In the past week, I’ve received several phone calls and emails from people asking “Can you build me a website?” and “My site’s not getting any traffic. Can you help?”

The answer, of course, is yes, I can. But the real question is: do I want to?

If you’ve been an internet marketer for any time, you’ve probably already developed a special skill set that few people have. You may be aces at SEO, or graphic design, or writing sales copy, or building an excellent link strategy. Most likely, you’re a little bit good at ALL of those things, and more.

Which is why everyone wants you to build them a web site. To a lot of people, the internet is imposing, a secret society that a chosen few have membership to. To others, they just don’t want to be bothered with the intricacies of the web, so look elsewhere for guidance.

And that’s when the “Can you help?” queries start to come.

I regularly debate the pros and cons of sticking with what I’m doing (building up my own web business) vs. working for someone else.

Fact: My web business is a slow grower. I have only so many hours per day (if I’m lucky!) to devote to working on it. In that same amount of time, I could design a header or two that made me $100 dollars or more. Tempting, isn’t it?

Fact: Building up my business means I’m creating for the future. Because whether I work on it or not, I still earn money. Just not a ton of money If I spend that time working on someone else’s business, I’ll get immediate money in the bank, but no long term returns.

Fact: I could really use more money NOW. If you haven’t heard, raising a family with four kids in Southern California ain’t cheap.

Fact: I really hate working for other people, my dad being the lone exception to that rule.

Fact: When I have done projects for others, I find a lot of my time is spent hand holding. The scope of the project, in terms of internet education, often goes way beyond what I’ve been hired to do. For example, I’ve been hired to build five page sites, then end up spending the same amount of time explaining SEO, traffic building, article submissions, etc.

Fact: Working for others means my time isn’t my own. As it stands now, if I can’t do any online work, due to family obligations or just plain laziness, I don’t have to. Someone who’s paying me probably won’t appreciate my very relaxed schedule.

Fact: I could really use more money NOW. If you haven’t heard, raising a family with four kids in Southern California ain’t cheap. (Yep, I did that one twice. Let’s face it; that’s a HUGE pro for the “working for the man” category.)

So what’s an underpaid, overscheduled procrastinator to do?

For the time being, I think I’ll tell these potential clients, thanks, but I’m not interested.

I have my own web business to work on. And a site to build for my artist mom. For free.

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