Webmasters in the industry 5 years plus: Poll
 

If you've been in the industry for over 5 years, quick question for you. Do you put as much, more or less effort into your business currently as you did 5 years ago?

More now.

Less because alot of the grunt work was already done and now is more maintenance

More now to be honest. I'm hoping to break the cycle in a few years though.

Has to be more. I used to work for myself, now I have customers I have to be concerned with.

Interesting results so far. We, sponsor programs, often think we have to do more work for the webmaster than we used to, but maybe that's b/c the webmaster has to do more than they used to.

~Alli

I think the work is different now. Five years ago I was learning the industry. Four years ago I was helping build EGC. So there was a lot of grunt work as one person said, but keeping sales going, maintenance, etc has never gone away.

There is always the same amount of work if not more if you want to succeed. It's just the different forms of work have changed over the years.

I'm sure most people spend less time to submitting to TGPs today, but I bet there is more time spent trying to optimize campaigns than five years ago.

Tricky question.

I would say more now ONLY because I am investing in larger new projects, separate from those I was doing 5 years ago.

On my main adult ventures, I invest much LESS time on the whole now, then 5, or even 1 or 2 years ago. More of it is streamlined, automated through scripts, and I have found a formula more a less to keep the money rolling. i.e. less experimentation.

:2 cents:

i work less now, but that's because they turn the lights off early at the home...

definitely more

I have way more branches on the tree than I did when I started

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more time now adays. If could turn back the clocks.

i do alot more now with my personal stuff aside from the program. a lot more effort. its paying off.

i started last month, gonna be rich!!!

Definitely a lot more now. About 2 years ago was nice and easy and almost entirely automated. Now, i'm lucky if I just do 12 hours a day.
WG

NICE Cigar :Graucho

Allison,

I would have liked to see one more option: Smarter effort :thumbsup

4 years... Much less now!

I picked "less effort" because adult is a very small part of business.

However, based on what I've seen if I was doing adult 100% I'd be putting in a lot more effort - especially compared to the golden days in the late 90's and 2000-2001 where a simple AltaVista then Yahoo then DMOZ/AOL listing could easily bring in $1000's a day.

mucho mas

more now

My personal stuff (as a webmaster) - takes way more effort to make the same and on somethings less income than it did 5 years ago because the dynamics of what I did then weren't working as well anymore so I had to modify, the adult business changed, there is more competition, niches are diluted, there are different channels of competition too now and this is, in my opinion would be the reason for it.

I probably work about the same amount, but focus my efforts on different things than I did five years ago. While I know more now and am more efficient, that skill & knowledge would have been a lot more profitable to me five-eight years ago.

Sometimes it's like running to stand still.

More for sure

More, since less can become dangerous pretty fast in an industry moving and changing at incredible speed

a lot more nowdays back then I was just a free site guy and I made tgps and traffic trades daily but now I run a lot of paysites and deal with a lot more work daily..

Agreed, although I hope a lot of that goes without saying. Now the next question is if all the extra effort is paying off or just to stay in the game.

~Alli

Always more. You guys know how it is. Once you get one aspect mastered and are able to free up an hour or so of time...you must fit in something else into that free time. I can't stand to not work more hours. Every moment spent working is a moment spent exponentially increasing income. At least for me.

I have to agree with the majority on this one. More.

much less

It's a tough call but I said more.
:winkwink:

I put a lot more effort into my business than I did 5 years ago. But that's not to say I slacked off back then. My responsibilities and my earnings are much higher now.

Five years ago : More work now.

Ten Years ago: FAR more work now.

As much or more.... work smarter not harder :)

I'm a workaholic anyway, but it definitely takes more effort and more out-of-the-box effort to make the same dough. Still beats the magazine biz.

much more...cuz i know more

This business allowed me to retire from my old job. The idea wasn't to create a new one, it was to work my way OUT of one.

So I said less. Otherwise what's the point?

I've been doing this since 1999. It's now 10:40pm PST and I'm still at it - since 8am this morning.

Been sitting at my desk since early 1997. I keep thinking the weekend is coming up soon, but it never does.

8 months shy of 5 years, but less work now.

Working smarter. More diversified.

so much more .. probably online 14 hours a day min these days .. its all for the affiliates :)

I picked less, but I don't really know if it is less or just more fun now.
Fortunately the gallery days are behind me now, I hated making and submitting galleries...

I work less than when I started. My life off the net situation is way different or I'd probably work the same.

much less..but maybe smarter...the learning curve was hard and passionating -18 hours days for 3 years.
Now since 2 years I reap the rewards.
Just been spending the afternoon at a deserted beach...the white immaculate sand was making creaking sounds...a little bit like fresh snow...

Far more

more but different work no gruntwork

I do just as much only I do it smarter... I taught myself PHP/MYSQL and basic design + HTML and CSS.. So before I would hand create shit and now I just put it into a DB and do some htaccess tricks to have the server do shit in real time.

More now

Definitely more now.

I've been at this for over 13 years now - and I would say more effort. What tends to happen after a while is that if you do not keep yourself fresh and out there - your easily forgotten and shadowed by those trying to make a name for themselves. Since the industry turn-over is high and new webmasters show up - your name, reputation and business is "new" to many.