How to Be a Part Time Blogger

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There is a huge amount of work that goes into running a blog, the only differences are what your intentions are and how you work towards them. With that in mind, I thought I would share how I manage being a part time blogger alongside travelling and a full time job.

If you read the traditional media, you would be forgiven for thinking that every blogger and “influencer” in the world does it on a full time basis, only receives complimentary products and spends most of their time flouncing around in pretty outfits posting everything about their lives on Instagram and Youtube. You also only ever hear about those with millions of followers with bulging bank balances, and believe it or not there can also be a slight snobbery in the blogging community itself, as though those who haven’t quit their jobs to do it full time are not as committed to their content or readers. This is most definitely not true.

I love talking to and reading about part time bloggers, understanding how they manage their time, what inspires them and finally seeing what content they create.

How I Blog Part Time

I started this blog in the second half of 2016, I had been looking for a creative outlet and wanted to travel more so writing about my trips seemed like the only solution. When I started this blog I only produced content when I actually travelled somewhere, but as I wasn’t travelling a huge amount throughout the year it meant that my content was sporadic and irregular. Over the years my content has changed, so has my posting schedule, this is something I am still developing and as a result it has helped me identify my audience and realise what content I want to create.

I have a full time job, Monday to Friday I am working 9-5, so I do spend a lot of my free time sat at my laptop creating and scheduling content. I don’t have a stressful job that requires overtime or for me to be taking work home, so once I step through my door any work I am doing is purely by choice and because I enjoy it.

how to be a part time blogger — Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Baker

My Blogging Schedule

I publish content to the blog every Tuesday and Friday, to be honest there is no logical reason for these days except that they are nicely spaced out and it is frequent enough to be consistent but not too often that it is overwhelming and difficult for me to produce the content necessary.

Monday to Friday

6:30am – My alarm goes off, I get showered and dressed and make some rough attempt at waking up.

7:30am – I leave the house, get the bus and head to work. Whilst on the bus I will spend around 10 minutes scrolling through Instagram, replying to comments, liking and commenting on other accounts. I’ll also listen to a podcast, sometimes this will be blog, travel or social media related, it might give me some tips or inspiration, but at the same time I might just listen to something entertaining that puts me in a good mood for the day.

8:30am – I arrive at work, have breakfast and check my emails. I’ll then reply to any comments that may have been posted to the blog – this is actually my favourite part of the morning. I don’t get comments every day but it is immensely satisfying when someone has taken the time to read a post and it has resonated with them.

9:00am – 12:00pm – Work. The part of the day when I am really earning those precious pennies.

12:00pm – 1:00pm – Lunch. I don’t actually do any work during this hour. I don’t check my phone or anything. I eat lunch, talk to people and jut spend one whole hour taking time away from my desk.

1:00pm – 3:00pm – Back to work.

3:00pm – I’ll usually take a small break at this point. Usually I’ll hop onto Facebook and Twitter and reply to any comments. Check out the various groups I’m in and spend a couple of minutes pinning blog posts that I know I’ll want to read later.

3:00 – 5:00pm – The last part of the day.

5:00 – 6:00pm – During my bus journey home I usually just repeat what I do in the morning: reply to comments, scroll through social media and read the posts that I pinned earlier.

6:00pm – 7:30pm – This is usually the time I have dinner and relax a little for the evening.

7:30pm – 9:30pm – Then I do some work on the blog. I sometimes only sit at my laptop three nights week, other times I might be there every night, it depends how inspired I’ve been, how much content I have planned and what I need to finish. I trying to only do one task at a time so that I don’t feel bogged down, so I’ll draft a blog post, schedule the social media posts for the week, plan the photos I want to use, or create Pinterest images.

Saturday and Sunday

This is usually when I get the majority of my work done. This is the time where I put all the elements of a blog post together, turning the draft into the final article, inserting the images, doing all of the SEO side, scheduling the social media, inserting appropriate links and giving everything one final read through.

I will work on the blog between 5-10 hours over the course of a typical weekend.

When I’m Travelling

It’s a lot easier to make time to do the work if I’m not travelling, but of course without travelling I won’t have the content to create.

Depending on the trip will depend on whether I take my laptop. I might decide that a weekend trip isn’t worth the bother of packing my laptop and charger and that as long as I have photos and notes I’ll be able to blog later on. However, a weekend away without the distractions of home is also the perfect way to get a load of work done. I’m actually writing this very blog post in a Travelodge restaurant whilst enjoying a delicious pepperoni pizza.

If the trip I’m taking is longer than a weekend then I will first look at what else I am packing and then decide on what content I think I’m likely to create. If I’m going to be packing thick jumpers and only publishing one or two posts then I will ensure that I have plenty of photos and a notebook and pen with me at all times.

Of course some trips require a full bag of tech gear. My upcoming trip to Japan has a photography focus and I have already planned what content I want to create (fyi there’s going to be a lot) so my laptop is definitely coming with me as we will be reviewing our images as the trip goes along.

Finding Time To Travel

Regardless of what the celebrities and Instagram would like you to believe, we all have the same number of hours in the day. We all have stuff that we need to do and we would all like to take time out of our normal routines to do something amazing.

There are many people who are self employed who simply wouldn’t be paid if they took time out to go on holiday, but the great thing about having a regular 9-5 is that you are entitled to paid leave. This obviously varies depending on the company and even the country (I’ll never understand the US system) so I can only really write about the UK. I’ve worked for my company for thirteen years so I am now entitled to 30 days plus Bank Holidays. I don’t actually like travelling over the Bank Holiday weekends due to price rises and the increased number of people but having 30 day off a year does mean I can be creative with booking trips.

I like to try and spread my time off out across the year, usually a day or two added to a weekend every 6-8 weeks, with longer breaks dotted in between. UK travel is just as important to me as foreign escapades and of course the possibility of last minute blogger events also require some creative thinking when it comes to taking time off work.

Tips For a Part Time Blogger

Take Notes

My biggest tip for being a part time blogger is to take notes. How you do this is completely up to you, whether you use the notes app on your phone or carry a notebook and pen. I personally prefer the latter but I do also tend to take photos of things that I want to remember (ie. signs, maps etc.)

Work in Batches

In order to get more done in short periods of time it is best to work in batches. I will usually start a post before I even go on a trip by drafting notes, then when I return I will go through all of the photos I have taken and will divide them out amongst the posts. Upon my return I then take the notes that I made in advance and fill in the details, fleshing out each post.

I then work on Pinterest images, affiliate links, SEO and finally proofread before scheduling the social media. I do this for all related posts, working on the posts for each trip as an individual project.

Schedule Everything

Find a posting schedule that works for you and then stick to it. Some bloggers manage to post every day, but be realistic, if you can’t manage this then don’t. Consistency is key to gaining a supportive and engaging audience but it is also important to know your limitations and not to overwork yourself to the point where you burn out. Especially if you’re not earning anything or don’t rely on the income from your blog to pay bills.

There are some great tools you can use to schedule your social media posts, so you don’t need to be attached to your phone every minute of the day.

Remember, even if you are managing to make a success out of being a part time blogger it is also important that you enjoy it. It is better to create better content less often than frequently post content that is of a lesser quality.

Publish Chronologically

Some bloggers may disagree with this, but for me the best way to blog about travel is to do so in chronological order. I can understand the logic of mixing up destination posts, in an effort to not bore the reader, but for me it would make it extremely difficult to remember details and create the content.

Take Breaks

As I said earlier, being a part time blogger is hard work. To run a blog, have a full time job and keep up with all of the general daily goings on, takes a lot of time. This is why scheduling is so important, so you can give yourself time off. You don’t need permission to do this, you can take as much time as you like.

I suffer from occasional headaches and migraines and so if I am feeling run down or particularly over tired I try to step away from screens, both laptop and phone and give myself that time to recover. Also, if I’m feeling really unmotivated or uninspired I won’t force myself to work as I know it will only result in rubbish content.

Don’t Accept Everything

It might seem like the ultimate goal of both a full and part time blogger is to get everything free, but actually complimentary products don’t help pay the bills, they do create clutter. At first when you start being accepted for blogging campaigns it can be difficult to see the negative side to this work.

The number one thing you need to think about before working with a brand is whether they and their product fits your lifestyle and your audience. I’m sure everyone would love the opportunity to stay in a luxury exotic hotel, but if all of your blog posts are focused on budget travel then your readers aren’t going to buy into you suddenly publishing a gushing review of a five star hotel in the Maldives.

Don’t Compare Yourself

It is easy to sucked into the pit of comparison when you run a blog, whether it’s full time or part time. Looking at those around and wondering why you don’t have the same audience numbers or being offered the same projects to work on.

Everything about my blog has been organic and I am extremely proud of everything that has gone into it. Blogging has changed a huge amount over the years, I came into it relatively late and so don’t have the romanticised memory of what it used to be like. Bloggers are no longer just online diary writers, they are storytellers, photographers, designers, creators and business owners.

For me, blogging is still a hobby, I do it for fun and don’t need to rely on it for financial security. The most obvious thing being a part time blogger has given me is a creative outlet, it has also encouraged me to meet other like-minded people. I’m still an introvert, I find a lot of social interaction exhausting but to use a blogging event as a way of meeting new people and making friends then it is definitely a bonus.

I have also found an unexpected love of photography. I am definitely still learning and some of my photos do occasionally make me cringe but I am definitely working on improving my skills. My ultimate aim is to create a sense of the place I have visited and to be as honest with my audience as possible by showing them the reality of what I have seen and experienced.

I have no intentions to switch from being a part time blogger to being a full time blogger and even though I would love to work with brands that fit my style, I am also happy to have the freedom to create the content that I would love to read myself.

Are you a part time blogger?

How do you create your content?

Let me know in the comments.