Do You Really Want To Blog? Seriously?

blogging-bloggersSo you think that blogging is the perfect job?

You want a job where you are your own boss, you set your own hours, you work right from home or while travelling, never have to deal with unreasonable deadlines, and get to do something you love doing?

Sound good?

Well that sounds like some bloggers I know. But that is the not the whole story!

There are very few bloggers who have really made it, and even fewer who have a blog that provides a decent source of income, so blogging is for most, a second or even a third “job.” So, what to do?

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There are basically two types of bloggers, the casual blogger and the serious blogger.

The casual blogger may have a basically well balanced life and a blog that is primarily a hobby. The casual blogger will start writing a post, work at it for awhile and then stop to get some other things done until he or she feels like writing again.

If a finished post doesn’t get many comments, that’s OK; the post expressed just what the casual blogger wanted to say and its out there if anyone is interested. If that is you then get ‘er going and good luck!

The serious blogger’s situation is quite different from the casual blogger’s.

The serious or business blogger has a blog that he or she considers to be a job, his main source of income, that is competing with other important elements of life such as a primary job, a family, a social life and adequate rest.

The serious blogger is committed (sometimes to the point of obsession) to maintaining his or her blog and feels it is an essential element of daily life. The serious blogger starts to feel down if any post sits on the blog for twenty-four hours or so without generating a comment, or if the blog’s visitor count does not register a certain number of visitors every day.

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That kind of commitment to blogging takes a big hunk of time out of life and can easily create some serious conflicts between blogging and the rest of life so the serious blogger needs to be commited, organized and efficient. Does that surprise you?

Time Management for the serious blogger? Yup!

Anyone who feels that the day is too short needs to understand and implement the basic principle of time management: setting priorities in business. Some things are obviously more important than other things but if some important things are left undone because you are not controlling your schedule, and letting random events control you.

The serious blogger really needs to set priorities and live by them. (Related Post – Common Mistakes that Can Bury a Blog…)

What’s that mean? Set your goals. You have to prioritize!

Make a list of everything you need to get done — everything, all the things you’ve committed to doing, things you want to do, things you know you should do, and things that you really don’t want to do, but are on your mind. Be honest and put everything on the list. Take some time to put it together. It will be time well spent.

Tip: You will be using and modifying this list every day so create the list using some program that will allow you to move list items around, add items, remove items and save the list. Just notepad or your word processing program will do nicely, but pick your favorite and stick to it.

Now carefully consider each item on the list and put each one into one of the following five categories.

Must get it done today
Must get it done this week
Must get it done this month
Nice to do and might be beneficial
Nice to do but not really necessary
Unnecessary

Now you have a decent priority list.

Start every day with this list and every time you become aware of a new task add it in a proper place to the proper category. As the “must do” items are accomplished and moved off the list, some of the nice-to-do items may be moved up, but only if their priorities can honestly be changed.

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Too many must-do things? If the list of items in the “Must get it done . . . ” categories is overwhelming, reconsider each item’s importance and re-prioritize where you can.

Select items that you really don’t have to do yourself, things like fix-it projects, business phone calls, business letters, editing and proofreading jobs, etc. and outsource or delegate what you can. Find a friend, family member, co-worker or a freelancer to do it for you.

To finish off, if you want to become a serious blogger, treat your work as a real brick and mortar occupation. Get serious…

Get ruthless with your work schedule. Blogging might seem easy from the outside, but any serious blogger knows that there is a huge amount of work needed to be successful. Good luck.