Hello every one. I'm looking for advice to help me sort through some troubles with getting started. I've been browsing this forum for about five months trying to inspire myself. I love the honesty found here, it is refreshing.

Now on to my troubles. Although I do have a topic that keeps sticking in my mind, topic choice is still giving me a fit. See, I am not the kind of person who has ever been consumed by anything (sports, hobbies etc...). I'm kind of a jack of all trades, probably a little on the ADHD side. I'm always into something new.

Time and money are next on my list. Those two go together in my mind. I'm worried about investing in a project and having it fall to the wayside because I didn't have the time to follow though. I work 50-70 hours manual labor every week with out of town travel about 50% percent of the time. At home I have a wife and three active youngsters. When I'm not working there is always something on the agenda. But that is my whole reason for looking into building web sites. I want to provide for my family without missing out.

Some may think I am using every excuse I can think of to talk myself out of this. That is not the case. I'm looking for anyone who has overcome similar hurdles who can provide some insight. All advice is welcome. Thanks for looking.

Hi

First of all you're in the right place to get some good advice.

To address the issue of money. To get a domain name should cost about $10 per year and hosting $10 (or less) per month. So a budget of $150 / yr should easily get you up and running.

You can download free website templates, I would suggest trying oswd.org . This will save you both time and money as you will not need to spend too much time learning html and css and you will be able to concentrate on the website content.

You don't say if your travel entails staying out at hotels but if that is the case it may be worth investing in a cheap laptop so that you could use the evenings to work on the website. It may also be worth getting an MP3 recorder (or use your cellphone) so you could do some brainstorming while you are driving.


regards

Bob

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I'll attempt to offer assistance on this one. ADHD isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, you have a lot of things that you are thinking about but they're unproductively running around in your head. So, I'd first suggest that you take a moment to write down EVERY topic you could provide insight or advice on. Try to focus on the things that you are passionate about. For me, I'm always thinking/brainstorming situations so, in my head, I'm on fire but in all actuality I haven't physically done one single thing. I'm a sponge so I want to know a little about everything - Why? I don't know but I do.

Websites are about content, as I'm sure you have read. What information can you give others? What do you know that someone else needs/wants to know? Can you relay it in a way that people will understand? The next part is to pick the one topic out of your "jack of all trades" list that you enjoy talking about forever or that gives you pleasure teaching someone...kind of like being a consultant. Now, you've made a decision - YAY!! When ANY doubt on your topic comes up, put that thought down as "thing to do" for a possible future project as I'm sure it's not a bad thought, just a thought speaking out of turn .

I've read that those that write for a living struggle with other ideas or subjects popping up as well so you can get past this. I've also read and heard from motivational speakers that not being able to focus is about self discipline. You/We have to focus on something otherwise we get nothing done and our families pay the price for our lack of dedication. We wouldn't accept it from our kids, right? I mean when we ask that they pick up their toys but later we find that although they started picking up their toys they ended up finishing the finger painting which then lead to them asking for a cookie , we remind them of what they were suppose to be doing and explain that when they finish what we asked them to do - then we can get to the cookie conversation.

Hey, if you'd like, send us your list - in order of interest to you and I'm sure we can assist you with drilling down. As you know their are some smart cookies on here. Shame on you for quietly watching for 5 mths but CONGRATS on finally jumping in! See now you're actually "doing" something.

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