Behind the Scenes – A Day in the Life of a Full-Time Blogger

August 11, 2020

Do you ever wonder what the heck bloggers do all day?

 

Since this is probably the question I hear most often, I’m sharing the inside scoop about what a typical day is like in the life of a blogger.

 

Although every blogger has a different story and experience, most of us are doing similar things each week and month as we grow and monetize our blogs. And I’m here to shine some light on what it’s ACTUALLY like to be a full-time blogger!

 

 

{{ Our blog posts contain affiliate links. Full disclosure here. }}

 

 

I’ll preface this article with a little known fact: blogging as your full-time job is actually really hard work. Especially if you have kids or other responsibilities.

 

It’s fun and flexible, but it’s still work!

 

So, if you’re considering blogging as your career, don’t buy into the hype of making six figures while you’re lying on the beach with a margarita – for most of us, that isn’t what life as a blogger is actually like.

 

Here’s what IT IS like:

 

WHAT DO BLOGGERS DO ALL DAY?

 

It’ll be a little different for each person depending on where they are at on their blogging journey. A brand new blogger is usually working on building a foundation while a seasoned blogger works on growth or scaling.

 

But for the most part, bloggers are running their own online business.

 

Running a successful blog involves a lot of moving parts.

 

  • Researching
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Optimizing content
  • Marketing
  • Networking
  • Photography
  • Admin management
  • Social media management
  • Branding/Creating graphics
  • Working with PR companies
  • Working with brands
  • Working with affiliate managers
  • Continuing education

 

Yup – we wear a loooooot of different hats on any given day!

 

This isn’t meant to discourage you from becoming a blogger at all. Actually, quite the opposite.

 

If you’re a motivated entrepreneur that loves a challenge and wants to impact people with your writing, then blogging is a great career choice for you.

 

And if you want to know what my daily work schedule is like, I actually mapped out my typical work day here.

 

Even though *most* of our blogging days are full of writing, editing, and marketing (all that fun stuff), a lot of bloggers also participate in major local events, celebrity interviews, and sponsored trips!

 

That is one of the highlights of being a blogger that does sponsored work – you get to experience a lot of adventures, play with a lot of fun products, and try a lot of new things during your promotional efforts.

 

Let’s talk about what life is like for a blogger that does sponsored work to earn income! 

 

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BLOGGER

 

If you do sponsored work, you are essentially promoting products, tools, or services for another business or brand.

 

You’re sharing their stuff with your audience, either to raise awareness or to encourage clicks, shares, and sales.

 

One of my favorite sponsored gigs of 2019 landed my family in a beautiful city and a beautiful hotel, right on the beach.

 

Hotel room with beach view

 

I was attending a conference and I had a few companies reach out to me and ask if they could partner with me during my weekend getaway. Of course, my answer was yes!

 

Side note: THANK YOU to the companies that partnered with me on that sponsored weekend! Including Springhill Suites by Marriott + SwimZip.com! 

 

SPONSORED WORK ON SATURDAYS!

 

Here is what Saturday looked like for me and my family:

 

I woke up and handled all of my emails over a hot cup of coffee and this ocean view!

 

 

I usually have about 200+ emails to respond to every day. I got most of that done before my babies even woke up. Can you say #momgoals?!

 

After handling emails, I served my kiddos some good old-fashioned continental breakfast (Belgian waffles, anyone?) and did all of my regular blogging admin tasks while they were busy eating.

 

Yes, being a mom blogger does require some multi-tasking, but it’s so worth it.

 

 

Then it was time to have some sponsored fun before my conference!

 

“Sponsored” fun just means that companies paid me to explore their businesses and share their awesome stuff with my audience on social media. 

 

If you want to learn more about landing paid sponsored work, check out this article.

 

  • We swam in a rooftop pool overlooking the city and the ocean. 
  • Ate ice cream on the beach. 
  • Dipped our toes in the ocean.
  • Walked on the pier. 
  • Explored shops in the beach Harbor

 

 

 

 

After the family adventuring, my husband took over with the kids so that I could go to my business conference.

 

Another truth about the life of a blogger: plenty of learning and networking to be done (if you’re willing)!

 

Wanna learn how to pitch to brands and get paid? Grab my free guide below!

 

 

 

 

PREPARE AND ORGANIZE ON SUNDAYS!

 

Since my Saturdays are often filled with sponsored work, my Sundays become ‘prepare and organize’ days.

 

Whether I’m on the beach with my laptop or chillin’ at home in my PJs, my Sunday often includes these things:

 

  • Create my to-do list for the week
  • Complete all unfinished weekend tasks
  • Respond to remaining emails
  • Schedule all social posts and prompts
  • Moderate my Facebook groups

 

Even though we spent the whole weekend on the beach, my kiddos still took naps each day, and that’s when I got the bulk of my blogging work done. 

 

I’m a nap time ninja, my friend.

 

If you need help getting a handle on blogging efficiency during naptime, set up a call with me here and I’ll get you on track!

 

LIFE OF AN AFFILIATE MARKETING BLOGGER

 

As much as I looooove doing sponsored work, it isn’t for everyone.

 

If you want to blog for a living but you have no interest in doing sponsored work, then you can look into affiliate marketing.

 

Affiliate marketing is simply promoting products and services in exchange for a commission.

 

Yes, you’ll notice that all money-making blogs have to promote and sell things (just like every other successful business).

 

If your focus is on affiliate marketing, you’ll spend your blogging days creating lots of great content, optimizing that content, and marketing that content online.

 

You can learn more about affiliate marketing right here.

 

THE REALITY OF BEING A BLOGGER

 

After that sneak peek into the life of a blogger, you have some idea of what we do all day.

 

Most of us are writing, marketing, and sharing our knowledge and recommendations with our target audience every day. And then of course, we jump at the chance to take those sponsored trips that break up the monotony of online business! 

 

The reality is: blogging for work is fun, flexible, and challenging. It’s enjoyable work, but it’s still work. And it isn’t for the faint of heart.

 

It takes time, effort, strategy, and patience to grow a money-making blog. That’s just the truth.

 

But this website, my self-paced courses, and my online blogging community are alllll here to make your job just a little bit easier!

 

Be sure to pin this post so you can refer back to it later!

 

44 thoughts on “Behind the Scenes – A Day in the Life of a Full-Time Blogger”

  1. Kimmy Ripley

    Thank you for this post! I am staring to get a taste of the blogger life after starting mine up four months ago. I was thinking about how difficult this job could be with a blog that takes off. My goal is to make mine a great one and I am ready to commit the time and dedication to it.

  2. Iain Geddes

    Hey Cate,
    I’ve already started my blog and I’m currently in the stages of building it up slowly day by day.
    I started it because I felt the need to build something outside of my office job – something that would hopefully make me feel more fulfilled in life. It’s still early days, but I’m going to keep at it and hopefully, I will be able to nurture it into something great!

  4. Miranda

    I started my blog a year ago and launched it to the world 9 months ago. It has not been easy and I’m still trying to figure out a weekly schedule and learn the ins and outs of things like SEO. I wish I could say it has brought me the income I was expecting but it’s literally penny’s. But that’s manly due to lack of traffic to the blog. I’m trying to focus on Pinterest but it has been a very up and down battle

  5. Cate

    Sounds like you need to work on a strategy to help people find you and to earn income. Blogging income is rarely dependent on traffic, unless your primary income source is from ads. The best way to grow is going to be writing for a target market, the best way to earn income is tro provide that market with something valuable that they are willing to pay for! Hope this helps!

  10. Susan Potter

    Thank you for writing about your schedule and how much work it is to be a blogger! I love those pictures though! So gorgeous! It does take a lot of work, regardless if you’re starting from scratch or been around for years.

  11. Cate

    Yes, for sure! It’s so important to be honest about this stuff so that bloggers come into this biz with reasonable expectations.

  13. Cate

    It’s definitely hard work, but there are so many great tools out there that make it easier. This week only, the Genius Bloggers Toolkit is on sale, so definitely check that out, $6k worth of blogging courses for $97. Here is the link: sweetandsimplelife.com/GBTK2018 🙂

  14. Krystal Wilson

    Thank you for this! I am in the process of starting my lifestyle blog. I am super excited ! I haven’t launched anything. Just doing more research.

  15. Sara Michaels

    thanks for this post and sharing so behind-the-scenes – and also being real about what it actually entails: I.E. WORK.
    and that it isn’t for the faint of heart. I found your blog through a recommended pin on pinterest and have saved it for my daily reading for the week! sending all of the fellow blogger love your way. Happy Holidays! – xo, Sara

  19. Cate

    Thanks for reading! You can do it, just work on rekindling your life for writing and influencing people in a positive way!

  20. Vicki Lycan

    Thank you Cate for this article! I am still working on starting my blog and your article helped me address some of the work schedule issues that I have begun to discover. I am truly excited about this adventure and the journey I have begun. I love to help people in positive ways especially ways to “think outside the box”! Thank you again for this article!……Vicki

  22. Crystal

    I really appreciated how candid and raw you’d photos were — made me feel a lot like I was on the trip with you, but not in away that felt like it had to be perfection. Beautiful views.

  23. Cate

    Thank you! I definitely try to keep it real with my photos. As much as I love beautiful edited photos and filters, I prefer real life for the most part 🙂 Thanks for reading and commenting, I appreciate you so much!

  24. Dixie Tomchuk

    Hello
    I’m interested in starting a blog (.I’m from Manitoba Canada …..I have a fairly good idea about my topic and wonder how to even get it all going .

  26. Kristen

    I just discovered your post! I’ve been thinking about starting a blog to (hopefully!!) spend more time at home with my kiddos. I’ve been doing lots of research on how to properly go about it. I hope to start and launch one soon. Thank you for the ideas!

  28. Smith

    Hi cate, such an amazing ideas to start a blog on different niches. Really an useful post with clean and clear details. Thanks for sharing this post. Keep sharing.

  32. Alicia

    Ironically, I found your Pin on Pinterest but it was spam to someone’s youtube channel. (no worries I reported the pin to Pinterest) but luckily because you had your website title in your image, I just manually looked you up and thank goodness you have a search bar cause it helped me looked for the Pin I originally wanted to read! haha.
    Anywho, I’m already going to read 2 more of your blog posts and you gave me a huge idea from this post. I realized I could probably contact smaller hotel chains in nearly any city and talk to them about sponsoring my hotel stay in exchange for writing an article/blog post for their hotel while I am traveling and blogging. Do people really do this? I mean I’m ok with airplane tickets but it’s the hotel stays that really make a trip too expensive for me to afford, so now you got me looking into how to get sponsored posts. I’d blog in a heartbeat in exchange for a weekend stay somewhere in the United States!

  33. Cate

    Thank you for reporting that pin (this article is the one that gets stolen pretty much daily for some reason). As long as you are providing some kind of value/promotion for the hotel chain, you can pitch your ideas to them. I’ve landed a few, but usually only during off season. I’m glad the article was helpful!

  34. OakHippo

    Thanks for the post! Your life sounds fun and beautiful and busy, just what I hope to have one day. Right now I’m in the very beginning stages- waking up at 6 am to work on my blog, then working an 8 hour shift, then housework and blogging again. I hope that one day I can be a full time blogger too. 😊

  35. Rebecca | RestyledHomes

    Hey Cate,
    I love the truth behind this article. Isn’t it funny how most people don’t understand how bloggers make $ and the work involved? I’ve been blogging 5 months now. If possible I would love to get your opinion on my blog goals & strategy. Thanks – Rebecca

  37. Cate

    Thank you for reading and for being patient with me awaiting a reply – your comment absolutely made my day! Life is definitely fun and beautiful and busy, even during the harder times. Keep up the good work, you’ll get there!

  38. Dezzhans

    Hi Cate, how I wish I become a great blogger, buh I really don’t know, how I’ll be making money with my blog. ..please cate, can u give me some hints of making money with blogging!

  39. Cate

    Lots of helpful tips here on the blog. Browse around and let me know if you need any additional help.

  42. Debbie zachary

    Cate,
    I’m 62 and looking for a way to supplement retirement in a few years. But as much as being a income I want to share the journey that God has taken me on and contribute positively in someone else’s life. I’ve had an idea for a blog along the lines of “journey of a lifetime”, filled with plenty of life skills, but also a healthy dose of reality. I love to quilt and just helped my seven year old granddaughter complete her first quilt top. Along with her four year old sister, we also craft and cook a lot. But I also want this to be a positive place for a bi-weekly pick me up and to share stories and how they can have an impact on someone else going through the same. It will also be Christ centered to match my heart. In your opinion do I stand a chance or am I too all over the place? Sometimes I’m afraid no one would be interested.

  43. Cate

    I think the important thing is choosing a subject that is helpful to your very specific target audience. What are they searching for and how can your experiences and knowledge help them? Instead of trying to write about all the different things you like and do, focus on the reader and what they’re needing. That will help you choose the right direction for your blog.

  44. dipanjan biswas

    Hello Cate,
    Thanks for sharing this wonderful peace.
    Being a full-time blogger is really challenging and I am going through it.
    I am a blogger for the last 9 months and my every day is packed with lots of reading writing and social sharing.
    Your day-to-day life has really given me some positive vibes as I am not the only person going through this phase.

    Thanks
    Dipanjan Biswas

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