A decade ago, blogging was considered just a hobby, but we have since realized it’s growth in terms of bloggers and people who start taking blogging as a career option.
People these days are more open to start something of their own, and blogging is something anyone can start at any given time and from anywhere.
But what does it really take to consider blogging as a career.
You should be ready to have people cock their heads to the side when you tell them what you do for a living because not everyone fully understand the concept of blogging. They would assume you just get a lot of ‘free stuff’ from different brands and oh, how you wish you did.
Here are things to explore when considering blogging as a career:
Time
It can roughly take up to 5-10 hours to create content for your blog. It is incredibly time-consuming especially when it means having to book photoshoots with your photographer, waiting for perfect lighting to take with your phone, styling your space and/or looks, editing photos, the write-up, after you have published, you need to keep your audience engaged and the list goes on.
The time put into your work is all worth while in the end because you create good work ethic for yourself and this makes it easier for brands who may want to work with you.
Money
You need money to support yourself and to support the projects you do as a brand. Running a website and a business doesn’t come cheap at all. You to invest in a designer to help me create your branding and develop your website, that in itself is a personal investment into your business.
You need to consider having to make enough money to cover your operating expenses just to break even, never mind paying for rent and/or basic needs around the house.
Yes, you don’t all the money in the world to make this happen. You can get by just fine using a cloud hosting service (where other bloggers share a server with lots of other websites) and you could design your own logo to cut cost. Unfortunately, You actually need all the money in the world to create the blog you really want to create and that only comes with time and dedication.
Offers and Ethics
Know what you are worth as soon as your blog hits off the ground. Most brands will come your way with offers that are unpaid and you should really consider if this is something you are willing to do for free. It will come to a point were you will turn down many collaborations and if it is an incredibly lucrative collaboration, than accept because you want to build a good business relationship. It has to feel right. If it doesn’t, say no, simple as that.
Never switch off- Never
As much as you need time off to relax and unwind from all the content you have been creating. It’s always advisable to take a few weeks off and recuperate. A different environment that encourage your creative juices to flow is key. However, you do not have to shut off completely, you need to keep yourself updated on all the news your blog is about. Source inspiration from where you are. Just minimize on the work you are doing, for instance, spend an hour out of your day on vacation to update yourself.
Especially, now, that this is a full-time job, you cannot afford to shut down completely for 2-3 weeks because, LIFE!
Appreciate and show gratitude to your support system, engage with all your followers and subscribers and constantly keep working on making this career choice better, you can only do that if you get feedback from your support system.
