Would you blog full time is a question I get often, and people are surprised why I answer no within a second? It never gets a second thought; it isn’t something I would ever want to do. Don’t get me wrong, my blog is something I am incredibly passionate about, and it has helped me in many ways, but there are many reasons why I wouldn’t take it full time.
As most of you know, at the moment, I am not working and haven’t been since I started my blog. I had an accident that resulted in reconstruction surgery on my leg, meaning I wasn’t mobile for two years, and I was housebound. I started my blog for something to do, taking my mind off things. I never really thought about how passionate I would get about it. My blog is my hobby; no, I’m not working, and yes, I am blogging, but I don’t go out of my way to make money from it, so I don’t use it as a career. I am slowly getting back to normal and will be looking for work soon, and I will continue to blog as I have been doing.
So why wouldn’t I blog full time as a career?
The Stress
I love my blog, I love what I do, but I like it being a hobby and not focusing on money and stats all the time. Yes, I set myself goals, but if I don’t hit them, I don’t beat them; I don’t sit stressing and crying about it. I like blogging as, and when I want to; when it is a career, you need to set targets and routines; otherwise, you wouldn’t make money or have a job from it.
Money
Money is the significant factor, so many bloggers, even bigger bloggers, say how hard it is to make money from blogging. I even know quite a few bloggers who work in PR, and they say they struggle to make money from it. There are affiliate links, but you barely get anything, then there are Sponsored posts which I have done a few, but they have all approached me. Looking for sponsored posts isn’t easy at all. It would take every ounce of you to try and make money from blogging, and I would worry about not making enough. Full-time jobs roughly bring in £900-£1000 a month well up North anyway but to try and think about making that in blogging isn’t realistic.
Lifestyle
I blog as a hobby, and it takes up so much time. Every week I spend hours taking photo’s, typing posts, going through emails, SEO, Admin, Social Media, so to think how much time it already takes up is a lot and then to do it full time, you would have no time left for anything else.
Losing The Passion
I can blog when I want and do whatever I want, but when it becomes a job, you are forced to do things, and you can’t put them off like when you need tweets scheduling, come on if you enjoy scheduling tweets, are you even human? There are days when I’m ill, and I put blogging stuff off, but when it is your only income, you have no choice but to blog, and I wouldn’t want to end up hating the idea of blogging.
Becoming Something You Not
My blog is mainly about beauty with hints of lifestyle and baking. Those are my passions. I get a lot of emails for sponsored posts but fashion posts… I turn them down as it isn’t what my blog is about. Yes, I could have made money by doing them, but that isn’t what my blog is. If your blog is your only way of income and you have bills to pay such as rent and food, you need the money badly, I would worry I would take opportunities that don’t relate to my blog or my readers just for the cash, and that isn’t me at all.
Would You Blog Full Time?