Being a blogtrepreneur and working full time is extremely hard work, but it’s not impossible. In fact, all the great bloggers have done it at some point or another. And if you truly want to turn your blog into a business, you will have to make some sacrifices at first; one of those sacrifices being your time.
The more time you commit to your blog, the more likely you are to be successful. And I don’t mean blog for 30 minutes, browse Instagram, check Snapchat and blog again for another 30 minutes. I’m talking about dedicating a solid 3-4 hours a day to your blog without distractions.
You’re awake for about 16 hours and a full-time job usually requires 7-8 of those hours. So what are you doing with the remaining 8?! Below are some things that have helped me run my blog and work full-time and if I can do it, anyone can.
Plan Ahead
This one seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many bloggers just blog when they “feel like it”. If you want to turn your blog into a business, blogging when you feel like it won’t fly. Sure, it’s nice to feel motivated while you’re blogging, but the hustle doesn’t stop and wait for you when you’re not motivated.
Blogging and balancing a full-time job means you have to be strategic about when you’ll blog and what you’ll blog about, which is why planning is a life saver. Take advantage of when you actually do feel motivated and plan out your content for the month with a content calendar. After that, start creating the content about 2 weeks in advance. This way you’ll never feel overwhelmed or fall behind.
When you’re planning your content don’t forget to take into consideration holidays, special events, and promotions that are coming up. For example, with St. Patrick’s Day coming up, you can blog about what to do, where to eat, and what to wear. That’s 3 blog posts right there!
Counterbalance
Counterbalancing is a trick not a lot of bloggers know about, let alone talk about. Usually bloggers will preach about balancing it all and taking time for yourself and blah blah blah. In actuality, balancing doesn’t exist.
You are always off balance in some way and it’s counterbalancing that will help center you. What I mean by that is if you find your blog is suffering, (i.e. your engagement is low or you haven’t written a blog post in a while), that’s where all your attention should be. In doing so, your relationships might suffer slightly, (i.e. you skip girls night or a birthday party), but it’s those types of sacrifices that you occasionally have to make in order for your blog to truly thrive while working full-time.
Maximize Your Time
Like I mentioned earlier, you have 8 hours left over in the day after you’re done working 8-hours at your full-time job. That is more than enough time to cook, clean, eat, and hustle on your blog.
Every minute of your day should be used wisely. From the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. You can work on your blog early in the morning before you go to work, during your commute to and from work, and when you get home from work after you eat dinner. And if you can’t work on your blog during your commute because you drive, you can choose to listen to motivational podcasts that will get your creative juices flowing.
The best time management tool I’ve come across has been my phone. I’ll block out 30 minutes and put my timer on and work on one specific task at a time. This helps me be more efficient than if I were just blogging at my leisure. In fact, I’m doing it right now. I’m giving myself 30 minutes to finish this blog post. You know what they say, the longer you have to do something, the longer it’ll take you to do it.
Stop wasting time and maximize it right now!
Hire Interns
You don’t have to have hundreds of thousands of followers, nor do you have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire an intern. You can hire one in exchange for experience. There are plenty of college students or new grads looking for the experience you can offer from running a blog.
Having an intern helps you to focus on the things in your blog business that only you can do like creating content, collaborating, and engaging with your followers. Interns can do the tasks that don’t require your expertise like replying to emails, reaching out to brands, and editing content.
It’s really a win-win because your time is freed up and you’re helping someone learn the ropes of a challenging game. Had I known interning with a blogger was an option, I would have jumped at the opportunity when I first started blogging.
In the end, running a blog and working full-time can be stressful, but if you’re willing to make sacrifices here and there and get your hands dirty, the art of managing it all will come second nature to you.
How do you manage a blog and work full-time? Tell us in the comments!
xx Britt
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Hi Britt, great reminder for the start of the week. Yes, I find even 5 minutes time, standing at the trainstation, opening up Evernote and outlining some thoughts can be a good trigger to create a new post. Have a good week!
xx finja | http://www.effcaa.com
Yes Finja! That’s an amazing way to get the creative juices flowing. Thanks so much for sharing, I really appreciate your comment. xx
Loved reading this, thank you for sharing! I do my best to try and balance work and my blog, and appreciate these tips 🙂
Lisa // FjordsandBeaches.com
Balance is a hard thing to attain for sure! Thanks for your lovely comment Lisa. xx
Love these tips! I just started working full time 9-5 and I’m seriously struggling keeping up with it all. Thank you 🙂
I personally am the anti-9-5 so I totally understand the feeling! Thanks for your comment. Hope you stay in touch! xx
Hi, This was a great post to read. I’ve had a blog before that I loved writing but I lost my motivation for several different reasons but now – I’m being honest here – I’m SO unhappy with my life, I hate my day job, and recently realised that I don’t have any like-minded friends in my life. I have friends who listen to what I have to say but they don’t really care because they’re not interested in those things (clean, healthy eating, working out, photograpy, etc.) I struggle with all these because no one really inspires me. So I started planning my new lifestyle blog, and then realised that I have nothing to write about. I wake up, go to work, I finish at 5, make dinner, eat, and then it’s almost bed time. Every day is the same, and I feel like my life is so boring, I have nothing to share with others. Do you have any ideas how to come up with ideas when you’re life is, well…. boring?
Thank you!
Hey! I am not an expert and not a successful blogger. But I absolutely love blogging and have just recently started to write again. I do post at my leisure because it is what makes me happy. I see my blog as a creative outlet not a business. Why I am replying to you is because in my oppinion you don’t have to have an intersting life to start a blog. It’s what you are passionet about that makes you interesting and stand out to others.
At the moment my blog is a little bit of everything but it makes me happy and for now that is all I want. So find what you are passionet about and start typing. It also took my quite some time to give my blog the look I wanted. So play around and see what you like. I think the most important thing is to just get started. NOW! 😉
If you want to checkout what I am talking about go to viennaroo.blogspot.co.at and let me know what you think. 🙂
Good advice Viennaroo! It does depend on what you want the outcome of your blog to be, I agree. Not everyone sets out to turn it into a business though I do find more people seek that then just blogging for fun. Both are totally fine and acceptable! Thanks for sharing this. xx
You just came up with a ton of ideas yourself!
You can write about how you feel your life is boring. We have all felt like that and I love how honest you’re being. In fact, my life is blogging and none of my friends care as much about it as I do so I’m in the same boat. And that’s ok… Each of our friends serves a different purpose in our lives and you can’t expect them to care about what’s going on in your life as much as you care about what’s going on in your life because they have their own shit to care about. Does that make sense?
I say you should try the blogging thing again. The worst that can happen is you still feel unhappy but at least you know you tried something different. Hope this helps! Everyone gets in a rut from time to time, it’s not just you! Feel free to shoot me an email [email protected] if you want to chat more! xx
This one of the most insightful posts I have read in a long time! And come at the right time. Thanks for putting this together x
http://Www.virgosandkisses.com
Aw thanks so much Michelle, what a compliment! I’m glad you dropped by. Hope you stay in touch! xx
What a great post! I hope one day to turn my job into a business and post like these really inspire me to keep going!
https://azanah.wordpress.com/
Yes! I hope you can do that too Azanah. Thanks so much for your comment. xx
Thank you for the tips!
Faye | https://fayelvalentine.wordpress.com/
You’re welcome Faye! Thanks for reading love. xx
Hello Brittany!
Thank you for sharing this article with us!
The best thing you can do when you are a student or still have a full-time work, plan your blog content and tasks for your biz ahead of time so that you’ll be organized with the priorities that you should do for your blog!
All the Best,
Jan Limark | Brotherly Creative
Yes I agree Jan! Thanks so much for commenting. Hope you stay in touch! xx
I needed to read this post because I will admit I am lazy after I’ve finished work which is why I’m working on trying to work on my blog more
Leanne | http://www.oohsimplething.blogspot.co.uk
I feel ya sister. We’ve all been there, trust me! Thanks so much for your honest comment. Hope you stay in touch. xx
Great post! Planning ahead is very important for me, I have no idea how I would manage to stay consistent with my blog if I didn’t have a bunch of scheduled content when I need it!
Right?! Planning ahead really is KEY. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Joanna. Hope you stay in touch! xx
Great tips! I’m currently focusing on scheduling things in advance but it’s a hard mindset to get into because once I have a good two weeks scheduled, I start slacking and I have to start over again 🙁
Yes Kristien I know that feeling! It’s like once you can relax you have to start doing it all over again. It’s a never ending job! And hopefully when you stick it out long enough you can have a team of people doing the mundane scheduling part for you. Thanks so much for reading. xx