The Realities of Blogging

As many of you know I started TheBlonderLife while I was still in college as a class project, and later turned it into this full-time job. I was only following a handful of other bloggers at the time and had this mindset of what blogging was going to be like. Well, the joke was on me because now I’ve been blogging for over a year and want to share the reality of blogging!

blog tee || skirt (similar) || pink bow slides || tassel earrings

From the outside looking in blogging might seem like the most glamorous, easy job. But for the majority, it’s a ton of hard work and comes with a heavy weight of pressure.

Pressure to have all the latest trends. Pressure to put up a post every day. Pressure to capture everything on IG stories, snapchat, twitter, facebook… the list goes on. Pressure to edit your photos the best way. Pressure to keep your followers engaged. Pressure to be like everyone else.

It can be a lot for one person to handle.

Last weekend I had a pretty intense breakdown and contemplated giving up this blog altogether. I just kept asking myself if all of this pressure was really worth it. And in the end, it is.

Because of you guys.

Receiving any type of messages from my readers is what makes me happy, and why I work so hard on this blog. If you’ve ever messaged, e-mailed, commented, whatever just know I so appreciate it, and you are what makes this blogging world so worth it!

I wanted to write this post because I think a ton of people think blogging is solely online shopping and taking photos of yourself. That is probably 10% of what I do on a daily basis, and there is a ton of back end work that goes into this piece of the internet!

What It’s Really Like Being A Blogger

It never stops. Blogging is not a normal 9-5, 8-hour job. When I’m not writing an actual blog post there’s scheduling out social media, answering emails, interacting with followers, planning out my editorial calendar, pitching brands, shooting content… It’s truly a 24/7 job.

The kicker is that holidays, weekends and vacations are prime for bloggers. Vacation photos always perform really well, and that means you have to devote a few hours out of your vaca to shoot looks, create content and then post it to 3 different platforms. Christmas? Gift Guides are huge, and what you guys are always looking for throughout December, which means December is the rush time for most style bloggers.

When the clock hits 5 pm I don’t turn off my computer and completely disconnect from blogging. It can be quite the opposite. I usually am still working on posts well into the nighttime, and am browsing through Instagram connecting with you guys!

The comparison game is real. When I first started out I thought growth would basically happen overnight, and it obviously didn’t. I was looking at girls who started around the same time as me and wondering what I was doing wrong.

As an industry that is based mainly on numbers, it’s tough to not define yourself on how many followers you have, or your monthly visitors.

When I have those days where I’m focusing too much on how many Instagram followers I have I think about what really matters at the end of the day. If I woke up one morning with 100,000 new followers would that really make me happy in the long run? Probably not.

I just have to take a step back, and think about why I love blogging.

Not everyone will understand it. Most people don’t see how blogging can be a job, and will make that pretty clear. It’s definitely not a conventional job, and there always has to be a long explanation after telling someone I’m a blogger.

Even though the blogging world has exploded there are still people out there that don’t really get it. People will look up my blog right in front of me and make the assumption that all I do is shop 24/7. Ha, I wish.

With people not understanding blogging also comes a lot of hate, and lack of support. I’ve had friends unfollow me, or make fun of my blog behind my back. Again, not everyone gets it and I’ve learned to not take it personally!

You wear many hats. As a blogger, you are the CEO, writer, photographer, marketing manager, and editor rolled into one. Blogging is hard work – it isn’t just online shopping and taking pretty photos. It takes a ton of time and hard work to make everything look so effortless.

I hope you learned something, and maybe have more respect for what actually goes into blogging each day! If you’re a blogger yourself what was something you weren’t expecting when you started blogging? Or something most people don’t understand about blogging?

Love to hear from you guys!

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