Am Torn: Going Full Time - Quit Freelancing Work or Make the Cash First

Cesare

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I work as a freelancer and make reasonably good money in the third world - about $700 a month. I also started my affiliate site in 2015 but have not been working on it as I should. I know it could make quite a lot if I gave it my all since the few periods I have worked on my site it has seen tremendous jumps in income.

I would like to go full time on the website but I am still not sure since the website makes about $100 to $150 a month currently which cannot sustain me. I have calculated that I would need about $2500 (about six months worth of expenses covered) to quit freelancing and go affiliate marketing full time. I currently have about $1000 saved up so far but am pretty good at holiday sales like Amazon Prime and Black Friday I typically make $1000 from such holidays.

Now the dilemma should I quit the freelancing thing and go full time with the $1000 and hope to increase the site earnings over two to three months or should I wait until I have the whole $2500 before I take the plunge. I believe I could have the $2500 by early next year but if I worked only on the site (and quit freelancing) starting immediately maybe I could get it to $500-$700 by years end.

Who has ever had this dilemma - what did you do?
 
You'll get varying answers based on how each person here would do/does/did it. You'll have to decide what fits best for your personality, then do that 100% until it's time for the next stage.

I just just made the jump to full time last week. I could have done it 2 years ago, but I didn't want to have a bunch of questions hanging over my head regarding future earnings and the stress that comes with it. After 3 years total, I was ready; thus, I went full time. Anything can happen still, but I'm in a much better place with stable (and increasing) income, a good amount of site authority, diversified revenue streams and traffic sources, a sizable savings, etc. And now I have enough experience that even if everything magically went to shit, I could do it all over again in a fraction of the time with enough money to sustain me.

My route was based on what I needed and who I am. So you need to figure that out for yourself and get it. Are you able to jump in all the way right now, do or die, and make it? If so, go for it. Or will the stresses of that type of lifestyle cloud your judgement and overcome you? Only you can decide. Think it over and be sure of your choice. Then go forth and destroy.
 
I'm not sure why you're assuming that you'll suddenly start putting in the work on your website if you've already admitted that you've been slacking off. Here's another option, work harder.

Keep doing the freelancing and then use your spare time to build your website up until it can sustain you.
 
@Cesare - what do you do on the weekends and in your "downtime"?

If it's not working on your site and you let family and friends distract you or you watch a ton of TV or do things that aren't considered "work" when you go full-time you'll start doing more of that than actually hustling on your site.

What you need to do is live and breath your site right now, grind on it at every waking moment for 1-3 months while you do your freelancing. If you give up in that time-frame, then that tells you that you aren't really serious about this site and it's more of a hobby. Turning a hobby into a serious income source will take a lot of drive, determination, and focus - if you lack any of those NOW you definitely will not magically gain these skills after you go full time.

How you spend your weekends and downtime when you are not freelancing is what you will be doing when you give up the freelance gigs. If it's working on your site great, but if you are slacking off now, you'll be slacking off even more.

First create discipline, focus, and set proper SMART goals, like @Concept eloquently lays out, to get to your destination.
 
Prentzz said:
I'm not sure why you're assuming that you'll suddenly start putting in the work on your website if you've already admitted that you've been slacking off. Here's another option, work harder.

Keep doing the freelancing and then use your spare time to build your website up until it can sustain you.
Click to expand...
I find that I slack off more when my attention is divided between the freelancing and the affiliate marketing. If I can only do one thing, I am certain that that one thing will explode.

CCarter said:
@Cesare - what do you do on the weekends and in your "downtime"?

If it's not working on your site and you let family and friends distract you or you watch a ton of TV or do things that aren't considered "work" when you go full-time you'll start doing more of that than actually hustling on your site.

What you need to do is live and breath your site right now, grind on it at every waking moment for 1-3 months while you do your freelancing. If you give up in that time-frame, then that tells you that you aren't really serious about this site and it's more of a hobby. Turning a hobby into a serious income source will take a lot of drive, determination, and focus - if you lack any of those NOW you definitely will not magically gain these skills after you go full time.

How you spend your weekends and downtime when you are not freelancing is what you will be doing when you give up the freelance gigs. If it's working on your site great, but if you are slacking off now, you'll be slacking off even more.

First create discipline, focus, and set proper SMART goals, like @Concept eloquently lays out, to get to your destination.
Click to expand...

Family are actually quite distracting for me at the moment, I have finally managed to cut off about 90 percent of TV and social media but I still have to work on family. They still distract me on my downtime - weekends and even weekdays.

I know I can give it my all I have done it, several times been guest posting and sending links requests but I may have to set goals and do the three months of going hard at it with no distractions. I will give it my all till end of year then I will have a better picture of whether its for me or not.

Sutra said:
You'll get varying answers based on how each person here would do/does/did it. You'll have to decide what fits best for your personality, then do that 100% until it's time for the next stage.

I just just made the jump to full time last week. I could have done it 2 years ago, but I didn't want to have a bunch of questions hanging over my head regarding future earnings and the stress that comes with it. After 3 years total, I was ready; thus, I went full time. Anything can happen still, but I'm in a much better place with stable (and increasing) income, a good amount of site authority, diversified revenue streams and traffic sources, a sizable savings, etc. And now I have enough experience that even if everything magically went to shit, I could do it all over again in a fraction of the time with enough money to sustain me.

My route was based on what I needed and who I am. So you need to figure that out for yourself and get it. Are you able to jump in all the way right now, do or die, and make it? If so, go for it. Or will the stresses of that type of lifestyle cloud your judgement and overcome you? Only you can decide. Think it over and be sure of your choice. Then go forth and destroy.
Click to expand...

I have been doing it for over two years so I know the ins and outs link building, SEO optimization, traffic leaking and am also earning, the only thing is I am still not sure if I can scale it when I go full time. I have decent site authority, as CC Carter says maybe its the lack of goal setting, got to cut back more on the slacking bit.
 
While I agree with the fellows above who say that you need to test your hardiness first, I'd also like to point out that you're doing a classic false dichotomy.

What I'm saying here isn't about your work ethic or anything like that, but just showing how many other options there truly are.

You're talking as if the options are:
  • Quit freelancing and work full time on the site
  • Work full time on freelancing till you have enough savings to float you
Those are two binary opposites on a scale that has a lot of gray area in-between those two extremes. Alternatively (including some options posted above), you could:
  • Cut freelancing down to 50% of your work time and use the other half on the site, while aggressively saving cash while you ramp up your site's earnings to match freelancing, then cut the other 50%.
  • Keep freelancing, maybe up it to 125% of your time and effort so you can earn extra cash to reinvest into your site so that someone else is doing the content and marketing.
  • Keep freelancing at 100% and bust ass in every other moment you get on tasks related to your site. Every single micro-task you complete is one you didn't have done before. Even one per night after freelancing would add up, especially if it's link related.
  • Quit freelancing and find a shitty job that provides enough income but keeps your energy levels free for you to grind on your site when you get home. Even better if you can find a job at a computer that provides time for you to bang out content in between work tasks.
  • Open up a joint venture to someone. Give them 50% equity to ramp up the foundation you've created, with the agreement that you'll join them at a certain point of income, or an agreement that you'll sell the site at a certain valuation point.
We could keep going. There's a lot of ways you could play this out that don't risk your lifestyle or put you in a place where you're stressing later.
 
Do you know that you can pay for an email marketing service (mailchimp...) set it up on a free sub domain, and still be able to make money for like $300 or less of expenses for a year.

Text editor (free): Open Office.
Photo editor (free): Gimp
Link tracker (free): Link Track
Affiliate platforms: Too many to list them here.
Article sources(free): Easybib
Images(free): Pexels...

You just need to use your brain.
 
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Ryuzaki said:
While I agree with the fellows above who say that you need to test your hardiness first, I'd also like to point out that you're doing a classic false dichotomy.

What I'm saying here isn't about your work ethic or anything like that, but just showing how many other options there truly are.

You're talking as if the options are:
  • Quit freelancing and work full time on the site
  • Work full time on freelancing till you have enough savings to float you
Those are two binary opposites on a scale that has a lot of gray area in-between those two extremes. Alternatively (including some options posted above), you could:
  • Cut freelancing down to 50% of your work time and use the other half on the site, while aggressively saving cash while you ramp up your site's earnings to match freelancing, then cut the other 50%.
  • Keep freelancing, maybe up it to 125% of your time and effort so you can earn extra cash to reinvest into your site so that someone else is doing the content and marketing.
  • Keep freelancing at 100% and bust ass in every other moment you get on tasks related to your site. Every single micro-task you complete is one you didn't have done before. Even one per night after freelancing would add up, especially if it's link related.
  • Quit freelancing and find a shitty job that provides enough income but keeps your energy levels free for you to grind on your site when you get home. Even better if you can find a job at a computer that provides time for you to bang out content in between work tasks.
  • Open up a joint venture to someone. Give them 50% equity to ramp up the foundation you've created, with the agreement that you'll join them at a certain point of income, or an agreement that you'll sell the site at a certain valuation point.
We could keep going. There's a lot of ways you could play this out that don't risk your lifestyle or put you in a place where you're stressing later.
Click to expand...
Cheers Ryuzaki I have been doing like 80 percent freelancing and about 20 percent of the site but feeling that maybe I am not doing enough, I would have preferred it be the other way round but it is not. But I like your suggestions, I have at onetime or another jumped from one to another of the options you have given, I think I will just have to take one option and stick to it until I have enough to go full time
 
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