There is no question that I have a passion for blogging and all things related to the Interweb – writing code, sharing knowledge, helping people, and building relationships.
The ideal that many of us strive for is to find work that we love while still being able to provide for ourselves and loved ones. Shortly after I began blogging, I have had the desire to see this passion become that work that I love to do and be able to provide for my family.
But at what cost does one pursue their passion?
With a full-time day job being balanced with three blogs and countless other side projects, there have been sacrifices made. Sacrifices by my family. Sacrifices by me. There has been some degree of success, building up to the point where my blogs earned nearly $10,000 in 2008, but it has certainly been a difficult road.
As much as I have tried to keep everything balanced, I have failed.
The late nights spent working on the blogs and various projects have been having a negative impact on my family.
So what does this mean?
Right now this means that I need to take a step back and focus on my family and life away from the Interweb. There is no timetable on how long I will be away but right now the cost of pursuing my passion is too high for me to continue on this path.
This doesn’t mean that I will stop pursuing work that I love, or that I will completely unplug. While I understand that stepping away will make it more difficult to build on what has been started here, this is something that I have to do.
Knowing all of you, I am confident that you will understand.
Before I go, I’d just like to say thank you to each and every one of you. The interactions that we have shared is what has made it so much fun to pursue this passion and that is something I truly cherish.
Thank you!
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Derek: I know you won’t be gone forever but you will be missed. Congrats on making that kind of cash through your blogs but it’s refreshing to hear that it’s not as important as your family.
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Tyler, thank you. As we move forward, I am confident that I will find a way to work more efficiently and achieve that balance that works for me and my family.
And let’s not forget about that massive commute that you have with your job too. I still can’t believe how you do it.
This post echoes a sentiment that I expressed in Trading Dollars for Hours. At some point, you have to step back and reflect on what is more important to you. Success takes time, but you also want to cherish the time you have.
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Yes, the commute can be a drain and is certainly part of my motivation towards finding alternate means of providing for my family.
By taking a step back, I am expecting to learn which activities contribute the most to achieving the success that I desire and focusing my efforts on those activities.
Thanks Michael.
As you get older, you’ll never look back on life and regret choosing to spend more time with your family.
Great choice.
Thanks Ryan, I appreciate your support.
I was going to write a new comment, but then I realized that Ryan said it perfectly. Take your time Derek. I’m just sad that I haven’t been here for a full month yet and you’re already leaving
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Jesse, thanks for understanding. BTW, nice change on the avatar – I’m sure there is an interesting story or two behind that picture, lol.
We should be thanking you, Derek, not the other way around. You have brought some great tips and posts and I love coming here to see what you have been doing.
Enjoy your time away and we hope to see you again soon.
Neil, I appreciate the feedback and it has been a pleasure having you become a part of the community.
It’s understandable. I’d recommend sizing down what you do, and concentrate on what brings in the revenue. While there are benefits to each project, such as this blog which builds new relationships, opens up new projects, etc, it sounds like you don’t have the bandwidth to do it. Perhaps if the money making portion of your internet work was making enough to be full time, you could come back to this blog.
I’ve drastically cut down the amount of posts on my own personal blog for this very reason.
Dave, as I move forward I believe this is exactly what I will need to do. The important thing for me to do is to determine which activities and vehicles put me in the best position to achieve my goals.
Thanks.
I hope you find a happy medium for everything. See ya around, Derek! You know where you can find me
Thanks Andrea, I appreciate the support and the conversations that we have shared – not to mention all of the time that I spent trying to beat your high score in the highly addictive game you shared on your blog.
You will figure it out, man. You will.
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Thanks Kelvin, that means a great deal.
Hey Derek,
I understand. Life is all about balance. I admire that you are putting your family first. The internet and blogging will always be here, but your kids are only kids for a short while. It’s important to live and enjoy life… you can always work tomorrow!
~ Steve, the trade show displays guru
PS. I hope your “break” isn’t too long, and that you can at least come back “part time” pretty soon.
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Steve, thanks for the support and understanding. Feel free to periodically send me emails with your creative signatures, as those will be missed.
Prioritizing is one of the greatest skills we each must develop and it is obvious your priorities are in the right order for you and your family.
While you’re focusing on other aspects of your life we’ll keep figuring out how to make blogging replace jobs so you can stop commuting and have more time for family and writing.
Eventually blog readers will realize the blogger is worthy of his pay.
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Thank you, your support and feedback is appreciated. Be sure to let me know if you figure that out!
While I’m sorry to see you won’t be blogging as often, I completely understand the need to have balance and prioritize what matters. I hope you enjoy the additional time with your family, and that we’ll see you in the blogosphere again soon. Maybe you can make blogging a family activity in the future.
Dina, thanks for stopping by and sharing your support. It would be great to see blogging become a family activity – my kids have already expressed an interest and already have their domain names, lol. I’ve tried to get my wife involved but she does not share that enthusiasm unfortunately.
Derek I understand your decision and respect it. You’ll be missed bro and I’m sure you’ll be back full time soon enough.
Thanks for all the information you’ve shared and the personal help you’ve given. You didn’t fail, being a family man is hard work, which is why people often choose not to do it. Congrats on your decision; your fam is worth it
Let me know if I can ever return the favors.
Thanks Jayson. It has been a pleasure being able to share with everyone and offer help to people directly that have contacted me. That is one of the things that I will miss the most.
I know this is a hard decision for you, Derek. Good for you for choosing to put your family first. I, for one, really respect that. I know that great things are in store for you!
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Lorna, you are right that it is going to be hard to step back from something that I love but at the same time it is easy to step towards something that I love even more.
It has been a pleasure working with you at Sparkplugging and getting to know you – and look forward to more interaction in the future.
You gotta do what you gotta do. Wish you luck and happiness, Derek, and hope you do well in whatever you plan on doing.
And if you come back after eating up all these nice goodbyes from everyone here, you are going to be in big trouble.
Lol, I actually gave a good deal of thought on whether I should post anything or not. But I didn’t want to simply cease posting without some form of communication to everyone that holds a special place to me.
The support that everyone has shared has been amazing.
I think all of us Semmler fans agree that Derek is the nicest guy on the internet. Comments that would have sent me fuming expletives have brought out only kindness and solutions from him.
I have modeled the way I blog after many of Derek’s inventions. I have found the career of blogging to be maddening at times but I have also found from Derek’s example that there are smart shortcuts one can develop.
I’ve been blogging with Derek for about 2 years and it has been an honor. May this only be a time of understanding what the balance is. Derek, you are truly great.
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Damien, thank you for the extremely kind words. It has been a true pleasure getting to know you over these last couple of years and even though we have never formally met, I consider you to be a friend.
You have taught me a great number of things and I appreciate the opportunities we have had to share knowledge with one another.
Thanks for everything Damien.
You are quite right!
Family is very important!
We will be here, when you come!
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Thanks, I appreciate the support.
I have learned a great deal from your posts and have always enjoyed the exchange of views. I understand your need to step back a bit but just need to say that I shall miss your posts and banter. Have a great time with whatever it is that you will now do.
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Nicole, thanks for the note. It is great to know that some of the information that I have shared has been helpful.
I have great respect for you for doing this. Good luck with everything!
Thanks, I appreciate the note.
It’s good to know that you have your priorities straight, but you’re contributions will greatly missed and it will feel as if there is a hole in the blogosphere. I can only hope that this post which reads like a goodbye is really just saying that things will be moving at a bit slower pace than they have in recent times and/or a bit of a “blog vacation” is in effect.
It’s been fun being a part of the community here and I’ve learned a lot from what you have had to say. I will continue to be subscribed to the RSS feed so as to not miss anything upon your return.
As always, if there is anything I can do to help you out with your sites in the meantime, don’t be afraid to ask.
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Nick, thank you for being one of the leaders of the community and for everything that you have contributed. While this might read like a goodbye, I too am hoping it will not be permanent but right now I just don’t know and don’t want to promise anything.
Your support is truly appreciated!
It’s great that you came to this conclusion as early as you did. 3 blogs and a full time job, not counting other projects is a short way to becoming a workaholic and we all know how that might end …
Take a break, enjoy life. Love your family – focus on the important things in life.
Thanks Mark. That is very close to the truth, as I was working far too much – work all day, come home and spend a few hours with the family and then work all night.
Right now I am scaling back and trying to put my family before all of the work, while also taking inventory of which of those work activities are truly important and were adding value.
An Internet business is not as easy as the gurus said. I recently read that less than 5% make any money in their first two years. Yet it takes so much time. I don’t have another job, but have worked 60 hour weeks on my Internet business for close to two years.
By the way, I have listed this blog as a dofollow blog and send a few readers your way. I’ve linked to the page above.
I’m in the process of updating the rankings and providing a bit of information about each site. Updates should be up by Wednesday. Let me know if you’d like to change yours.
Warmly,
Linda P. Morton
It certainly is not easy to make money, and while I was able to generate an income from the blogs it was not enough to provide for my family.
There have been weeks where I have worked the 40+ hours at the day job and then come home and work 50-60+ hours on side projects. That might sound like a lot, but it doesn’t even feel like work to me. The bad part of that is that it takes away from my family and that is what I was losing sight of.
I know that having an online business can be tough on a family – just ask my wife and she will tell you the effect that my business has had on the family – and I am sure she will say that it isn’t all positive.
But, for myself, the chance to pursue my passion and have some time with my kids, it is worth some of the negative consequences.
I just hope my kids see it the same way once they are grown up.
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Marc, thanks for sharing your experience.
$10,000 can never buy or replace the time spent with family and most importantly, getting to see your kids grow up. Before you know it they are making their own way and you can’t turn the clock back.
Missing you already!
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Thanks Steve!
It’s sad that we have to make a choice between our work and our family … In a perfect world one would never have to sacrifice one for the other. In our world – it’s sometimes necessary, especially with the financial crisis going on …
Anyway, I hope you are aware of this and will make an informed choice
I don’t really view it as making a choice between one or the other, but I need to take the time to learn how to manage a better balance between my work and my family.
Thanks for the feedback, I am confident that everything will work out for the best.
It’s sad at the time but will reap happiness in the long run.
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I wish you the best of luck Derek. Get everything in order and then come back strong. We’ll be waiting.
Thanks Chris, that means a great deal.
Keeping priorities in line is very important, and family responsibilities should always come before computer activity.
I think it was a bit more than just “computer activity” for Derek. He has a thriving community of readers and actually makes money from blogging.
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Steve is correct that it was a bit more than just computer activity, however there were plenty of tasks that I was spending considerable time performing that weren’t really adding to the efforts of building an income from the Interweb. It is those tasks that I need to eliminate and then I might be able to balance things better.
Well, I started blogging just to keep my sanity. I don’t sell anything and am not into internet marketing. So it remains something of a hobby that I am passionate about. The occasional content development I do is hardly going to make huge demands on my time. So I still love to blog and its no pressure yet.
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Hope you can get back to blogging as I do enjoy reading what you have to say. Enjoy your break.
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Thanks for the feedback and support!
It’s always a hard thing to do. Sometimes business gets in the way and you can almost see the goal but you still have that family to take care of and means the world to you. I think if you’re truly lucky, you can split both of these equally.
The balance between work and family is critical, while it won’t always be perfectly in tune and balanced, it is important to keep them as close as possible. For me right now, that equation had become too far out of balance on the side of work.
It’s a very hard thing to do – balance family life with the interweb. Good luck and i can’t wait till you come back to blogging!
Thanks for the support.
I agree with you completely. I am working 40+ hours a week and trying to balance working on my blog, school and my family. It’s really tough to find that balance in life especially when you enjoy writing a blog. As you are doing, sometimes your family has to come first as life is only so long.
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Patrick, you are absolutely correct – for too long I had been putting all of my work ahead of time with my family and right now I need to adjust that imbalance.
I hope these pages don’t just turn into a page from spam comments now derek may not be frequenting very often
Neil, I have noticed a recent surge in spam comments and I am still trying to keep them off the site. I’m still receiving email notifications whenever there is a comment and I try to remove them as soon as possible if they are just spam.
Not been around for a while, things kinda weren’t the same once Derek’s posts dropped off.
How are things Derek?
Things have been okay; have had some interesting experiences (some good and some not so good) but stepping away was certainly the right thing for me.
They won’t. We’ll let Derek know if we see them before he does.
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..and also a few of you chaps trying to emulate my success and follow my links – lol
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Family comes first no matter what. You won’t regret it though. You got great courage bro. God bless
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Thanks for all the posts Derek, they will be missed. I had to do the same thing with my blog. Although I enjoy blogging, I need to focus my time on family and supporting my career. That’s why I plan to do another block that shows off my abilities since that will support my career.
Hi Derek, it’s great that you’ve decided to slow things down a little to refocus. I think guys tend to work so hard until we forget who and what we’re working for sometimes. However, have you considered outsourcing some of your work?
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I am here for the first time. However I see that you have been quite successful at wht you have been doing. 10,000 by sure is no easy work.
However balancing work with family was always going to be helpful.Like they say ” too much of anything is bad”
While your decision to step back is truly personal, I hope you reconsider it sooner than later to have a healthy mix of both.With blogging I imagine it is easier said than done.
But your strength seems to be your dedication. Even while you consider a break you have been meticulous enough to respond to each one personally.
No wonder you need a break!
Good luck!
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Great post! I’ve bookmarked your blog. Hope we can swap links.
Why can’t I open your rss feed? No post is showing.
Best Regards!
Ginj
seems like a good choice but you should be able to balance both, don’t totally give up on the blog just cut back
Hi Derek you are making the right decision family always has to come first, the end of the day that’s what all the hard work is for to better their lives.
When and if you find that healthy balance between family life and blogging and decide to start posting again, your readers will all be back because you have provided us all with great inspiration.
Khaled
You work too hard!! and you sound like you care about your family a lot!!!
Ahh, so that explains why there has been a wider margin in the dates between your posts. If you need to take a break, go ahead. Family is one of the most important things in this world, and it should certainly be focused on.
Derek
I totally sympathise with your issue! There just is not enough hours in the day!
I really wish you success in your online ventures as I am sure one you can earn enough from online you will have more time to do the things you love!
Hi Derek,
There’s no doubt about it blogging takes up your time, and it’s not an easy thing to keep doing at times.
I wish you all the very best as your work on your family life, after all nothing else really matters at the end of the day! You will be missed, but hope to see you around in the coming days
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I salute you for making the wise decision to choose family above everything else.
I know things will fall into place for you. Just hang in there.
Chris
Hi,
I have read it on OySite.com promotional content that its very easy to make money on web.Thet are providing some tools.But my personal experience says it is no way easy,i never earned any money from my blog in last 5 years.Even my site is not generating hansome dollars.I dont know how to start with all this.please help if you can
While all this is correct, we live in difficult times. At least economically. Sometimes we need to postpone focusing on passion, family and other important things in life, just to earn enough to pay the rent. For those of you that are in this situation (like me) – don’t give up! Work hard, educate yourself and once again, work hard. Better times will come!
well done man, you have done really great and we are proud of you.
you showed some great tips on posts
keep up the good work and always try for the best
i can certainly empathize with you. It’s a tough job but it is also quite fulfilling.
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I can relate…it’s wicked hard to balance family, work, pleasure…take your time and enjoy the fam!!!
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