No matter how you look at it, it's going to be work. Most of it repetitive. You'll need to love what you do in order to survive. As far as the financial side is concerned everyone will have different needs and deal with as appropriate. My site is currently funded by myself. Actually, I do everything right now.
That may change, but right now, my site is largely the backbone for a larger project that may potentially become a long term income generating concern. That would be nice. I've sunk almost 3 years and thousands of dollars into both - and there's still no guarantee of success.
Right now, it's all fueled by passion. That's what will get you through the lean times. Of course everyone's situation and reason for running a web site is different. Yours will be unique, too. The big pay off is all independent web sites have a completely different personality stamped on them regardless of content - and that will be one of the attractions that will bring people to your door. Otherwise, everything just becomes another homogenised FaceBook page.
Keep it up. We need more independent web sites. They just need dedicated effort to make them worth visiting - and almost more importantly - revisiting.
-Windebieste.
