The Realities Of Being A Blogger And Having A Full Time Job

Being a full time blogger is seen as the ultimate goal. When you can finally live comfortably off your blog earnings, be able to pay rent, bills and still have money left over each month is what I feel most bloggers are striving for. Those who achieved that- high five!- it's an amazing achievement and I salute you. But what about us who are not full time bloggers? It doesn’t mean we don’t put any less effort into out blogs, but sometimes it just isn’t a viable option. I’ve read a good few posts recently about the realities of full time blogging, so I thought I’d offer another side. The realities of having a full time job and being a blogger, and what it’s really like. Hopefully it’ll be interesting to see, a little tongue in cheek, but also if I can pass on maybe some tips to lighten the load a little, then even better.

The reality is you never stop working.

If you start work at 8 or 9am, by the time you’ve got ready and travelled into your office, there really isn’t any time in the morning to do any blog work. Any sort of blog work will have to wait to lunch time- if you get one. So really blog work starts once you’ve got home after working 8 or more hours. When I worked in banking I wouldn’t get home till 9pm, but luckily now I work in Cloud Computing and I leave pretty much at 5, meaning I get home by 6pm. However as soon as I get home, it’s time to start job number 2; the blog. My home computer gets fired up and it’s time to respond to all the emails that have poured in, edit photos, write blog posts and catch up on social media. I’ll usually go to bed around midnight and then it starts all over again. I actually haven’t owned a TV in my entire adult life and to be honest I’m not sure when I’d watch it. I feel like I’m constantly working and you find that you end up working in the car, on the tube, I’ve even been known to send a sneaky few emails from the bath when I’ve remembered something!

You have to turn down many opportunities. 

Sadly, one of the hardest things is that your time is not fully your own. I’ve definitely noticed a trend for more and more events and opportunities to be on in the day time now. Where it used to be dinners, it’s now brunch. And I get it, more bloggers do do it full time, and if it means the PRs can do their events during the day rather than out of hours then it makes sense. But as a “out of hours blogger” I guess you could call me, it means so many things come into my inbox and I have to turn down. I’m limited by 25 days holiday, so you have to choose wise what you spend it on, plus, I’m actually contracting so if I take a day off, I loose my days wage. Which if I’m not being paid… but paying bloggers for their work is a whole other blog post. Trust me, when you see an amazing email entitled would you like to come to Thailand and you have to say no because practicality wise you need to earn that week’s wage to pay for your rent, really is a killer. The realities of adulthood eh?

You become amazing at multitasking

Some people work very well compartmentalising things, and working in silo chunks. For me that just doesn’t work. I juggle multiple things at once. I’ll flit between blog emails to work emails in the evening, switching from corporate tone to a chattier one. 

I probably could do things a better way to be honest with you and I’m certainly not saying the way I do it is the correct way. I seem to do many things at once, often eating whilst working, whilst dipping in and out of a book or even in a morning, eating and doing my makeup at once! I tend to not have a lot of time in the morning for breakfast as I start at 8am and it takes me an hour to get to work, and then an hour to get ready in the morning… and to be honest I’d rather have the sleep. I do know that eating something in the morning is important though. Which is why I’ve been popping a packet of belVita Breakfast biscuits in my bag. Now I’m not saying that biscuits should replace your scrambled eggs and green smoothies, but if you are someone who goes without breakfast, then they are perfect to get a little boost of energy from to get you through the morning. belVita are made from five wholegrains, they are a great source of fibre and vitamins B6, magnesium and iron too. I personally throw a packet in my bag for the tube or to eat at my desk. Or if I do pop open my laptop in the morning, I tend to eat at it too. 

Any object becomes your prop.

I guess this really applies to all bloggers, no matter if it’s your job, semi job, or just a hobby, but when you are short of time, unusual objects became props.

This weekend I knew I wasn’t doing much this week in terms of events as I had quite a lot of blog posts to write already so I like to clear my after work schedule every so often to make sure I have enough time to do the actual work. So this being the case, this weekend just gone I needed to shoot photos for the coming weeks Instagram post. I was fully busy Saturday with house things (I’m also in the process of house hunting too) so Sunday was my only day. I was trying to think up shoots, and when an idea came, I had a limited amount of time to get it done before the sun is gone and then it’s Monday and I’ve lost natural lighting. I’d love to be able to pop to the shops and go buy this prop and that, but nope, sometimes you just have to grab any item that will work. This shot here? Not really a table…

It’s a kitchen tray balanced on top of a 4 pack of toilet roll. Classy.

Weekends become the most productive for the blog

If you work full time and blog, then you’ll know that weekend become prime blogging time. Especially now that it’s dark outside of the 9-5, the only time you can shoot photos is during the weekend. It becomes a mad rush to cram in as many shoots in as possible, and then heaven forbid it starts to rain! Don’t get me started! When your friend calls and says do you want to go to lunch, you counter it with, can we go for dinner? #savethesunlight

Some people don’t see you as a serious blogger

I had a heard a few remarks over the last year from bloggers and brands/ PRs alike that allude to opinion that if you aren’t doing it full time, then you mustn’t be “big enough” (that term to describe bloggers rattles me no end). This simply isn’t the case. Now I’m not saying I’m a huge blogger, but for example I was doing the blog for a few months full time over summer and now am not as my circumstances changed. My boyfriend moved out of our flat, so immediately my rent doubled, and yes I don't make enough from the blog to cover my central London flat. But it certainly doesn't change the value of my blog or my readers. I put a huge amount of effort into my blog and social media channels, working every hour I can to fit both in. I have had one case in the past where someone didn't want to pay me for a a very standard sponsored blog post, because it wasn't my job. No. Just no.

If you are doing your blog full time then high five girl! It's a fantastic achievement, and I love seeing the blogging community grow and achieve. But if you are doing it along side a full time job, high five you too! It's tough, but hopefully you can see how much it's worth it. 

This post was sponsored by belVita. Whilst this is sponsored, I wasn't asked to write about being a blogger with a job, I had complete freedom to write about what I wanted. As always all views, words and images are my own.