Interested in the life of a blogger? I hope this post helps!
What does a blogger do?
Like, really.
How do they spend their days? What’s their routine like? How do they make money?
Simply…what does the life of a blogger look like?
If you’ve been asking yourself these sorts of questions, then I really don’t blame you.
I mean, we’ve all heard about bloggers. I think most people even have a sense of what they do (“they just write about stuff online, don’t they?”).
But the nuts and bolts remain a mystery.
And that uncertainty can be tough when you’re interested in starting a blog but yet to take the plunge. Unlike other “jobs”, you don’t really know what lies in store!
So, having been at this blogging thing for a few years now, I thought I’d try to make myself useful.
In this post, I’m going to detail everything I know about life as a blogger!
Read on to discover exactly what bloggers do.
What do bloggers do? Let’s find out!
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What Do Bloggers Do? [The Short Version]
Short on time and want the abridged version of this post?
Look no further. Here’s a rapid-fire run-down of everything most of the bloggers I know do each day (in no particular order):
FYI, most bloggers won’t do everything on this list. Yet every blogger will do most things on it…
- Find topics to write about
- Write about those topics
- Create a content calendar to organize future articles
- Edit old blog content to make sure it’s up-to-date and still relevant
- Groan out loud that they didn’t learn about SEO sooner
- Write articles (for free!) for other websites to gain exposure and backlinks
- Contribute to other blogger’s articles in return for exposure and a backlink
- Pitch big media outlets for even greater exposure and paid gigs
- Pitch brands to gain paid deals and sponsored opportunities
- Drink lots of coffee
- Respond to endless emails (ignoring the countless spammy ones)
- Create automated email campaigns to send out throughout the week/month/year
- Respond to comments on past blog posts
- Post and engage on social media
- Schedule future posts on social media
- Network with other bloggers (both online and in-person)
- Do/Try cool stuff that’s paid for or otherwise provided by brands in their niche
- Complete the terms of their deal with said brand (e.g. writing an article about whatever they did or received and/or posting on their social media profiles about their experience)
- Write e-books
- Edit photos
- Record and/or edit videos to post on YouTube or TikTok
- Create pins for Pinterest
- Moderate and interact in the Facebook groups they run
- Educate themselves on the ever-changing blogosphere
Truth be told, it’s actually quite hard to describe a day in the life of a blogger! Here’s why…
Life as a Blogger – A Caveat
Before I dive into this post, I should point out that life as a blogger is genuinely hard to pin down. Why?
Because it’s different for everyone!
Sure, there are definite similarities (hence the following section…).
But the reality is that no two bloggers’ lives will look exactly the same.
All sorts of factors come into play, like:
- Where they are in their blogging journey
- How many blogs they run (many bloggers have more than one!)
- The blogging niche they’re in, and
- How they make money from their site (if they do!).
People have varying intentions for their blog as well.
Some treat it as a hobby – a creative pursuit done in their free time. For others, like me, it’s a business. We want to monetize our blogs to earn a living.
Oh, and personalities have an impact too.
Blogger A might be super laid back and take things as they come. But Blogger B might be a total workaholic!
For all of these reasons (and more), life as a blogger can sound very different, depending on who you ask.
Nicely, there’s no a “right” or “wrong” way to be a blogger.
Ultimately, it’s up to each individual to figure it out for themselves…
Regardless of the individual differences, there are still many elements of a blogger’s life that’ll be similar for everyone. More on this next!
A Day in the Life of a Blogger – Key Features
Having given you that entire spiel, though, there are definitely things most bloggers have in common with their schedules, habits, and routines!
Likewise, I suspect anyone reading this post is interested in a particular type of blogger:
The ones who do it full-time and earn a living from it.
If that’s the case, then this section should help. Here are the key features of a typical day in my life as a blogger:
1. The Day Job
Did you know that only 10% of bloggers make over $10,000 each year?
Crazy, right?
It’s not as much as many people think when they first start blogging!
Don’t get me wrong, making money from your blog is 100% possible, but it can take years to build it up to a full-time source of income.
As a result, most bloggers I know (including yours truly!) have a “real job” to pay the bills while they work on their site on the side.
So, because I’m a professional content writer, the brunt of my day is actually spent writing for other peoples’ websites!
For the last 2+ years I’ve been working on What’s Danny Doing in the afternoons, evenings, weekends…and whenever else I can squeeze it in.
This definitely isn’t the case for every blog owner out there though!
Some of the biggest earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
I’m guessing their days look very different to mine!
When you’re starting out though, expect to spend a big chunk of your time simply doing your day job, just like everybody else.
2. Research and Writing
When I’m not putting posts together for other peoples’ websites, my main focus is writing them for mine.
Upon starting a blog, though, you soon realize you can’t just write anything you want!
Well…you can.
But nobody’s going to read it (apart from your friends and family).
With hundreds of millions of blogs on the internet, you’d have to be crazy lucky to land on page 1 of Google and start welcoming readers your site! Sure, social media is an option, but you need a big following to get web traffic from it.
The secret to success?
Research!
You have to find what people are searching for online first and then create a blog post on that specific topic.
Check out this article to learn more about this aspect of blogging (and 99 others).
Only when you have the topic do you set about writing.
And the writing part can take aaaages, depending on the length of your article.
I type fast, but I could still spend an entire afternoon researching and writing a 2,000 to 3,000 word post!
What does a professional blogger do? Alongside everything else, they respond to countless emails!
3. Emails
No article on the life of a blogger would be complete without mentioning the emails.
I probably get a dozen or more each day (not including the ones going straight into my spam folder).
And I’m one of the lucky ones.
Some bloggers get huuuundreds.
Now, it’s awesome when you get emails from people who have read your stuff and want to thank you.
Those emails are different – I’d be stoked if my inbox was full of them!
Unfortunately, the majority are from companies who want something from you. The persistent ones even send 3, 4, or 5+ different follow-up emails over the course of a week!
I ignore the vast majority.
I skim my inbox each day for messages that matter, respond to any that do and then turn a blind eye to the rest.
That might sound harsh, but there are so many better ways to spend your time than replying to spammy emails that I tend to let myself off the hook on this one.
Other bloggers won’t have that luxury, though – especially if they rely on brand deals and sponsorships (that often come through via email) to make a living.
My best guess?
I reckon most bloggers spend 1-2 hours or more each day sending and replying to emails.
4. Marketing
Another major part of running a successful blog is marketing it.
With no marketing team to do it for you, it’s up to you, the blogger, to find ways to promote your content to the world.
From posting on social media and attending blogging meetups to emailing other bloggers, pitching major publications for exposure, and creating SEO content for Google, there are lots of options here.
Yet each marketing method has one thing in common:
They take time.
In fact, many bloggers devote much more of their days to marketing their content than writing it in the first place.
5. Other Content Creation
Most bloggers don’t just write a blog.
They take their own photos, have a TikTok account, a YouTube channel, post to Pinterest and record a podcast too, among others.
So, what’s that?
6 different types of content altogether?
…Photography…short and long-form videos…pins for Pinterest…audio recordings…and all alongside their articles.
When it comes to the everyday life of a blogger, then, you’re often either creating or editing one form of content or another.
What does a blogger do? For many, they get sent all sorts of cool stuff from brands to try out and review/promote on their sites!
6. “Proper Blogging Stuff”
When I picture the life of a blogger in my head, I think about people going on trips paid for by big brands, receiving fancy gear for free, and writing up their experiences to share with their audience afterward.
And that 100% happens for many bloggers.
However, that’s definitely not my experience of blogger’s life!
I’ve had a few small offers of this nature from businesses, but I’ve never taken them up on it.
Why?
Because that’s not my primary purpose for running a blog.
Remember, every blogger’s different! For me, I want to share inspiring content about travel, escaping the rat race, and living an awesome life.
And I also want my blog to earn passive income!
So I don’t necessarily want the trips, or the gear, or the responsibility of being an influencer.
…For me, it’s all about time.
I’m trying to do everything I can to build this blog to a point where it grants me full financial freedom.
That’s why I ditch the “classic bloggers life stuff” and write, write, and write some more (because that, in my experience, is the quickest way to build a lucrative, passive-income-earning blog).
In other words, I spend my life as a blogger doing things that align with my goals.
I imagine every other blogger does the same.
7. Living
I saw a quote once that went something like:
For art to imitate life, you have to have a life.
…It reminds me to step away from my computer!
I mean, there comes a point when you think, “I should probably go and do stuff so I have something to write about.”
After all, a big part of this blog is about travelling and taking control of your time.
So it’s a little ironic that I can spend my entire day sat in one spot, staring at a screen, all in a bid to grow the blog!
Alongside everything else, then, bloggers live their lives.
They do normal everyday stuff.
And then they do cool blog-related stuff too (e.g. a travel blogger exploring a new destination so they can write an itinerary for it).
Last but not least, here’s a quick note on how life as a blogger changes over time…
Blogger’s Life and How It Changes
Two final things to keep in mind on this topic:
First, a blogger’s life’s full of variety.
At a micro level, it’s rare for two days to be exactly the same (at a macro level, you might just be on the computer all the time…)!
It all depends on your specific to-do list for your specific blog; what you have planned and what needs to be done.
Second, all bloggers are on a journey.
They move from the early days of creating their site to (after years of hard work) turning it into an established business with a big audience.
Naturally, how they spend their day changes with it!
The larger their blog gets, the more help they’ll need to run it, which might mean hiring assistants, writers, and marketing pros.
They’re also likely to be offered lucrative brand deals more frequently, which means less writing and more doing that “cool blog stuff” I mentioned before.
They might start selling products through their sites too (e.g. blogging courses, apparel, and e-books…), which opens the door to all sorts of new and interesting projects!
Keep this in mind as you continue looking into the life of a blogger.
Like I said at the start, it really is different for everyone…
A Day in the Life of a Blogger
There you have it, then: an in-depth rundown of the life of a blogger.
As you can tell, there’s slightly more to a blogger’s life (and a lot more hard work) than many people think!
For what it’s worth, though, it’s an awesome thing to get your teeth stuck into, especially if you a) enjoy writing and b) get kicks from sharing your thoughts, experiences, and insights in the hope of making other peoples’ lives easier.
Are you interested in starting a blog of your own?
Make sure you check out this post for 200 original blog name ideas!