do you find it stressful?

Nope. It's no different from any other job. It's what you make it.

what made you choose runing a site

I chose to do it rather than pay someone else. I took a look at what needed to be done and thought "I can learn to do this." I was correct, I learned... however I hadn't considered that 20 years later I'd still be doing it.

BTW - we do have a New to Web Development Forum [webmasterworld.com] where questions like this are often posted.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

I don't find it stressful because I try and structure what I do over a period of time. I actually set up TODO lists and I find they remove the stress factor because you can visually see yourself getting somewhere. If you are just blindly trying to accomplish a project without milestones you will end stressed because you do not know if you are accomplishing goals quick enough or if you are behind schedule.

If I do get behind I just add more time and accept that I was too slow, or my projected time was too optimistic. Either way, it's an error, but not one that needs to cause headaches. Just be rational and decide how to proceed.

I have been involved in web development since the mid 90's and back then it was something that interested me and I was keen to learn more about it. At first, it was using WYSIWYG editors to build pages, then hand coding html/css then a bit of server-side scripting and database interaction.

Was it worth it? Yes. If I had to pay someone for each of the sites I have owned over the years it would have cost 10's of thousands. That would have eaten into potential earning or resale value.

Mack.

I have a background in technical theater as a scenic and lighting designer. As I was exiting that field, I felt web design was a good creative outlet with potential income. I admit, I do not always enjoy the tedious/mundane work such as updating software on ecommerce sites I maintain, but that is part of the job. One big advantage: it is cleaner work - no splinters or paint under my nails :)

I chose to do this for several reasons:
-at the time (early 2000s) finding a job was not easy for me
-I was fascinated by this new global medium where geographical borders were irrelevant and the possibility of catering to a global audience
-the good pay
-the freedom working for yourself on the web gives you

Trying to cope with the feeling of being somewhat disconnected, or isolated, as the OP says, has been a constant challenge. I sometimes remember what it was like having a regular job, coworkers. That was nice too, but it is also true that we tend to only remember the good things. I try to compensate by taking mountain trips with a group of friends, going out, etc.

Back to the OP.

Why?

#1 I wanted to.

Stressful?

#2 No, accomplished what I set out to do. .... back in 1996. Still doing it because of (see #1).

The web can be many things, it can even be a way of making a living. That last part can give ulcers. Been there, still doing it. (sigh) On the other hand, why I started still remains the driving force BUT over the years, have diversified efforts so that the WEB was not my SOLE income/revenue generation and that leap of commonsense is something the majority of webmasters can't make as they are too focused on the WEB instead of REAL LIFE and ECONOMICS and (ahem) CAPITALISM. You can build the most exciting website known to the human race but it is, after all, merely electrons on a wire spun off spinning rust or some Cloud you don't even control. BUILD something concrete, too.

Self-employment comes with its own set of challenges, like staying motivated and productive without the external pressure of a boss, manager or team members, diversifying your income to reduce financial risk, compensating for a lack of social interaction, and, as you say, other people telling you you have it easy ;-)

I do find it rather stressful, not being as organized as some of the others here, but certainly less so than working for the man, which I've never been able to keep up for long, and I'm confident there's room for improvement in this regard. And on the upside, I have more freedom to balance out the stressful moments by exercising or just going for a walk whenever I like, visiting friends and family, spontaneous vacations, and so forth. It's not easy but it has many benefits, and I think it matches my personality. It's a bit of a chicken and egg type of story: I'm not sure if I chose the job because it suits me or I've grown to suit the job, having started building websites when I was about 14 (now 32).

Consider talking to a coach or psychologist if you feel like you're getting stuck in or burning out from the stresses of your self-employment. It's better to recognize and prevent burning out at an early stage than having to crawl out of that mess, I can tell you that :-)

For me, it evolved. I haven't felt stress since I left the corporate world.

If you take time to build a good plan, set a realistic time line and have a contingency plan (just in case) there is no reason for stress.

Started running my first website due to many reasons:

- Wanted to learn some more
- I was coding (desktop), so this was a natural step
- Sounded good for my CV
- Independence of projects

My first website was "mine", personal work to share lots of my pictures while traveling. There were lots of tools available but something was evident to me very quickly: speed, most things online were slow as hell, so I focused on making my website fast. It was an ugly duck, and it was "ugly" for years. Ugly was subjective at the time (1998) because many designs were pretty but silly, mine was simple, functional, fast, people clicked... I was told to make a redesign to make it look pretty, I did but ended up going back to the ugly duck. And that's how I discovered the interface design, UX... it's a whole new universe and still is. I couldn't stop there.

Worked on a big media company and watched new projects failing to get new visitors. Then I discovered the importance of UX and also the content, but at that time it was more about interface (the company generated tons of original good content) so I ended up playing with the other factors. Learned a lot and found WebmasterWorld (this forum).

This is the final part of the answer: there were lots of "experts" in many fields in the company, and many pushed the projects into diff directions, and none seemed like a good idea to me. Disagreement? I felt that I was seeing part of the truth, it wasn't just an opinion. Building some projects became a nightmare so I decided to build some on my own. Years have proven I was right, they were wrong. And also: years have proven many webmasters here in this forum are-100%-right on their advice. I watched lots of money invested on projects and lost... my projects were different, fun, and profitable with good ROI. Many of "those" websites are dead, mine are still kicking.

hey guys, I just wondered what made you choose runing a site and do you find it stressful?

The market is not as fun as before, lots of stress caused by changing seasons... profits can change from month to month... clients might be clueless on what they want and the direction to take making it difficult to deal with, at times they are decided and suddenly one monkey tells them wordpress is the solution and there you go, they lost it... I've seen the market not as stable as before, but I've seen companies charging very good money for small projects. Meaning = lots of profit... I don't know their formula.