5 Tips to Keep Your Day Job, While Launching Your Blog

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Are you planning on launching your own blog sometime soon?

Or

You have a blog & wondering how to maintain your blogging routine while keeping your day job?

Blogging for full-time is the coveted for many first-time bloggers and it is rightly due to the flexibility it has to offer.

If you have taken into account the pressures and scheduling issues of maintaining a successful blog ran full-time, there is something else to consider prior to the same. If you do not happen to have a decent amount of blog readers from your previous venture, which is in most cases, you might rethink of giving up your day job on optimistic fantasies of becoming a full-time blogger.

If the above-said words have put you in a turmoil, you may now unwind and read on further to find out how maintaining a blog along with a full-time day job is possible.

Not only holding on to your full-time day job while getting started on your blogger journey is advantageous, it is vital. We will not go on further arguing about how maintaining your full-time day job while launching your blog is necessary.

Getting started on your new blog is an extremely tedious task and requires a lot of hours and efforts from your end. It is not definitely a ‘build-it-they-will-come’ strategy and requires serious initial effort to plan ahead for a full-time blogging career sometime in the future.

While it has been established that maintaining a day job while launching a blog is essential and that serious blogging requires serious efforts, how can one maintain a blog effectively in the process?

How to maintain your Blog while keeping your day job?

Just like many bloggers at the ShoutMeLoud Community, I too have maintained my first blog along with my day job as a full-time student and it does get hectic.

For working professionals, this might get even hectic depending on your workload and working hours. However, there are certain strategies that you can leverage to maintain an effective blog while working your full-time day job.

Read more to find out about the five ways how you can maintain a beneficial blog while working a full-time job.

1. Identify your target audience and become specific

Target market
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If you are in your initial stages of launching a blog or are planning to do so, it is essential that you nail down your target audience and blog niche.

One of the rookie mistakes of which even I was a victim of was to write about everything. It would be extremely difficult to pick out a particular niche to write about if you possess varied interests. When you are beginning out with blogging, start small.

Start with a single topic of your utmost interest and you can build upon it as you work on growing your blog. Having a ton of article categories and aiming to write about everything would quickly exhaust you out of your energy, time and creativity just a few months into it.

List down some of the things that inspire you the most and see if you can come up with at least 20 article titles in the said category. This is one good creative exercise to choose ‘The Niche’ for your blog when you are starting out.

Even if you have launched your blog recently, it is not late to tone it down and target the particulars you care about. A target audience of ‘anyone and everyone’ is something that would never work out for new blogs, even though there are a reported 3.17 Billion Internet users on this planet!

A toned down blog operating in a particular niche is something that would make your work easier as you begin your blogging journey while maintaining a day job.

2. Plan out your long-term Content Strategy

Content Strategy
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If you are planning on taking up your blog as a full-time career sometime in the future, it is essential that you maintain a proper strategy. This is another factor that I completely overlooked while beginning out and something that many newbie bloggers fail to put some thought into.

As mentioned previously, if you are starting out and have decided out on a target niche/audience, the next step is the content strategy. You need your first few months of content and social media strategies laid down to make things easier while getting started.

Many new bloggers quit due to the extreme requirements in terms of hours and creativity in the first few months and surviving this stage is particularly essential.

A content strategy would comprise of but not limited to article title ideas for next few months by addressing the niche’s core problems, a publishing calendar, and social media publishing strategy. Planning out ahead for the next few months in terms of strategies to publish your content is one great way to manage your initial blogging journey and maintain your full-time job in the process.

As Benjamin Franklin would put it, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.

3. Write Early in the Mornings or Late in the Night

Write daily for the rest of your life
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This is one useful tip that I have found myself to be of great help and something many now full-time bloggers recommend for new bloggers.

Be it a full-time student, employee or parent, early mornings and late nights are easily the best times for writing content on your blog.

Although writing late may sometimes be not desirable if you have to leave for work early, writing early in the morning is certainly something you can consider.  It is also often quoted that some of the best writers to have graced this planet have been early risers for getting sure their writing of the day was done.

Moreover, apart from just letting you concentrate during the silent periods of the day, writing during these times will also help you form a daily ritual around the same. Writing daily or even weekly requires a lot of discipline and showing up daily is the key to success here.

Setting a daily time for writing in this way will also help you cater a portion of your day to writing. Make sure that you remain true to yourselves and to your schedule.

4. Open up to Guest contributions and Collaborations

Guest blogging is how collaboration in the Blogosphere works.

Either accepting guest posts from other bloggers or guest posting at other blogs is one great way to collaborate on content between blogs that share similar audiences. The one major reason accepting guest posts would be beneficial to you would be that you can generate new content in the process when you get too busy to write off the week.

Not all guest posts are of the highest standards of expectations, and hence it is your duty to make sure that only the content your audience deserves gets published.

Teaming up with other beginner bloggers or to find suitable authors from your early subscribers is one great way to build relationships for your blog and brand. Guest posts could help your blog generate relevant and interesting content while allowing you to tackle the most important articles that define your blog.

Although some people are sceptical about accepting guest posts, a thorough screening of the incoming posts would get you quality content that bloggers love to share.

5. Seek inspiration for content outside your Blogging time

You can't wait for Inspiration
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If you are working a full-time day job, there is a high probability that you are not working on your blog during work!

There is always a scope for zoning out and some break time even during your work. This is the time of seeking inspiration for your blog. Be it with talks at the water cooler or through observations while you’re traveling to work, always make sure you keep your mind open to new ideas.

A good idea for a blog post is never too far away and keeping a notebook with you all the time is a surefire way to grow your blog big.

Ideas hit you at the most unexpected time, and being prepared for it beforehand is essential. Quickly jot down any post ideas or thoughts in your notebook and go through it once you’re back to working on your blog. You might, at least, know a handful of people at your work who are interested in your blog’s topics. Interacting with these people could help you gain further insights and discoveries which could let to new blogging opportunities.

Conclusion

All in all, the decision to maintain your full-time day job while working on your blog could and often does get hectic for most people. This is nothing less than working two jobs and requires a lot of hours, efforts, sacrifices, and dedication in the onset. Relationships are also something that ought to be taken into consideration and giving time for your family and friends is essential for a proper work-life balance.

So, what do you think of these five tips to maintain your blog while working a full-time day job? Feel free to shout out your thoughts and comments below. Don’t forget to share it on Facebook, I would feel good if you do that! 🙂

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Authored By
A Shouter whose articles got mentions from the likes of The New York Times, Kissmetrics and AllTopStories. He writes articles, novels and poems; spends most of his time reading everything he could get his hands on. Srikanth is currently pursuing his Masters from The University of Illinois and holds a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He is a programmer, a motivational writer and speaker.

42 thoughts on “5 Tips to Keep Your Day Job, While Launching Your Blog”

  1. salman

    Simply Amazing! I work a 9 hours job. After lunch, I try to write something for my blog, it really helps as you mentioned. And finally, after work, I complete my full write up and often select topic on which I am going to write the next day.

    Thanks
    Salman

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