I've reached it.

[Chris]

I think I've reached my limit as far as websites go. I don't think I'll be making any more other than fully automated ones. I instead plan to focus on improving some of my current sites. Well, I guess that isn't entirely true, I do have plans for one more ecommerce site, but otherwise, I'm at my limit I think.

[Generalissimo]

As long as you don't add any more book to your literature site I'm happy, you've got enough, add any more and I'm not sure I'll be able to compete :p

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Chris

That is quite a stateent!

Do you mean in terms of the workload / admin you can handle or just that you have run out of enthusiasm for creating new sites?

[piniyini]

Why not employ someone and get them to do most of the work?

[Chris]

As long as you don't add any more book to your literature site I'm happy, you've got enough, add any more and I'm not sure I'll be able to compete :p
Too bad for you, I plan a major expansion this summer, it'll include nearly 700 books, but also additional features as well. My goal for next school year is 500,000 page views a day with that site.



Do you mean in terms of the workload / admin you can handle or just that you have run out of enthusiasm for creating new sites?

workload.

[r2d2]

Why not employ someone and get them to do most of the work?

I would do this, especially for the eCommerce sites. Never be able to grow otherwise. Plus you could take holidays then.

[Mike]

Too bad for you, I plan a major expansion this summer, it'll include nearly 700 books, but also additional features as well. My goal for next school year is 500,000 page views a day with that site.


Woah, unlucky Sean...

I'm a bit surprised at what you have said Chris... I thought you would carry on making sites that don't require any work, or is that what you meant by automated? I thought you would just carry on making big content sites..

[moonshield]

That is quite an expansion. Best of luck to you.

[Chris]

Yes. I think I'm on a list at Linkshare where every time a new merchant adds datafeed capability they email me, it then takes me 15 minutes or so to make a site for that feed. So I'm going to continue to do that. I am also still working on an automated system to handle Befree & CJ feeds. I also have plans to use my feed database to make some other service oriented sites. Those are all automated though.

What I'm not going to do is make any more big content sites, and instead focus on what I have currently.

I'm long past the point where I can check the stats of all my sites daily, some don't even get monthly checkups. So I'm just going to focus on improving my existing sites. I think that my portfolio is diverse enough so there isn't really much benefit for making new ones.

[AndyH]

I am quickly approching the same point as far as workload goes.

I even dropped out of school to do this full time. My plan is to find one or two people which I can employ and put in control of up keep and development on a site each.

[James]

Chris, how many hours per day/week would you ballpark you spend on the sites you have?

[Generalissimo]

Too bad for you, I plan a major expansion this summer, it'll include nearly 700 books, but also additional features as well. My goal for next school year is 500,000 page views a day with that site.


Well at least I can get my community to help me add books, thats should speed up my catch-up, plus I also have some cool features you don't currently have. :cool:

[ozgression]

Chris, how many static content sites do you currently have?

[Chris]

I guess like 14 or 15.

[Snowballer]

hehe, funny thread you started.

that's it, i've had enough!

I can see what your saying though, why create content sites when you can crank your other ones out in 15 minutes? If you ever get bored of it, you can always take your word back hehe.


You don't seem to want to hire out for some reason do you? I'm the same way, I like to keep things a 1-man shop. Things seem to get more complicated with employees, although you can try it out *shrugs*?

[Chris]

I hire people sometimes. But in general I like to keep control over everything.

[Snowballer]

I see, so your contract out, but nothing permanent.

[Generalissimo]

Do you hire people online (as in through the internet, using IM's, forums, etc) or offline to work in your location or at their home locally?

[thebillionaire]

Im not gonna for the million small site techniques, instead im gonna make a few large content site

[Chris]

Most of the people I hire are online.

[chromate]

Concentrate on getting those new features online for your online lit site. Google's easily on your tail with regards to getting books online.

You say you're stretched to your capacity. How many hours do you actually work a day? Even though I'm basically living off my sites (with the odd freelance contract here and there) quite often I work zero hours a day because I feel demotivated. That's got to change!! :) Though I guess I do spend some time each day trying to work out some sort of ecommerce venture. But it never seems to work out.

[Chris]

I don't work alot each day, but I do other things that fill my time, things I am not going to sacrifice.

For instance, I like to garden. Thanks to my income I can afford to spend time working on my landscape. Would I stop working on my landscape if it meant I could do more website work? No. Working is not an end of itself, it is just a means to an end. The end in my case being having the freedom to garden.

[AndyH]

I don't work alot each day, but I do other things that fill my time, things I am not going to sacrifice.

For instance, I like to garden. Thanks to my income I can afford to spend time working on my landscape. Would I stop working on my landscape if it meant I could do more website work? No. Working is not an end of itself, it is just a means to an end. The end in my case being having the freedom to garden.
You mean gardening out the back of your castle ;).

[James]

Hey, that castle's price is going up because of the work and care he's putting into that garden.

...Park?

[chromate]

I don't think Chris actually has his castle yet does he? :) I seem to spend a lot of my time doing DIY around the house at the moment.

[r2d2]

I don't think Chris actually has his castle yet does he?

Sir Edward Coke declared back in 1623 that "a man's house is his castle" :) Can't be too many castles in America can there??

[James]

I think there are quite a few up here in BC, though. So maybe in places like Oregon, and well, obviously California there are a couple? Dunno about Michegan (I think that's what MI is, anyways, my American and Canadian geography skills suck).

[Chris]

No castle yet, but I do have a nice Tudor style house.

[moonshield]

Very nice. What do you do during the winter though? Do you have a greenhouse?

[Chris]

No, but I do have some grow lights in the basement.

Winter is the busy time with my ecommerce anyways, so it sort of works out.

[moonshield]

yes that is very fotunate. Do you grow native species or more exotic ones? What is the scale of your landscaping?

[Chris]

The scale? I live in the suburbs so its not a big lot.

I have expensive tastes. My most expensive flower was $200 (http://daylilyworld.com/director/purple_maze.htm). I basically don't have a budget for my garden stuff. If I like it, I get it. So its mostly more exotic things, but some native/common things can be nice looking too.

I don't have much of a budget for anything. I'm frugal in that I want to get the best deal, I'll look online, shop around, compare prices. For instance I'm getting brazillian cherry floors in my house. Its one of the most expensive types of hardwood and is 30% harder than oak, I shopped around for months trying to find the best deal. It would have been cheaper to put down laminate, or a cheaper wood, or carpet, or vinyl, but I wanted the brazillian cherry. In short, I buy alot of expensive things, but I try my hardest to save as much money as possible when doing it.

[chromate]

Brazilian cherry looks really nice. It pays to get a really hard wood anyway I think. My girlfriend's parents have a cheaper wood floor. It got dents in it from people in high heals walking over it at a party.

[MarkB]

I love a good hardwood floor, covered in rugs. Nice and homely (just like me :p).

[chromate]

Yeah, I have an old (about 90 years) oak floor in my front room with a rug over the middle bit :) Wooden floors are nice.

[mini]

I want to earn enough $$ so I have time to breed dogs :)

[Todd W]

The scale? I live in the suburbs so its not a big lot.

I have expensive tastes. My most expensive flower was $200 (http://daylilyworld.com/director/purple_maze.htm). I basically don't have a budget for my garden stuff. If I like it, I get it. So its mostly more exotic things, but some native/common things can be nice looking too.

I don't have much of a budget for anything. I'm frugal in that I want to get the best deal, I'll look online, shop around, compare prices. For instance I'm getting brazillian cherry floors in my house. Its one of the most expensive types of hardwood and is 30% harder than oak, I shopped around for months trying to find the best deal. It would have been cheaper to put down laminate, or a cheaper wood, or carpet, or vinyl, but I wanted the brazillian cherry. In short, I buy alot of expensive things, but I try my hardest to save as much money as possible when doing it.

Well Said! Good things cost money but there's nothing wrong with saving some money on them!