Wake Up Later, Advertising, and Projects-a-Plenty...

Wake Up Later, Advertising, and Projects-a-Plenty...
Written by Samuel in News

I am sometimes asked whether WakeUpLater.com earns any income, and whether I am pursuing any other online projects outside of freelancing. These are good questions considering this is a blog not only about web freelancing, but also about online income. So here are the answers:

Blog Advertising
Today, I finally added an advertising section, figuring it'd be nice to cover the dedicated server, broadband, giveaways, and the occasional website conference trip. Until now, I've used the occasional affiliate link and a direct ad sale or two when requested (just enough to cover the server and fuel my beef jerky habit). As for many of the other monetization methods, I usually find them too "unnatural" for my taste.

Online Projects
These are the projects for which I budget most of my caffeine. I'm an evangelist of the fact that if you have decent design/development/writing skills and experience, you should either get involved in someone's startup project or start your own. So I have a couple projects of my own that I'm always working on. If you're mildly interested, you can check out Sola Interactive for the latest (lack of) news.

The Long and Short
Although the above are enjoyable, it's still freelancing that pays the bills (although sometimes, I think that I only freelance so I can do the other stuff). Currently, I'm mostly working with Flash, .Net, and the occasional CSS design/buildout.

So now that I've explained my own "online income" a little, feel free to comment on your own ~~failed~~ successful online ventures (freelance or anything else).

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Community Comments

Jed Wood
1/13/2008 6:27:33 PM

For me the ideal balance is doing about 20 hours a week consulting, and spending the rest of the time working on my own endeavors. The challenge (at least in the Flash world) is finding clients that are willing to have you half-time. As you know, the usual request goes something like "we have an urgent need for Flash Actionscripter to finish a project that's behind schedule."

Fortunately the demand right now is such that there are lots of gigs to pick from, and it's not impossible to find a part-time arrangement.

The second-best alternative is to really crank on client work for a couple of months, and then take a little time off to focus on your own stuff. This also adds a sense of urgency to your own projects; having no immediate direct income from you work really forces you to spend your efforts wisely!

Samuel
1/13/2008 7:22:15 PM

@Jed - I agree with your assessment. I find the latter situation harder to find yourself in because once a client figures out that you're reliable and you do good work, they want to be able to get to you consistently (i.e. not taking 3 months off though that sounds wonderful :-).

Brett
1/13/2008 10:43:06 PM

Working full-time I generally still get in about 30+ hrs. each week freelancing. For me it equates to getting another full paycheck each month. Most of my work is on a regular basis with 3-4 different design firms that are doing all of the scouting for clients.

The hard part with doing that much freelance is that I don't have many opportunities to work on my own projects, which are the ones that are going to have a higher reward, if successful.

Once you get to a point where you have enough in coming work to last you awhile, be picky about the projects you take on and if you can, try to score a startup.. it's a great experience and you can learn a lot for your own projects.

Ben
1/15/2008 12:10:48 PM

I'm trying to grow my freelance development business this year, but I also run a few sites that generate a little passive income from ads. Freelance is what I really enjoy though, so if anyone needs some development done give me a shout! :)

Justin
1/22/2008 2:21:22 AM

Im just starting out and am trying to find out more about passive income. I am struggling to get off the ground, and would love it if someone could point me in the right direction. I have tried registering for a few freelance sites, and tried the posting forums for work, but none of its working out too well for me. So far all the projects that I get come from searching out local business owners and building startup sites for them. Like I said any help is appreciated.

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