Adult Netsurprise - Newbie Zone

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BONEFISH

Webmastering Full Time - Are YOU Ready?

by Kath

A lot of webmasters start out in the business as part-timers, hobbyists - or just folks who are messing around, trying to see how it all works. Not everyone is born with that drive and determination to succeed. Some seem born to this industry and appear to succeed at whatever they do. The rest of us have to work at it a little harder and the decision to do this "thing" full time or not can be troubling. It's definitely something to give LOTS of thought to before just diving in headfirst.

CAN YOU AFFORD TO?

This is usually the biggest question. But sometimes it's answered simply with "can you afford NOT to?" Some start in their own online business because they want to be their own boss. Some do it because of the stress and pressures that they experienced in their "day" jobs. Others do it to work from home, to get out of the "rat race" and spend more time with family and/or loved ones. There are many reasons but the big question is money. Will you be able to survive if you quit your day job and go at this full time? Do you have a nest egg set up to help get you through the learning curve and training period that all webmasters ultimately must go through?

One way to overcome the financial obstacle is to learn the business as a weekend webmaster. Learn all you can in your hours off from work - weekends, evenings, in the mornings before you leave for your job. Do you know HTML? Grab a good how-to book from your local bookstore or library. Read up on it. Or - just dive in headfirst and start learning it by doing it. A lot of HTML Editors can be great-tools for learning. As they "do the work" for you, they show you the source code for how the page was created. You can learn by doing and supplement what you don't understand by asking questions, reading how-to books and checking the source codes for other web pages.

IMPORTANT - do NOT steal HTML code from other webmasters' sites. However, viewing the source code for sites with tables, frames or other things you want to learn to create can be very educational. Understanding how it works and how it's used by seeing it in action is very helpful.

What about affiliates or sponsors - do you know who you want to use? Read other webmaster support boards for information on who to use, who pays the most and who pays when. Some sponsors pay per sign-up, others pay a percentage of sign-ups and lifetime recurring memberships - still others pay per-click or per-impression. Then you've got to learn about niches, simple marketing techniques, targeting your surfers and traffic - oh yeah, and where to GET traffic in the first place. A good webmaster resource and support center should be able to provide you with the information needed to get you started on the right track. A great place to start is the Adult Netsurprise Newbie Zone and Message Board. They also have 2 weekly live chats where you can ask questions and not be afraid of the answers. It's a newbie-friendly zone with other new webmasters mixed in with the veterans and gurus - an awesome combination for learning the tricks of the trade.

Once you get a handle on how things work, build your very own first website and start learning the basics, you can better decide if this is something you want - and can afford to - do on a full time basis.

ARE YOU DISCIPLINED ENOUGH?

Working from home is tough. There are so many temptations to just "fool around" and not get work done. A lot of people can't handle the distractions. A good way to test this is over a long 3-day weekend or vacation time. Can you commit to the time it takes to do things - and do them right? Can you handle the TV, the neighbors, the kids, the spouse and the distractions of the Internet itself? And what about the fridge: will you be able to face it 24/7 without diving in and pigging out? You don't want to outgrow your CyberErotica T-shirt in the first year!

Time management is something we all have to face - whether we work from home or in an office. Getting into a pattern, a schedule - something that suits your own personal body clock and family patterns is best. Up all night - sleep all day? If this is you, you just might be a TGP webmaster. A lot of them claim to be night owls. Like working a regular nine-to-five? That's possible too, although you might find that at least in the very beginning it requires more of a nine-to-nine or five-to-five to get your business off the ground.

Other distractions like chatrooms, ICQ and other personal contacts can be a problem if you aren't willing to limit yourself to certain time frames of chat time each day. I've known many webmasters who dropped off the map because they spent too much time bullshitting it in the chat room and not enough time building sites and tweaking traffic. Check out the events' schedule at your webmaster resource and plan your time wisely. Don't just "hang out" on ICQ as "available" or sit in chat from the moment you log-on. It's too easy to get caught up into the personal chatter and not get back to the work at hand. Don't get me wrong - chat rooms and ICQ are very valuable webmasters tools - IF they are used wisely.

WHAT'S YOUR ANTI-STRESS?

So you left your day job at the office to work from home. Think you've beaten the big old stress monster? No way! He's still there waiting for you when you least expect it. Because we work from home - and because lots of us roll out of bed in the morning and then work at our computers until someone nudges us on to bed in the wee hours of the next morning - webmasters are prone to burnout and stress. What's YOUR anti-stress method? Do you get up and take walks between hours online? Do you play with the kids or make time to have dinner with the wife? Do you take long, luxurious bubble baths at the end of a long day with a glass of wine and some good fiction? Are movies more your bag - do you take off on weekends to hit the cinema or go shopping at the mall? Whatever your anti-stress is - make sure you're aware of it and that you USE it. Whether it's a daily thing, weekend thing or once a week when you get time deal - just make sure you take time for you.

There's a lot to learn and a lot to do. There's also a lot to be gained. Becoming a full time webmaster - and your own boss - really IS worth the time, effort, planning and learning involved. Work hard, learn lots, make contact with other webmasters and don't throw in the towel. You'll get there! There's still lots of room for success on the Internet - we've really only barely begun to scratch the surface of opportunity. Good luck!