Day In The Life Of A “Preblogger”
January 11, 2009 by Jason
No, that’s not a typo. If a “problogger” blogs full-time for a living, then I must only be a “preblogger,” because I cannot afford to quit my full-time job, but cannot afford to quit blogging, either. The majority of bloggers out there are prebloggers, working at a job or as a work-at-home parent while making at least a part-time living as a blogger. Only a select few are successful enough to graduate to problogging status.
What Does a Blogger Do, Exactly?
To those who have never given blogging a try it might seem like a simple activity. I felt that way before I started. I mean, how hard is it to sit down and write out your thoughts on a particular subject for a few minutes each day? Well, any blogger will tell you that there is more work to blogging than meets the eye.
For starters, coming up with a steady stream of topics to share with your audience is a challenge. There are weeks when ideas seem to fall into your lap (conversations with friends spark an idea, another blogger’s post provides inspiration, etc.). And there are weeks when you suffer from severe writer’s block and feel like having to come up with yet another article on how to save money might actually cause physical pain.
Having an idea for a blog post is only half the battle. You have to actually write the post, and hope to do it in a semi-engaging fashion to entertain and inform your readers. If you are not writing with the idea of attracting readers, things get pretty lonely. After all, pouring your soul into a little visited blog is like giving the performance of your lifetime from the stage of an empty theater.
I usually spend thirty minutes to an hour writing, rewriting, adding links to and finding pictures for each post. Some are shorter, and some take much longer, but 30-40 minutes is probably a good average. When the post is complete I schedule it to be posted the next morning (or later that same morning, on some occasions) and that’s it, right? No, there’s more. Much more.
Interacting With Readers
You may have noticed at some point that I share my email address with readers in the contact section. I enjoy nothing more than hearing from readers either through comments or emails. I try to respond to each one, but often it takes me a couple days to work through the growing monster that is my inbox! And readers aren’t the only people that send me emails.
Advertisers, public relations reps, authors, bloggers, journalists, etc. all send messages. I don’t mean to imply each of these types email every single day, but that’s a pretty accurate sampling of the types of messages I get. When I first started blogging my daily emails totals were in the single digits, but now it is not uncommon to receive over 100 emails a day.
Marketing My Blogs
Up to this point, I have not spent any money advertising Frugal Dad, save a trial month of using Google Adwords. In the early stages my single advertising method was commenting on other blogs. I made a daily habit of commenting on 40-50 blogs. Unfortunately, that number has dwindled over time, and now I do good to leave comments on 10-20 of my favorites. I read many more blogs than that, but only have time to comment on a precious few. If you are new to blogging and want to attract readers, commenting on other blogs in your niche is a great way to get your name out there. Don’t just spam blogs with comments, but leave thoughtful remarks that add to the discussion.
My Typical Day
I thought it might be fun to give you a peek at my typical day. The problem is, I have no typical days. Over the last year I have tried to get into a routine of blogging early in the morning, or late in the evening, or when I first get home from work, but I find it hard to stick to any particular schedule. After all, I have a wife, two kids, a full-time job, two blogs, freelance projects, and an attention-starved Labrador (my third child) all competing for my attention. So, I have learned to adapt by squeezing in time to write when I can.
Since I am not as organized as other bloggers who manage to carve out regular time during their day for blog activities, I can only give you a sample schedule from this past Tuesday and Wednesday:
Tuesday
- 6:00am: Wake up, read through blog emails, review stats, make sure today’s post is up and running. Approve comments held for moderation.
- 8:00am: Arrive at my full time job.
- 12:00pm: Sneak a quick check of the blog stats, emails, moderate comments over lunch.
- 2:00pm: Travel to Atlanta to visit my mom (she’s been hospitalized the last 70 days recovering from a stroke)
- 11:00pm: Back home from Atlanta. Write tomorrow’s post, answer emails, moderate comments. Post five or six comments on other blogs. Check my snail mail, bills, bank account balance, etc.
- 1:00am: Lights out.
Wednesday
- 6:00am: Wake up, read through blog emails, review stats, make sure today’s post is up and running. Approve comments held for moderation.
- 8:00am: Arrive at my full time job.
- 12:00pm: Sneak a quick check of the blog, emails, moderate comments.
- 5:00pm: Skipped the gym and head for home.
- 6:00pm: Talked to a magazine editor about submitting an article.
- 7:00pm: Wrote first half of post after dinner, answered ten emails.
- 8:00pm: Bedtime routine with the kids.
- 9:00pm: Wrote second half of tomorrow’s post, checked on stats, sorted through emails (nearly 150 thanks to blog contest), made a small template change to Frugal Dad in an effort to improve blog monetization, read snail mail, checked stats at my blog host, thumbed through new Kiplingers magazine for inspiration, outlined three blog post ideas.
- 12:30am: Lights out.
The Tipping Point
As you can see, there isn’t much free time in that schedule. Somewhere in there I also interact with readers and friends on Twitter, and Stumble a few articles each day for use in roundup posts. I also participate in a number of forums on a variety of topics from frugal living to blogging. In addition to the crazy weekday schedule I spend about half a day on Saturday or Sunday playing catch up on all the things that have slipped during the week. I try to have a sort of blogging marathon to crank out three or four posts to pull from during the week if I get in a jam (I have to work late, kids get sick, I get sick, etc.).
The inevitable question becomes, “At what point can I become a problogger?” Well, that’s a good question, and one I don’t have an answer to just yet. While I could easily fill a day with blogging responsibilities and freelance opportunities, I cannot yet replace my full-time income plus make up for the loss of benefits. The problem is that the list of responsibilities is growing, and my full-time job is not getting any easier, so something will have to give.
My second blog, TipDad.com, has not seen as much activity as I would like. It has been a while since I posted anything at Wise Bread or Parenting Squad (though I did recently sneak in a book review at Parenting Squad). Emails are languishing longer in my inbox, and more and more comments are stacking up without my acknowledgment.
At some point I will either have to take a leap of faith, scale back on my full-time work, or put my other writing initiatives on hold. Who knows what the future holds, but for now I’m enjoying my status as a preblogger.
Photo courtesy of faster panda kill kill
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Awesome post, a lot of that sounds familiar! A blogger’s work is never done!
Wow. And I thought I was busy. Quick question. I’ve been married for just over two years and blogging for just over a month, how do you manage to do all that stuff without your wife being like pay attention to me? I really enjoy blogging, and would love to try to earn some extra cash out of it, but my wife wants to be the main priority. As she should, and I try to treat her as such, but I don’t know how you can do what you do. I guess this seems like an odd question. I’d appreciate any advice or expertise on this matter. Thanks.
@Travis: What you are describing is a challenge I think every blogger faces at some point–even those with no spouse and kids. What you have to do is try to find a way to balance blogging with the rest of your life. It isn’t easy.
The schedule I described above is in the process of being modified slightly for the reasons you mentioned. Instead of burning the midnight oil, I’ve decided to spend quality time with the family during waking hours at night and try to get up before everyone else in the morning (around 4:30am). If I am quiet enough the house stays asleep for another couple hours and I get in some much needed writing time.
I try to dedicate early mornings to writing and minimizing all other distractions. Then I spend twenty minutes here and there throughout the day doing administrative stuff (emails, responding to comments, etc.) and trying to stay up on social media happenings.
Good luck with your blog! Man to man, I can also tell you that my wife became more understanding when I began to earn a little money from my blogs–I guess it looked less like an anti-social hobby to her when that happened, but I think she also saw the potential blogging had for helping our family’s finances. She has been completely supportive since then, as have my kids.
I could never keep up a schedule like yours – you are fortunate that you can maintain your lifestyle on so few hours of sleep. I have tried to do without sleep, the first thing that happens is I begin to fall asleep while driving my hourly commute to work and home, the next thing is I wind up very sick. My day begins at 4am, I leave the house by 5am to be at work at 6. I don’t have time for any blogging activities at work, I do twitter a couple times during the day. I’m off work by 2:30 but rarely am able to leave right on the dot. There seems to always be some errand that has to be run on the way home, and I usually get home by 4:30-6pm. Eat dinner, check some blogging stuff. I have to get into bed by 8pm at the latest, I cannot go without sleep, requiring 7-8 hours a sleep a night. My only saving grace is I only work four days a week. That leaves me with Friday and Saturday, but I also have a side job where I do the books for a small company, then there’s my husband’s two companies, logging his mileage, invoicing his customers, sending out thank you notes, googling addresses for new customers, maintaining his ads, maintaining his accounts in Quickbooks (learning Quickbooks!). Then paying the bills for our personal finances, managing something like 13 accounts every month. And I garden. And then I am trying to blog on top of everything else. Luckily my children are grown, my husband is not the needy type who does most of the grocery shopping and errands. Thanks for sharing your day with us!!
Looks like a good site – looking forward to new updates!
Hey, thanks for your reply. Looks like I might have to change my sleeping schedule. I’m sure I could get by on less than 8 hours.
Most people think blogging is easy – but I have never worked this much at any “real” job, and all I do now is web work. Between my blogs I put in probably 50-60 hours a week writing posts, commenting, site tweaks, social media, etc etc. It takes work to make money doing this, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! Great post
I’m a bit like you, Jason, in that I can’t seem to find a specific routine. Frustrating to my wife at times. Maybe once my baby comes along I’ll settle into something. For now, I’m just trying to get better at focusing on “eating the frog” (writing posts). I wish I could crank them out in 30 mins. Any tips for writing faster? Great post, btw.
Yep, That sounds similar to my schedule, only at this point I don’t have kids and my husband is writing a dissertation, so it’s fine for me to spend time writing, consulting, commenting, and generally surfing the internets side-by-side with him.
I’m just getting my blog started(5 months old) and I’ve just had my first book published. So I’m at the point should I keep blogging? I’m not getting anywhere near the response I would like with the blog. But I truly love writing for it. I love the idea of getting a side hustle going but I’m really lost as to my next move. The book’s official release date is the beginning of March so I’m not making any money off of that either. I’m so lost, I feel like I’m drowning. On top of that throw in my dad passing away and that I have 2 kids and a husband. Sorry I’ll shut up now but your article made me feel better, I’m not alone. Best wishes and good luck!!!!
@SonyaAnn: First, I’m sorry to hear of your father’s passing. I know how these events can affect every aspect of your life, and at times it makes it hard to sit down and write anything on topic. However, if you truly enjoy writing then I imagine it is therapeutic, to a point, to sit down and get your feelings down on paper.
Don’t get down on yourself. It takes a long time to gear up to earning a significant income through blogging, as it does traditional writing. But you are leaps and bounds ahead of many others out there, including myself, who dream of one day seeing their ideas in a book. Having recently been rejected for a book idea myself (after making it through three cuts of editorial review), I know the hard work that goes into the process. Perhaps things will pick up for you in the spring. Just keep hustling!
Thank you so much for responding. It’s a bad day, I’m overwhelmed and on the verge of tears. So the encouragement is really helping. My dad passed 8 days after I got the book deal. So he did know about it but having to deal with his passing sucked all the joy out of the accomplishment. But you did point out something that I really hadn’t thought of, the therapeutic aspect of writing. So thank you, I’m going to plug along with all of it. You helped me more than you know.
Thanks for starting this blog. I’m a reader of your frugal dad blog and I just started a blog called Sweet Side Hustles (it’s all about earning money from multiple streams of income) and it’s not as easy as I thought. This new blog is definitely going to help me get it together.
I think this was excellent. It really demonstrates the time commitment and determination required if you want to take your blog to the next level. Coming up with the ideas isn’t so hard for me yet. Carving out the extra hour or 2 in my day is hard though. Blogging was actually my husbands idea, he lost interest pretty quickly, but I found a lost love for writing.
The site design reminds me of Problogger. It seems like you are trying to develop another Problogger site.
@Anonymous: While I am a fan of Darren’s site, I could never reproduce what he has done at Problogger.net. Instead, I’m simply sharing a collection of my thoughts on the world of blogging as a side hustle.
Awesome site !! Have been following Frugal Dad for a while. Did not know that you had another site – tipdad too. Don’t you think that you are overextending a bit with 3 sites, a full time job and 2 kids? Your schedule is hectic as it is. My suggestion is to concentrate on Frugaldad and any of the the other 2 sites and leave one of them. That way you get more time to concentrate and also can deliver quality stuff.
- Prasanth
@Prasanth: Thanks for the comments on the site, and for being a Frugal Dad reader as well! You are correct in your assessment that I am a bit overextended. TipDad.com never fully got off the ground, though I continue to seed the occasional post every week or so. I’ll probably continue to post there as I can, but really focus my efforts on Frugal Dad and Side Hustle Blogging, because quite honestly, those are the two things I enjoy writing about most.
Awesome! I discovered FrugalDad not too long ago and have just started following it. I’m looking forward to reading your new blog. Some of the other top bloggers out there (Shoemoney, ZacJohnson) are too advance for me and I can’t quite wrap my mind around what their are saying. I look forward to reading about your experiences and about basic, beginner level blogging tips!
Congrats, Preblogger (AKA Frugal Dad),
I’ve been poking around a bit and though I haven’t read everything yet, this is a very timely site for me. I’ve been kicking around the idea of blogging for at least a year. I hope that reading about the ins and outs from you, whom I’ve come to really enjoy and respect, I will be the poke I need to get going.
Am looking forward to watching Preblogger really take off.
Best wishes,
Imani
OK I am I guess one of those “probloggers” but I have something to say (don’t most bloggers always have something to say?) about this definition and explanation.
I am a problogger by CHOICE. I choose to live on a PREBLOGGER income
….. and do it LAVISHLY for less! most people would not be able to live on my salary. I am married and my DH provides me with health insurance. That is something that keeps many “prebloggers” from moving over to “problogger.”
I am able to be self sufficient because I have mutliple streams of saving and earnings. and I do not live beyond my means. I live a simple life with lavish indulgences in travel, food, bath & beauty products, furnishing, electronics etc…..
my house is simple and I drive a paid for hyundai (its the cute sports car one) from 2003.
So there ya have it, its all a FRAME OF MIND, you can all be PROBLOGGERS just live within the means of your income, be creative about it!
Jason, way to go! This looks great! I’ll add you to my list of blogging blogs. Man, you are one busy guy. But everyone says the same thing about me, so I know that’s a weird thing to say.
[...] on the subject we write about (health, finances, relationships, etc.). Unfortunately, my crazy blogging schedule doesn’t always allow me to write something each day, though I like to publish an article once [...]
The funny thing is that the more visits I get to my site, the more “blogging activities” I have to do. I have a backlog of things to review and a long list of things I want to write about. Some of my friends do not understand why I would prefer to sit in front of the computer on a weekend when I do that during the work week. I don’t understand it either.
So what do call a blogger who has not made it real money from blogging as a side hustle? A pre-historic blogger???