constant referrals for SEM and other work from our current clients. My name, my business is their first thought when their business partners are looking for our services. I have clients that say my name constantly to their business partners, it's contagious and our phones ring...

My advice to anyone in this business is... Create results for your clients and in return you will create a partnership that leads you to more partners. Create results for yourself alone and expect to be alone.

[Runesmith]

I've been online with a self-built site for about three years, and in the last few months I've started to make a useful amount of money from online sales on top of what I sell the old-fashioned way. I promote my site whenever I'm anywhere with my stall, handing out cards with my URL to anyone who'll take them, and I think I've reached some critical point where people are beginning to notice it. (Touch silicon!) I have a real hope that eventually my virtual shop will be my main business, and I can make occasional outings with the stall just to keep in touch with my customers and advertise the site.

[ReadyCompanies]

very good discussion point

well since we relaunched our website www.ReadyCompanies.com in July this year i am proud to say that we have had on average at least 2 online enquiries daily.

we advertise the website in the daily newspapers, flyers, business cards and we are the first Company Secretarial Firm in Malaysia to actually accept payment by credit card.

it is going to be difficult - no doubt - but the more you spend time on the web forums the more you will learn and apply in your business.

And " the more you learn - the more you realise you really have so much more to learn"
also "the the sum total of the knowledge that we have is like drop in the ocean when compared to the sea of knowledge"

[kjohnson5576]

It took 10 months, but it's finally profitable. My site has been self sufficient, i.e. paying for itself since the third month in, and now it is paying a decent wage..not great, but decent. Word of Mouth keeps the business coming. I acutally have customers who ask if they can have cards to hand out to friends. I excel on service and based on some of the responses I get, I guess I'm one of the few web stores that does this.

[namita]

Well we have launched our hosting website and its been a month and we have made a few sales. I guess if you are genuine and offer reasonable price product/service, and keep upto to what you say, with correct marketing the online site should give results.

[market1]

I launched Viola Fair as a nonprofit art, art theory and literature site one year ago. A month later I began to experience dearth even greater than usual so I posted a donations page to at least help pay for hosting. Nada. So a couple of months later I began to develop internet commerce, to see if free enterprise could do better than begging in the manner of public funding. I emphasized content above selling, mixing it with research and resources to give the commercial portion of the site an educational feel as something of a guide. This earned next to nothing but more than public funding. I had to leave the site static for a few months during which visitation dropped by about half. (I was doing about 120 page views per day, up from about 90 when I first went online). Once I started back to work on the site about four months ago visitation immediately rose even stronger than before, about 160 page views per day. So I stopped begging altogether and began to emphasize commerce. About the same time one product began to meet the hosting fees, indeed, even better though not anywhere close enough to live on. It's odd because buyers are almost exclusively from the state in which the company is located. Meanwhile, nothing else is at all successful. Which is a drag, because working on the commercial aspects of the site have deprived me of the time needed to work on the art and literary portions for which the site was created in the first place. Relevant, naturally, is that I spend almost no money. So I'm left to discover devious ways to compete with those who've deep pockets. There are entire pages which exist for little more reason than to attract visitation. But I may have to leave the site static again soon, meaning visitation will drop. That's pretty frustrating after all the work one puts into it, and with so much yet to do.

Well, that's my experience. Cold reality!

Desperado (alias Larry) -

Viola Fair (http://www.violafair.com)

[jvn]

So, how many of you actually make money running your own web sites or doing web design type stuff? how feasible is it to make it on your own these days?

This really depends on your tallents and interests as much as anything else. For instance, my business has changed since the start. I lost money every month because costs of operation were too high for a changing market. This is partly because I lacked the knowledge to handle the back-end support and needed to rely on others. This was costly.

Revising my plan was essential to reach a positive cash flow. Even doing that, I found that my real interest was not in making a living at design or hosting. What I really wanted is the freedom of working "for myself" and not being tied down to a cubical chair for the rest of my working life. Once I better identified my goals it was easier to develop a plan to achieve them. Now I design and host only a few accounts which offset my expenses and bring in a little extra.

This does not mean that someone cannot make a good living with design and/or hosting. Many do. If it interests you, then begin part time and expand until it provides a full time income or plan to keep it as a part time extra income. Identify your goals, develop a plan, work your plan, then revise it as needed and when needed. Always keep your goals in sight to keep you on course.

Best Wishes

[redcircle]

So, how many of you actually make money running your own web sites or doing web design type stuff? how feasible is it to make it on your own these days?

Hrmm.. what do you mean by making money. Paying for the business and paying yourself? On average a business does not make a profit unitl 3-5 years of operation.

Personally I'm just doing it to make a lil extra money. I have not put any money into it except for my time and I'm making about $300-$700 a month. It all depends on how motivated I am. Like I said I just do this on the side so I still have another job.

[jhales]

i know this is an old topic, but i just wanted to thank people for sharing and at the same time bump this one back up to see if anyone would respond. it goes without saying that if you are talented and dedicated you can make some money from your web business. i am just wondering who is actually supporting themselves solely as webmasters (and related types of work)

[paulhiles]

i am just wondering who is actually supporting themselves solely as webmasters (and related types of work)
Hi Jared,

I support myself solely through the web design and development I do at Erimus.. although I must admit it's hard work sometimes, and my social life could be better.. it's more than recompensed by the satisfaction I get from 'being my own boss'.
And besides, if you saw the daily slog of commuters heading into London's capital you'd want to be doing something a bit different, that's for sure! :o)

Paul

[smakyyy]

Actually I currently make more money from google adsense program then i ever did before from stagnant sites- which i had not not used before- (i own a few domain names) i got a check for $485 from google :-)

[greeneagle]

redcircle said,

"Hrmm.. what do you mean by making money. Paying for the business and paying yourself? On average a business does not make a profit unitl 3-5 years of operation."
________________

Every aspect of this business is extremely competitive. Making it those 3-5 first years is the tough one. We ahve been in business 2 yrs full time now and it is a constant struggle. But we did manage double our revenue last year.

You have to be good enough to attract high end clients or you just can't keep up with the high overhead of new equipment, software, taxes etc, and pay yourself and that by itself cn take 3-5 years.

This business also takes 30-50% administrative time just to keep up and continually learn. In most cases you just can't justify charging a client for a lot of what you have to do. Better plan on 12-15 hr days for a good while.

My thoughts,
Ken

[voodooboy]

i know this is an old topic, but i just wanted to thank people for sharing and at the same time bump this one back up to see if anyone would respond. it goes without saying that if you are talented and dedicated you can make some money from your web business. i am just wondering who is actually supporting themselves solely as webmasters (and related types of work)

I can honestly say that I support my family as a Web Designer. I work for one company, as a Web Designer 8-5 and make enough to pay my bills and put my kids into a private school. I also have my own business as a web designer that brings in decent money for all the extras in life. Now I don't drive around in a Porsche or Ferrari or anything like that, and my house isn't a mansion. But my family is not wanting for anything. And that is the important thing.

The biggest question you need to answer is how badly do you want to make it as a designer? I have seen people muddle through this industry for years and get nowhere. And then I have seen people start out running and in less than two years, they have 5 employees, an office downtown and a slew of contracted sales people doing all the foot work.

It all depends on how badly you want it.

[jhales]

i have a job i like a lot. but,i have been working on web sites on the weekends to do something i enjoy, but also with the hopes of making a little money on the side. the reason i ask is that my fiance is going to graduate this may with a degree in graphic design. what i'd love to see happen is for her to be able to start her own design business. that way i have a job to support us if her buisness is slow at first, and i can help out whenever i have the time. it's encouraging to hear people say that they've been doing well on their own. hopefully, i can help her out and she can do well also.

[trsiyengar]

Mine is not a commercial website. Nor I can claim it is fully a religious one. It is the one giving the rational inner meaning behind Hinduism practices. For four full years Tripod hosted it, so no chance of my making money. After I registered my domain, I started putting PPC panel advts. In these two months of advt insertions, I got around fifty dollars; Yes, only fifty USD in total! Maybe, the revenue may grow, but it has a limitation.

I never spent a penny on search engine listings. Still I find top slot in many SEs, for different phrase combinations. This brings visitors to my site. But no money!

I spend around equal to US$40 per month for Domain charges, web hosting, Internet & Electricity etc. But the return? And now I added a PayPal/Ccard button, seeking voluntary support from the visitors, to support if only they find the contents are worthy to support. And now I should wait and watch, whether the money grows!!!!

As far the tax men concerned, they won't come near me! They know who I am and how much I have in my purse; once they are near me, poor chaps, they need to put a few cents into my kitty! I was waiting for these two months, just to see how much I earn through the advertisements. Hence the delay in posting this. I must be the lone person, not fearing the tax men! LOL):

Namasthe Everyone,
TRS Iyengar
www.trsiyengar.com
From the Land of Heritage & Himalaya!