The Independent Webmaster

• Pg 1 - How To Become A Webmaster – First Steps
• Pg 2 - What Kind Of Webmaster Are You?
• Pg 3 - The Independent Webmaster

While you can certainly gain a sense of independence through contract work, you’re still committed to other people. In some cases, to people who should be committed. One of the ways to escape being tied down to clients is to go out and try to make a go of it as an independent website owner. There are two fundamental ways you can go with this if you intend to generate revenue. You can either sell products and services or you can provide content that will in turn generate advertising money from those selling products and services. All of the various business models out on the web boil down to some iteration of each of these scenarios. My personal favourite is that of the content provider. If you have experience in sales or you have a unique product or service that you want to sell then you should probably look at the website that sells. Providing content essentially boils down to writing. If you’re not a writer or you just don’t enjoy writing, this might not be a great road to go down unless you’re prepared to do some outsourcing. In any case, you’ll have a blog and a hosting package lines up already at this point. That’s a great start so far. You’ll have tried your hand at customizing the look and feel, writing some basic content and hopefully will have covered some basic log analyzing. With your newly found narrow scope, basic web skill set and a heart full of inspiration, you’ve now taken your first steps. Just remember, there’s no need to delay the first steps. Dive in headfirst.