The Energon Pub

1. As a career, how much can a job in that field pay?

2. How easy is it to make money from a website? If I understand right, you get paid by having adds on the site or by giving info on who accesses the site to the companies who send out spam email.

A suggestion would be to PM Seibertron himself. He is a professional programmer who works on websites for a firm out of Chicago. Any questions about the profession would best be answered by him.

Hmm. Well I don't make any money BUT here is my situation..

Me and my oldest daughter go to one of the local skating rinks every Saturday. Back in 2005 I heard some people asking if the place had a website (which at the time did not) so I figured I could throw something simple together (I have some basic to intermediate HTML programming knowledge).

I threw up a page and presented it. The owner loved it, it was simple to navigate and did not have much clutter. he wanted something to the point and he got it.

My main payment (which I asked for) was free entrance to the rink (for any special occasion and regular session) for me and my family for life and discounts on parties.

You figure normally it is $5.00 to get in.. $10 for both of us..
Multiply just that by $52 = $520 a year saved on entrance fees. Not to mention the specials like all night skates (which normally cost $12) which we also get in free.

I am also now considered a "contract" employee.
The site has brought so much more business to the place and sometimes they even throw me a few $$ for my troubles.

It depends on your specific role. If you are the graphics guy/ basic layout designer, jobs 'in the field' usually start off at 32-35K (depending on market) and go up from there. If you happen to be a SEO (search engine optimizer) there's a hefty demand for that right now. The starting salary is around $45K, but I've seen entry levels SEO positions posted at $60K+. MSQL and server side programmers make...better. (I really don't know that part, as I avoid in-depth programming like the plague. HTML doesn't count.)

As for making money off your website...ad revenue is tied directly to your traffic. Besides the task of designing the site (if you're running the whole show) you will have to know your search engine/popularity tricks.

Now, you could run an awesome, established toy website for a number of years and be reaping the rewards from incredible exposure due to world-wide movie advertising...

Are you looking at getting in as a designer, or are you looking to run a site yourself? Content-based or e-commerce?