I have found my dream job. It’s running a business, it’s writing, it’s pouring a large chunk of my soul and most of my energy into sitting on my laptop and sharing my experience and opinions through creative writing and graphic design. It’s finding genuine connections through networking and playing with web design-
It’s blogging. And in 2014 I realized that there are thousands of people making their incomes from their websites, and from that moment on I knew that is what I wanted to do with my career.
Everyone has their own reasons, but here are the central reasons I was ultimately influenced to become a blogger:
1. It’s for writers
As little as 15 years ago blogs were considered online journals. Although monetization has radically changed the functions of blogging, the foundation has remained the same – it’s for writers. I wanted to ‘be a writer’ when I grew up for as long as I could remember. Writing, at its very core, is communicating. With a blog, no matter how popular it may be, I get to write down and communicate my thoughts and feelings to others. As a writer, that’s truly what I want to do as a fulfilling career.
2. The schedule flexibility
I work when I want. I wake up in the middle of the night and feel like writing. I finish a quick post before I get started on dinner. My flight is delayed an hour, so I can put in work when I wasn’t even expecting to, or my cat gets sick and I have to go to the vet-which is fine, because I have no set hours of sick time and no set schedule (it’s awesome, you guys. Make Your Own Schedule Jobs rock). More and more, people are demanding this type of work flexibility, and I refuse to settle for anything less than letting myself live a relaxed schedule where I call the shots.
3. The income potential
Making a living from blogging doesn’t come fast or easy. It’s not for the faint of heart and the most successful bloggers I know are truly entrepreneurs at heart. That being said, the average blogger doesn’t making a sustainable living. But the second you decide to blog full-time, you are much more than an average blogger. Getting a good idea of the salary for various bloggers can be difficult, but from what I can estimate, I’ve found there are at least several hundred 6-figure bloggers and thousands who are making hefty chunks of change wavering below that mark. Maybe I’m being a bit too optimistic, but I have every intention to join them.
If you’d like even more info on how to become a blogger yourself, check out:
How Bloggers Make Money with Affiliate Sales
4. The autonomy of a blog
I’m gearing up to fly to the Midwest and spend a week at a wedding before coming home to close on a home and move, while preparing to rent out my current home within the same week. Phew, just writing that exhausts me! So, because it’s going to be madness for me and my household for a few weeks, I’m currently going HAM on my blog. I’ve crunched writing a lot of posts into a couple of days so that I can clear my work schedule for a couple of weeks. It’s simple to write posts in WordPress and schedule an automated posting date. The same applies to my social media updates, which I handle through Buffer.
Don’t get me wrong- Blogging requires a very significant amount of effort, but the beauty lies in the fact that your effort can be exerted at the times you want it, and that blogs are capable of continuing to generate income for you even when you are out traveling or focusing on your personal life. It’s not an easy job, but the balance is much more manageable than a 40-hour-a-week desk job.
5. Blogging gives back to you what you put into it
I try not to focus on the sheer amount of late-nights and painstaking devotion I put into certain tasks at my desk job for four years. It’s something I know I needed to experience, but the empty return still upsets me when I think about it too much. Creating a blog is creating a website and it is hard work – but it’s hard work I’m rewarded for. The more time I spend on studying the blogging industry, cleaning up my site and writing posts, the more popular my blog becomes. It’s a direct reflection of the quality and quantity of the effort I’m putting into my work, and that’s something I never realized I was deeply lacking until I started my own business venture through my blog.
6. The opportunity to meet new people
I had a lot of relationships at my corporate job, and losing the social aspect of work was a significant worry for me when I quit my job and transitioned into a blogger. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was meeting genuine people in a thriving and friendly community. Even though it was over the internet, I was quickly developing contacts and even supportive friendships that were mutually beneficial for both of our online businesses. There are literally thousands of you out there, and you’ve all been insanely cool. These fellow successful and positive bloggers give me daily motivation to keep blogging. I’m also connecting with my readers, which is creating new opportunities for myself both personally and professionally.
7. You get to be inspiring
If you’re good with people and into inspiring them, blogging could be an ideal career choice for you. I have read many blog posts that have been inspiring to me as a reader. For me, I absolutely wanted a job where I was able to help others (while getting to make money for myself while I did it). Your blog is a free resource and can be viewed by anyone in the public arena, so you never know who might be feeling exactly like you do one day and just needing to get confirmation that others feel that way, too.
8. It’s a dirt cheap startup
Seriously, as far as owning your own business, this is about as cheap as it gets. (Taco Bell requires a net worth of $1.5 million and then $750,000 cash. I’ll come for you one day my precious). Here’s an estimate of what I’ve spent for a year’s worth of blogging:
$324 for my online blogging class that literally changed my life (for the better, Ruth’s awesome)
$99 for a trademark
$99 for a theme for my website and amazing customer support help from Pretty Darn Cute Designs (Susan, I will be grateful to you until the end of time for your help!)
$50 for a year of webhosting with Bluehost (I highly recommend using check them as the downtime is extremely minimal and the customer service stellar)
$33 for a year of image editing software with PicMonkey
$125 for a really comfy office chair
Total = $730
Not too shabby for a business with a six figure potential.
(Guys! The links above may result in a small commission for me (yay!) if you sign up through them, but I would put all of these companies/tools on my blog regardless because they are awesome)
9. I get to keep learning
This past week I was doing research for two blog posts topics that I already knew a lot about but wanted to share with others. During that research, I learned how there’s way more cool cities with coworking opportunities than I thought. I learned also learned that there are at least 67 companies that hire remotely. As a blogger, my job is to literally learn and pass on that knowledge as I grow my own business.
I look at it as I’m majoring in career flexibility and the workplace revolution but the university is my own personal career, so take that, student loans!
10. I get to be myself
As nerve-wracking as it can be to put your opinions, thoughts and even pictures on the internet, I’ve found more support and appreciation for my personality online than I ever did at my desk job. I was passed over for a couple of promotions during the beginning of my tenure in the corporate world, and a major unifying factor in the feedback I received each time was that I needed to adjust my attitude. ‘Everyone knows what you are feeling when you are feeling it’ a supervisor told me once, in a performance review. I was verbal about situations or customers that upset me. I didn’t run and scream up and down the halls trashing people’s desks and sobbing, but I would break out in hives or scoff. That is absolutely, 100%, just who I am. I felt terrible about it at my desk job. With blogging, you are actually asked to have a voice. Your unique tone and ways you react to different experiences are what your readers are on your blog for, not just to mindlessly scroll through list posts. For a really mind-blowingly good example of getting to be yourself as a blogger, I recommend visiting The Middle Finger Project. Every day.
11. To add relevant skills to my resume
I’ll give it to my corporate job – it absolutely taught me how to navigate an Excel sheet, build reports in Salesforce and use (my company’s exclusive) CRM. But in just the first year of blogging, My resume has become way more plump than it was during the four years at my office job.
In one year I have taught myself a wide array relevant skills that at my last job were reserved for more fun and laid back teams like the marketing department (I was pigeon-holed in sales because of layoffs, part of what caused me to Fail to Climb The Corporate Ladder). I’ve learned how to network online within my industry, design logos, graphics and images, SEO, to use CSS to build a custom website, operate WordPress inside and out, how direct sales companies work, about affiliate marketing, how to use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn for business. I’ve learned how to create a business for myself, and these are tools most desk jobs wouldn’t dare teach you, but are busy scrambling to find new-hires that have these skills.
12. To be around my children
I don’t have any, but I might one day. And if I do, I want to spend as many seconds around them as possible during their itty-bitty stages (with reasonable self-love breaks). The day I watched a coworker crying in the bathroom and telling me, ‘I miss my baby so, so much’ after returning from maternity leave. Not that there is anything wrong with women who do choose to return to work full-time, I just have a personal preference that I’d like to not work in an office once I have kids.
13. To share my passion for the work flexibility movement
At my desk job, I wanted nothing more than to travel. I asked repeatedly to be sent on trips and was denied due to ‘budget restraints’ while I listened to others complain about how much they were forced to travel by the company. Out of that aching frustration I began learning about the work flexibility movement. Now that I’m a blogger, I get to wildly advocate for remote workers, and because it’s so important to me, it is easily one of the most satisfying things about blogging.
Ready to get serious about your work from anywhere job search? I whole-heartedly recommend Flexjobs, the site where I found my first freelance writing gig. There are zero scams on their site and they have their own 100% remote team, too!
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