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
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
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
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
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! 🙂
Very nice article. Even, I am facing the same issue. Will try to implement the tips you have mentioned.
Nice Article. But I am still in confusion how to manage my blogs and jobs together
That’s a really nice post. I am currently facing this problem of trying to balance my day job and my blog and could relate to everything in your post. I will try to write early in the mornings and that should help me a bit.
Thanks
Yes,your article make sense,consistency for blogger that to for newbie very important,i felt this inconsistency in my initial days but in flip side expected a lot,still in process of coming into reality would need some time for me,i can say definitely hard-work + smart-work along with lots of patience is vital.
Maintaining daily life along with writing is not a child’s task in the beginners level. You have to do a lot of practice for that.
Thanks for this wonderful piece… It feels encouraging to know that you can balance between college or work and still grow although enough effort is really needed when starting out as a newbie blogger or any other person juggling between jobs
Thanks Srikanth AN Sir. it is great post for blog journey starting.
It`s not that easy anymore to blog successfully when having a full time job. On the other hand – to blog for fun does not take so much time.
The point is, commercialising your blog leads to business and once started we have to determinate if it should stay a hobby or replace the main source of income:-)
I`m working on several websites since the late 90`sjust for fun and after getting several offers beginning of 2000`s
i`m trying to monetarize some of them, works good, but still is not enough to be the main source of income.
What you describe in your post, is the “fun blog” I guess? You don`t mention any commercial use of the blog but I see that your already succeeded the border from hobby to profession:-) gratulations!
I recently started a blog about 3 months ago, as a full time student, employee, and parent, I have felt those challenges! I really enjoyed this post and especially the links attached. I have however, always felt pressure also fosters creativity. So it can be a good thing to be stretched for time. Nice work!
A nice article here, i think that people who have grown up with the idea of using computers are showing more responsibility towards writing posts that are thoughtful, do not have grammar mistakes and pertinent to the post..
Thank you for this blog. I have a Blog But i don’t have time to Work on.Your Blog Works for me. Thanks Again
Initially it may be difficult but once you start writing you will catch the flow. No one becomes writer overnight. It takes a lot of patience. Start writing with 100-200 words then increase the words day by day.
Thanks srikanth for such a nice article, while i am working at a company where my profile is maintaining a blog i am personally too trying to maintain my blog with my day job, will surely remember all of your tips. Again thanks bro.Thanks to harsh too for letting you write.
I think the biggest problem for me is maintaining the frequency of posting on a blog. Also it takes a lot of time to get some traffic from the search engines. Keeping oneself sane during that time is very important.
At times i feel like putting my full time into blogging as i love it and might generate better results dat way!! But the rent and bills stop me from doing it and push me to another day of nodding head inspite of my disagreement to all the crap stuff of corporate world!!
Sorry got carried away!! 🙁
Hi Srikanth, Thanks for sharing this motivational article.
Hello Newbie bloggers, blogging is not like before nor google, so before quitting your day job think yourself and listen to others suggestion.
earning online is not a easy task at present.
need lot of time, efforts and also lot and lot of patience.
before diving into blogging world kindly know what content and content writing is and test yourself with your writing style and ideas. because content is everything online.
very nice post Srikanth. Thank you for sharing this kind of valuable tips.
you just mentioned the right things write early in the morning………..as we r refreshed and can write bettr too but generally people doesn’t do that, what i think is writing early in morning incresese the quality of content by 30% which is more then enough…….what do u say SRIKANTH… my maths r right or
I am sure that getting up early in the morning and writing with a fresh mind would be very beneficial.I also suggest to do some meditation to clear the mind and to fill our energy system with awesome cosmic energy .It helps for the flow of divine creativity in us.
Good article Srikanth. It is a great motivation for bloggers. Many people become greedy while starting a blog. They want to cover number of categories. At last they fail to manage their entire blog.
Hello SRIKANTH I read your post daily and I like to read your post…. your post is very valuable and useful for me because I’m new blogger and shoutmeloud blog is really good blog… and I think it’s indias best blog…. Thanks @Harsh for giving your Valuable time
It’s great when maintaining a day job while running a blog and when creating content, please share a little bit here on it.
Definitely agreed that writing a longer piece of content can 10x the traffic to blog.
and everybody should definitely try it out, start up small reach from 500 words article and slowly add extra great content to it and slowly boost from 500 to 1000 or more.
But it’s not about word count it’s the value in the post.
Thanks for sharing this great post,
Have a great day,
Louis