at what point do you start calling blogging your work?

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It’s 2018, people around the world are able to create an online empire from the comfort of their own bed and make a ton of dolla from it. Young women are pioneering the idea that you can create a brand out of yourself and turn it into a fully fledged career – running your own business, working for yourself, earning a good income all by creating content around what you’re doing, thinking and wearing. Now that this whole blogging thing has become a viable career option for many, there are countless blog posts written about how to become a full time blogger, what made someone decide to quit their ~proper~ job and take the leap into blogging as their sole source of income. Of course this is when you can class blogging as your ‘job’, but in terms of shooting and editing pics, writing posts, creating content, curating your feed, scheduling tweets to promote your blog posts – all of these things are ‘work’, it’s work you have to put into your blog. You need to set aside time in your day for the upkeep of your blog and social media profiles and for creating imagery and words to go onto these platforms. If blogging isn’t your job, can you still call this work? If so, when do you start calling it work?

I feel like blogging is one of those things where, unless you yourself blog, you won’t truly understand it. My friends are often shocked at how much time I have to invest in my blog, even when it’s not my career. Whilst I’m always going to prioritise uni over my blog for as long as I’m there trying to get my degree, I need to set aside a good chunk of my time during the week to ensure I can get enough content to fulfil my two posts a week schedule and manage to upload to the gram as much as possible throughout the week, then every night I do not allow myself to sleep until I’ve scheduled my blog post tweets for the following day.

It’s a lot more work than I anticipated, I’ve only really been taking this blog seriously since December and been doing my 2x a week schedule since mid January, the sporadic blogging I did for the couple of years before this wasn’t that time consuming because I didn’t go out to shoot street style content and I barely posted so didn’t need to think of ideas and then write those out multiple times a week, let alone multiple times a month. This is why I believe that you’ll never really get blogging unless you’re doing it. So, when I take time out of my day to do all these things, can I say I’m doing work?

I blog because I enjoy it, I’m not out here with some ulterior motives for free shit and earning dolla but if that comes off the back of my hard work (and it fits my brand) I’m not going to say no. I do take my blog seriously, I actually didn’t enjoy blogging anywhere near as much until I started taking it seriously. I enjoy having a creative outlet, I enjoy planning outfits and how I want my photos to look, I enjoy playing with VSCO filters to curate my insta even if I’m indecisive af and like a different filter every week, I enjoy writing about things I’m loving, things I’ve experienced, questions I want to ask, thoughts I’m having, I don’t enjoy scheduling my tweets at night when all I want to do is shut my eyes and sleep but it doesn’t take that long and there is no point me putting all the effort into creating content if I won’t get it out there so it’s a tiny sacrifice worth making. But, these things are time consuming and, even though I have fun doing most of these things, I take them seriously and I care about how it all turns out – so is this work? Am I working?

I don’t have a job at the moment because being first year at uni it’s been harder than I expected to find a job considering I’m never there outside of term time and I don’t have anywhere to live during the Summer because, ykno, student accom runs out in June/July and student house lease doesn’t start until September. I’ve made a little bit of money from this blog but it’s not exactly my job – far from. But the only source of income I’ve had since quitting my retail job last September (aside from my loan which is ach way under my accommodation cost and my weekly allowance) has come from this blog. Even if it hadn’t, do we need to be earning from our blogs to call it work? If we want to put the time and effort into our blogs regardless of whether it’s a hobby, a part time job or a fully fledged career shouldn’t we be able to tell people we’re ‘working’ or ‘doing work’ when it comes to writing posts, shooting pics etc?

yasminstefanie i am gia pixie teddy coat topshop french slogan jumper

coat – i am gia // jumper – topshop // jeans – topshop // headband – amazon // shoes – adidas

I’m pretty lucky that I’m on a journalism course at uni, because people get it to an extent. My friends get it because they’re around me to hear or see what I’m doing for my blog and sometimes help me out with getting photos and know that sometimes I need to ~do it for the ‘gram~. Other people on my course appreciate that it’s a form of journalism, I’ve barely mentioned my blog before but people are generally impressed when they find out that I get a decent, albeit small, monthly readership and have earned some money, and they get that writing posts is basically journalism but writing for yourself rather than a publication. However, people who don’t blog or who perhaps come into blogging with what you could call the wrong intentions, they focus on the wrong things and can try to exploit you for it. They try to challenge you on the validity of your blog by asking for specific numbers in terms of followers, blog views, money made or they ask who the ~biggest blogger~ you know is and if they can get in touch. For me, none of these things are why I blog. I don’t want to look like I’m only in blogging to leech off of other bloggers I know, and I don’t need to justify myself to anyone by stating my views or income or people I know through blogging.

I guess this is part of the reason why I’m so hesitant to say ‘I’m doing work for my blog’ or ‘I’m working’ when I’m creating content, because people who don’t blog can’t wrap their heads around the fact that just because you don’t have 100k followers and make £500 per Instagram post your blog can’t qualify as work or something you put that much into. If I was to start calling blogging ‘working’ I’d be met by ‘oh? how many followers do you have?’ and when I say 2k on twitter and 700-800 on insta I’ll then be met with a look. Like, umm that’s nothing so you can’t possibly be working. Of course I don’t need to tell these people, I don’t care what they think, but I understand that people who aren’t in this industry are curious about it and won’t comprehend just how much goes into blogging whether or not you’re full time with thousands of followers and thousands of £££ in the bank. If I’m spending the afternoon shooting outfits or writing posts and call these things ‘working’ you can argue that I’m inviting people to challenge me on it by using the term work.

There are also bloggers who put way more time and effort into their content than me, perhaps because it is their only source of income and their career so they really need and want to work hard on it, and calling what I do ‘work’ can devalue what they’re doing when they’re doing The Most and I’m doing as much as I can alongside uni and I’m happy to put up a bog standard mirror selfie when I’ve run out of street style outfit photos and cba to go shoot more. Can I really call shooting outfits ‘working’ when I’m dedicating one afternoon to it every couple weeks when I’m back home and can go shoot in central Hove meanwhile others are going out multiple times a week, changing on the street and seeking out locations that are effort to get to?

yasminstefanie i am gia pixie teddy coat topshop french slogan jumper

Even if blogging is now your fully-fledged career, you will have started out writing posts and taking pics because you enjoy doing it and want to share what you’re wearing with the internet and you probably wouldn’t be able to take it on as a career if you didn’t still have the same sense of enjoyment about it all. You just continue to do something you’ve always had fun doing except now it’s grown into a career. But just because you enjoy doing something, it doesn’t mean it can’t qualify as work. If you’re going the extra mile to create content for your blog as opposed to your friends who just take selfies in their bedrooms and upload them to Instagram where their colleagues and peers will like their photos.

It’s easy to stand in your room and take a pouty selfie in front of the window to get good light, it’s harder to go and find an aesthetically pleasing street or coffee shop or shop front, stand in front of it whilst strangers walk past and stare, and prance around in front of the camera whilst your mum / friend / instagram husband / photographer contorts their body so they can hold the lens at a certain angle to get the shot you want. Then you need to take the photo through your editing app(s) of choice and edit it so it fits in with the rest of your photos to create a cohesive feed. If this is the amount of work you are putting in, surely it is work that you’re doing? Or is it just your choice to put in more effort than non-bloggers so you need to put up and shut up and not call it working?

I’m really interested to hear what everyone thinks about this – bloggers and non-bloggers. Do you think it has to be your breadwinning career to be able to call it work? Do you think putting the time and effort in allows you to say you’re ‘doing work’ for your blog? Did you even realise this much effort went into blogging? Do you put in 10x this effort and find it offensive that someone who puts in 10x less also calls it work?

Yasmin

yasminstefanie i am gia pixie teddy coat topshop french slogan jumper

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27 Comments

  1. Kat
    April 9, 2018 / 10:18 am

    I really think non-bloggers don't realise how much work is required to run a blog. People ask me why I spend so much time after work, or on the weekend, blogging!

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      April 9, 2018 / 12:00 pm

      definitely!!! that's why I'm questioning if I should start telling them I'm 'doing work' when I'm doing blog stuff so they accept that what I'm doing is important and time-consuming haha

  2. Seyi A
    April 10, 2018 / 1:02 pm

    Blogging takes so much work and I would call it a job! It down to you if you would consider it a job, I think most people call it a job when you start earning, plus cute outfit!, I am loving the coat.www.seyioa.comSeyi x

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      April 11, 2018 / 2:33 pm

      totally agree! thanks so much gal X

  3. Maria H Trejo
    April 25, 2018 / 4:24 pm

    I made my blog about 5 years ago because I wanted to chronicle my personal style and see how it has evolved over time. I kept forgetting to post and now that I am in college and have a more flexible schedule I find myself going out of my way to take outfit pictures. I constantly work on editing my pictures and focusing on making sure my content gets better and better. Ideally this would be my full time job but getting a degree is also very important to have a stable income. Its hard work, and I haven't earned any money from blogging, at least not yet.

    • yasminstefanix
      Author
      June 16, 2018 / 10:53 am

      yep definitely hard to balance it all with college / a degree but worth the hard work in the end! X

  4. Greatness Reinvented
    May 9, 2018 / 2:18 pm

    Creating great content takes time skill and effort so you can 100% call it working. The challenge comes to really monetise it earn a good living from it. GR | https://www.thegreat.uk

  5. Holly Watkins
    May 10, 2018 / 8:31 pm

    Not everyone can write good, interesting posts that people want to read. Not everyone can take and edit photos that others want to see. It takes a lot of effort. I’ve only really started taking my blog seriously since March when my son cameAlong. I want to earn an income from it and make it my “job” but I would 100% say “blogging is what i do”. Personally I do think for something to be your job you do have to be earning money from it. Whether that be £10 per month or £104893 a month. Who really cares how much, ok we’d all like it to be the bigger number LOL, but yeah I do think to call something your job you need to earn money from it. However, it 100% is a lot of work. And I do think you can call it work. There just my views. Y’know I always love your posts. They get me thinking.Much love Holly http://heyitsok.co.uk

    • yasminstefanix
      Author
      June 16, 2018 / 10:40 am

      oh you absolute babe, thankyou so much! so interesting to hear your views on it X

  6. Aleeha and Lucy - HALE
    May 27, 2018 / 4:37 pm

    I totally agree. Blogging takes so much time, effort and hard work that other people on the outside of the community don't realise! I don't blame them to be honest because when I started blogging I didn't think it would become so time consuming. I find it so hard to balance alongside A-levels, but I really enjoy it so I will always make time for it!Aleeha xXxhttps://www.halesaaw.co.uk/

    • yasminstefanix
      Author
      June 16, 2018 / 10:34 am

      yes definitely, you never realise just how much time and effort goes into it unless you do it so there needs to be a way to get others to realise! X

  7. Rosa Fairfield
    May 30, 2018 / 5:21 pm

    I think it is a really interesting topic. I call anything work, if I have career aspirations in that particular area, if money is involved or not. http://ohduckydarling.com

    • yasminstefanix
      Author
      June 16, 2018 / 10:33 am

      it’s so interesting to see everyone’s different thoughts about it!

  8. July 12, 2018 / 10:04 pm

    This was a really great post and had me thinking a lot. I think it is definitely work, I am the same as you I make some money off of my blog but not enough to be ‘full time’, but if I am working on my blog, I’ll call it exactly that because it is something I am putting time/effort into.

    Shay x aseatwithshay.com

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      July 16, 2018 / 2:55 pm

      thankyou so much! I feel the same as you X

  9. July 12, 2018 / 10:35 pm

    Love this! I have a similar following (3K on Twitter and 900 on Insta) and I think people don’t take my blog serious because my following is quite moderate – especially non-bloggers

    http://www.theemeralddove.co.uk

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      July 16, 2018 / 2:55 pm

      thankyou! yep I think lots of people who don’t blog don’t realise that it takes just as much effort regardless of numbers

  10. July 19, 2018 / 11:04 pm

    As a fellow blogger this gave me a lot to think about. There are days when I do question why I’m doing it. Part of me thinks I should be focusing my time and energy on something that is going to benefit me financially. But for me doing my blog isn’t about money, it’s about improving my writing so I feel confident enough to start approaching publications to.write for them. It’s also a challenge for me to see if I can stick with it and develop something. But it isn’t easy and I do continually question whether with so many blogs out there there really is any point.

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      July 24, 2018 / 11:04 am

      it’s definitely a struggle and there are always times where you’ll sit and ask yourself what’s the point but as long as you’re getting anything out of it – enjoyment, experience, confidence and, yes, maybe money – whatever it may be then it’s worth it if you can take something positive from it!

  11. September 4, 2018 / 8:42 am

    I have only just started blogging but you know what? i really underestimated the work load. Keeping up with twitter, insta and your blog itself is so hard and a lot to deal with, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love writing and editing photos etc.. PS.. your coat is gorg!! xx

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      September 6, 2018 / 2:27 pm

      it’s always so much more work than we ever expect, but I guess that’s the point! thanks gal X

  12. September 15, 2018 / 8:08 pm

    I personally think that non-blogger doesn’t understand that some of the blogger if not many blogger create a lot of content in order to get their incomes (ya know depend on the traffic and etc…) we have to think what content are we going to post the day, what photo we want, how we’re going to edit and etc…It can be overwhelming but I think it a pay off when we get traffics and incomes
    Also you look super badass!
    Michelle| http://www.brokebutflawless.com

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      September 28, 2018 / 1:42 pm

      awh thanks babe! yep, I think they don’t realise that you have to put the work into your blog in order to turn it into something bigger if you wish to, so even when it’s not a legit job or your main money maker it’s still super hard work and super time consuming! X

  13. October 10, 2018 / 10:44 pm

    it definitely takes a ton of hard work. I am not full throttle blogger yet but I already see how much hard work it will take me and its an exciting feeling!

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      October 14, 2018 / 4:46 pm

      yes it doesn’t even have to be a daunting thing, it’s exciting knowing you’re going to be working hard for it!

  14. January 19, 2019 / 9:07 pm

    I think blogging is such an amazing platform! To be able to say hell yeah I got paid for that is such an amazing thing! Outside people see it as a hobby but if I can make a good go at this I will! All the best x

    • Yasmin Stefanie
      Author
      February 3, 2019 / 6:36 pm

      deffo agree! thanks babe! X

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