Comments on: Personal issues of running a web business

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:46:25 +0000

Oh I did not mean to be offensive if it sounded that way. I did not say its impossible to explain, I said its hard. I know lots of people much older than 40 who who will kick me butt in computing any time. Just not my folks;) And the suggestion about such people being old I never made.

Off to check lis’s blog now:)

By: lis

lis — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:55:44 +0000

Well some of us did grow before PC’s and internet and mobile phones but are getting ready to do exactly what Mike is doing! Its not impossible to teach the old new tricks – and I dont think 40mumble is old anyway!

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:30:09 +0000

Well this should be an entry in my blog. Sometimes Mike reading your blog is like reading my own thoughts.

It’s hard to explain to someone who grew up in times of no Internet or no PC (i.e. parents) how can one sit in front of the comp screen typing away and earn money from it. I havent quite work out yet how to prove them that it is actualy a worth while cause and not just a useless bumming around.
If you think about it it’s actualy not much different from any office job these days anyways. But most people’s thinking goes on the line that if you are staying at home all day you simply can’t be working!

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:20:30 +0000

It is good to hear other people having the same experience. The other point is unless people are really interested, I don’t bother telling them about my sites as I worry if they will click on my Adsense ads.

I have made a point of creating websites that don’t require customer support, so I am never get “busy” in the sense a traditional business is. I work as much or little as I like.

One option to get credibility I thought of would be to get published, but I can only see that as being a lot of work for little monetary return.

I think I will just forget about what other people think of me, as long as I am successful in my own mind.

I am fairly confident I will hit it big with at least a couple of my sites sometime in the future.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 22:59:10 +0000

I hear you. I always get the same flack from family. Friends usually understand though, being around the same age and understanding the whole concept of the internet better. It’s hard to convince people that without any 9-5 job, and without any office of your own that you are indeed sitting in front of your PC everyday and doing businesses, making money. I’ve run my own business making web sites/doing graphic design for the past five years and have made a decent living doing so. I take a few months off every year and travel, always visiting Japan of course. Yet I still have people asking when I’m gonna get a job. Bah.