There’s something a lot of professional bloggers might not be telling you. With all the images of jet-setting, gifts, delicious food and busy lifestyles it can be easy to assume bloggers have the ideal lifestyle- little do you know there’s another less attractive side to the whole thing! Don’t get me wrong, if you can make it to a professional level there is so much to love about blogging full-time; creativity, freedom, owning your own business and being able to do what you love are all brilliant upsides. However the day to day realities of full time blogging probably aren’t talked about enough.
Can you relate to any of the following?
You Can End Up Spending a Lot of Time Alone
I don’t know about you, but I am rubbish at being on my own. I find it really hard to motivate myself and find myself procrastinating within minutes of sitting down! Luckily, the Bloggers’ Lounge is based in an office in Soho so we have plenty of people around us to keep us motivated- but if you go professional with your personal blog this will not be the case. There is a mountain of work that goes into maintaining a blog full time- and you’ll be doing it all, at least at the start! If you have close friends in the blogging world that can really help, as you can support each other. But the fact is, the majority of your work will be done sitting at your work space at home…..alone!
You Spend the Majority of Your Time Looking at a Computer Screen
An obvious one….or is it? Plenty of people first get attracted to blogging when they see other bloggers doing fun things like going on trips, attending events and finding fun locations to shoot outfit posts. What isn’t shown on their blogs, are the hours spent sat at a computer after the photo-shoot. All those photos need to be edited, text needs to be written and things have to be scheduled. The experience behind a blog post, be it shopping, going out to eat or going abroad, is just the tip of the iceberg. The real time is spent sitting in-front of a laptop working, and making that experience into something digestible for your readers.
You Never Really Stop Working
This is true of everyone who’s self-employed. You can try to allocate yourself working hours, but the truth is your blog will become so personal to you it’ll be very hard to stick to these. I can promise you you’ll find yourself checking your emails at 10pm to see if that PR has got back to you, or having a look at Google Analytics before bed to see how your traffic is coming along. When you’re so invested in your work, this is just something you’re going to have to come to terms with; the working day never stops!
So there you have it, just a few of the unglamorous sides to running a blog professionally. But despite it all, we’ve never met a blogger that doesn’t love what they do!!
How do you cope with the less exciting side of blogging? Let us know in the comments below!
Nailed it on the head! And not forgetting that a lot of brands will expect you to work for “free”!
The alone time is the hard one – I’ve been self-employed for 10 years now, and it’s a lonely existence! Sure I can talk to people online and stuff, but it’s not the same as being in an office!
Hi Michelle. Yep it’s definitely one of the toughest points! Building bonds with others in your industry can be a great help. Even just arranging to have a chat with people on the phone is a good way to break up the day.
so so true!! definitely agree with all three! xx
Strawberry Shortcakes | Style Blog
So true. I combat this by trying to get outside and go for a walk in nature as often as possible and also taking a dance class in order to socialise and get my body moving. I literally spend around 10hrs a day at my laptop whether in bed or at my desk, I am ALWAYS working and there is no such thing as a weekend for me. If I’m not actually blogging, I’m researching or creating digital products or chatting in blogging and freelancing groups etc etc etc!
Exactly, the trick is to try to force yourself to stop working- and thinking- about the job for a bit. A good tip is to make sure you have an actual work area, like a room or a desk specifically for working on the blog. That way, when you step away from the desk you step away from the work too rather than taking it with you!
I’ve found that I can’t concentrate at home as I associate home with relaxing and unwinding, so you can find me in a coffee shop in the corner typing away, or the local library. That means plenty of money spent on coffee, tea and nibbles to keep me going throughout the day.
I do agree that it’s quite worrying that whilst balancing a full time job, the amount of hours bloggers spend looking at a screen can’t possibly be good health wise.
Yes it’s really good to find a place outside the home that you can associate with work- nobody wants to feel like they are in a work environment when they’re trying to relax in the evening or at weekends!
Perhaps a bloggers group would be good, to meet up in a coffee shop and work together?! Might spend more time chatting then typing though…….
This is such a great post. I started off reading a few blogs and they always have beautiful clothes to show, beautiful destinations, food… Everything looks 100 times better on their blogs.
I started mine off and instantly realised it’s not as glamourous as they make it look – It costs a lot of money at first to keep things going. You don’t get ‘recognised’ straight away as there are so many bloggers out there all doing the same things, so you have to really make your blog stand out which takes a lot of time!
I have a full time job – Eight hours a day spent at a computer and then blogging when I get home for three hours and by the time the day is over i’ve spent 11 hours staring at a computer screen.
Don’t get me wrong I love blogging, but you just have to remember to set yourself realistic goals and to also take a day off every now and again or you will get bored quickly.
Becky
http://www.just-becky.co.uk
Thanks Becky I’m so glad you enjoyed it and found it relevant to your situation.
You’re right, it’s incredibly important to allow yourself time off especially at the beginning. What’s the point of blogging at all if you get to a point where you resent it?!