Dear Miss Britt,

Congratulations. Your wildest blogging dreams have come true: someone offered to pay you for blogging.

I know. You can hardly believe it.

Of course, the reality hasn’t turned out to be quite what you’d been fantasizing about ever since you heard about some woman in Utah who makes an entire living writing about her kid and her dog on the Internet. No one ever did come along with blank checks asking to put discreet ads in the sidebar of your personal blog, allowing you to quit your job and just chat on the Internet all day. Turns out it doesn’t even work like that for that woman in Utah. Not really.

But you said you wanted to “be paid to blog,” and you’ve gotten your big chance. In fact, in the span of about two years you’ll go from making $35 for a guest post on that one blog, to making $120 for weekly posts on that other blog, to quitting your job to write on the Internet all day.

Yes, believe it!

Now, the bigger question is, how in the heck are you going to find the time to write on as many as 10 blogs a week, and still manage to write on your own non-paying blog?

You’re having a little bit of an anxiety attack right now just thinking about it, aren’t you?

Understandable. Crafting a blog post that is worthy of a paycheck comes with more emotional and creative pressure than pounding out random missives on your personal blog. It takes more time and energy, and you’ll often feel weighed down by the responsibilities to multiple editors and audiences.

You’ll be tempted to let that old, personal blog gather dust in the corner until you have free time.  After all, free blogs should now be relegated to free time, right?

Not so fast.

Before you let all of your blogging time get eaten up by your paid gigs and let your “free” blog get woefully neglected, consider this:

Your “free” blog made you a writer. Like any artistic endeavor, writing requires constant practice for improvement and any level of mastery. Blogging got your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard on a consistent basis, which is what elevated your writing to the point of being marketable. Continuing to blog will keep you learning and evolving. Sure, you’ll technically still be blogging when you’re doing it for money, but writing for an editor’s agenda is a very different thing than writing for yourself.

Keeping up with your own blog is one of the best ways to keep your product (your writing) strong.

Your “free” blog built you an audience. The warm and fuzzy angle here is that you shouldn’t forget the value of the community that has developed around your blog. That’s a valid point. However, should you be tempted to forgo warm and fuzzy in lieu of groceries and utilities, understand that abandoning your community would be bad business.

Never forget that professional blogging is just as much about the audience as it is about your ability to craft a post. In fact, some blogging editors are even more concerned with the number of eyeballs you can bring to their page than they are with the quality of your content. Treat your audience with the care, time and attention they deserve as both a support system and as a major factor of your present and future success.

Your “free” blog had a purpose. You had a reason for having your own blog. It filled a need in your life that probably still exists. Don’t let the practical need to pay your bills become the only need in your life that you prioritize. Money isn’t everything. If your personal blog still inspires you, brings you joy, or gives you a purpose that goes beyond finances, remember that those benefits matter. Make time to feed those needs for yourself.

OK, so we’ve established that you shouldn’t become one of those bloggers who starts writing everywhere but their own blog. You understand why you need to make the time to maintain your own blog. But how?

The initial transition is the hardest. If you still only have a certain amount of time set aside for blogging and are now expected to produce more content in that time, it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out that something has to go. But what will that something be? Family time? Meals? Showering?

Let me save you a little embarrassment and tell you the results of that experiment: personal hygiene is not, in fact, optional. Neither is spending time with your friends and family, unless you want to end up wildly successful on the Internet and hopelessly alone in real life.

What’s left?

The truth is that finding the time for extra blogging is the easy part. You can watch less TV and spend fewer hours on Twitter and easily have enough time for a part-time blogging career without giving up anything essential in your life. This will require a little self-discipline at first, but it can be done if you have a significant reason for wanting to be a professional or semi-professional blogger.

What will be exponentially more difficult is coming up with the creative energy to produce all that content. More than time limits, this is why you’ll find yourself tempted to skip out on your own blog posts. You’ll feel as if you’ve given every ounce of artistic juice you’ve got to the people who pay you for it, leaving nothing left for your own blog.

How can you keep up with the increasing demands on your creative energy when you start juggling multiple blogging and writing projects?

Organize your ideas. Coming up with the initial idea for a post is usually the hardest part, especially from a creativity standpoint. It’s far more difficult to wrench a thought from thin air than it is to flesh out an idea. Make sure every idea you get is put into a safe place to be fleshed out when you have time. Spoiler alert from (slightly) older and (significantly) wiser you: you’ll like Evernote for this.

Take advantage of “the flow.” Remember when you used to be able to throw together a blog post at your kitchen table with the noises of the household swirling around you? Yeah, that won’t work for massive creating. It takes twice as long to produce half as much low quality work when you’re distracted. Put yourself in the best position possible to be able to do your best for extended periods of time. For some people, that means listening to music or going to a Starbucks.

Beyond that, it’s up to you to just do it. Take a look at what’s important to you and consider removing a few less important things from your life in order to make room. Be very clear on why you want to put this added stress on yourself.

But mostly, relax. You got this. You’re going to be amazed when you see what kind of work ethic you’re capable of when you really love what you’re doing.

Love From The Future,

Miss Britt

P.S. Don’t bother buying those lottery tickets.

Britt Reints

Britt Reints began writing on a personal blog as “Miss Britt” in 2005. She has since launched a successful freelancing career, working as a professional blogger for group blogs, corporate blogs and travel blogs. In June, she'll be taking that career on the road as she and her family travel full time around the United States in an RV.

Website - More Posts

Share/Bookmark