At the moment, I am not a full-time blogger by any means. I am not sure it will ever be my full-time job without any other source of income, but as my followers grow, I can see why and how this becomes a full-time role the more time I put into it. This post is by no means complaining about the time it takes to blog--I absolutely love it.
However, I keep hearing people question how blogging can actually be a full-time job and talking about how bloggers typically do nothing all day, so why can't they always be posting content.
I think it greatly depends on the blogger when it comes to the amount of commitments during the day (I feel like if you live near London, you're going to have a lot more stuff to do). But as blogging grows as an industry, so do the opportunities, meetings and people ready to work with bloggers.
Here are some of the realities of life as a blogger day-to-day:
Blogging is incredibly flexible, meaning you have to be self-motivated
I'm used to working in a self-motivated manner, which doesn't mean I don't sometimes struggle with it. However, working for yourself means that there is no one there micro-managing you or making sure you meet your deadlines. You're not going to get fired if you stop, but you may lose partnerships with brands or some of your readership. Unless you're a superstar, people will get frustrated if you stop updating for a long time or veer off your schedule without explanation. If you're really serious about blogging, it means you're going to have to create a schedule and keep to it.
You attend a lot of events as a blogger
Events are sometimes the most fun part of being a blogger as you get to meet other people and try new experiences you might not otherwise have done. However, this does eat up a significant portion of your week, especially if you live in London. Living outside of London means I have to turn down a lot of these events (though I do try to make it to as many as I can). But if you live in London, it's pretty much a constant thing, making that almost a full-time job in itself.
You're always in talks with brands
As brands develop awareness of the influence of bloggers and the benefits they receive from working with us, you'll find yourself answering phone calls and emails for 1-2 hours per day, vetting opportunities and deciding who to work with and what's involved. Sometimes this also involves negotiations, which can be a bit difficult if you're a newer blogger without an agent (yes, blogger agents are now a
thing!).
You're constantly creating content
Whether this is via Instagram, Snapchat (which I haven't been so great at...sorry guys), Twitter or your blog, there's always a social media channel to update. When you blog, you are kind of selling your own life as the product or the attraction to people, which can be kind of weird. This is especially weird for me when I'm feeling like crap from my lupus and in the past month or so, I haven't done too much that is terribly exciting. Since I spend most days working on something or other from home, I definitely feel the pressure to curate a more glamorous life than the one I'm living at the minute!
Sometimes you're doing secret projects
I've heard bloggers and YouTubers slammed in the past for not being on top of their daily content creation, however this can be due to the fact that a lot of times, we're working on secret projects that we're not allowed to divulge yet. These projects can be as minimal as a blog post to extremely time consuming. And since you're not allowed to tell anyone what it is, you can be stressed as hell and not be allowed to tell any of your followers why.
Balancing with Other Commitments
Many bloggers are not blogging full-time, and instead are also working full-time with another job or students. This means some serious time management skills. I work 15 hours a week, am writing my PhD dissertation as well as blog, which altogether works out to likely more than 40 hours a week of work, even if it is all very flexible and mostly from home.
You have to love it
In order to do this job, you seriously have to love it. No bones about it. With other work from home jobs, there is often a reward such as payday or perhaps even a degree at the end of the tunnel. Not necessarily so with your blog. Most bloggers I have met seem to work for two years before they earn close to a full-time income, so if you go into blogging just to get the PR samples and earn money, you'll be sorely disappointed.
As you can see, although blogging as amazing, it can also suck up a lot of your time. It doesn't mean it isn't flexible or that you can't spend much of your day lazing around (I'm not going to lie, I do do that occasionally, but then work up a storm in the evening and at night), but you do have to account for the fact that it is actually a job. And increasingly, one people are taking more seriously!
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