Personal Finance Blogging Is A Time Consuming But Rewarding Part Time Job

Published 12/7/07 (Modified 3/9/11)
By MoneyBlueBook

Sorry folks, but due to some pressing and personal events that clammered for my attention, I was not able to post for the last few days - and it happened on a weekday too (most people do their blog reading on weekdays). Sometimes you want life events to be stable and everything to go according to plan, but then something occurs out of the ordinary, requiring you to shift course momentarily. But it's okay - these things happen and we just have to be prepared and deal with them as they come.

Blogging Is Hard Work But Rewarding

When I first started out this blogging adventure, I was inspired by those who wanted to make money by blogging. I planned to treat it like a true part time job, and dedicate sufficient time to keep it running smoothly by posting new entries everyday. Some online writers post every few days, but I was determined to make it a daily goal.

Blogging has truly been a labor of love since I've come to discover that writing on a regular basis can be quite time consuming with little immediate financial rewards. It's true what those in the industry say - to run a successful blog site, you have to be truly passionate about the subject matter you write about. If you are not truly inspired or have a genuine desire to explore the subject matter to its full potential, it will be very difficult to sustain your efforts long term. Thankfully, lack of passion or interest has not been my problem. But life likes to throw little monkey wrenches at my plans sometimes. I've tried my best to write diligently and keep my personal life events separate from the continuation of my pet projects, but occasionally they will bump into each other. When that happens, it's inevitable that I might need to take a momentary breather, to step away from blogging for a day or two before returning to start anew.

It's All Too Easy To Develop Procrastinating Blogging Habits

Unlike working at a regular full time job, blogging on the side requires a good sense of self motivation. Since all of the content writing and operations are performed online, there is not the same strict requirement to make a daily appearance as would be required at a regular full time job. Since I write on my blogs part time, it is very easy to get sidetracked by home and work events. Unlike a regular brick and mortar business where there is an actual physical store front, I have no customers or visitors that walk up to my store daily to demand service - so I have to depend on self motivation.

Although the online world is not physical and it's easy to brush it aside as not real, it is still largely a social network based on maintaining good long term relationships. Like any budding business, if you don't attend to it properly, it will sputter out of gas and fail in the long term.

Blogging can be extra difficult, particularly if you blog about a subject or topic that requires extensive research first. I have two types of posts. One type is substantive and the other is primarily opinion based. The substantive post requires significantly more time since I have to research and organize statistics to support my claim. For example if I'm talking about credit cards or a particular investment, I have to research the terms carefully to make sure my numbers are correct. But on the flip side, opinion based posts are relatively easy and quick to crank out since they are based entirely on my own opinions and views. I am essentially writing from memory and typing extemporaneously. To strike a good balance between content and efficiency, I usually incorporate both substantive and opinion type writing into my everyday posts. This helps to make the time consumption less draining.

Although I was strapped for time and wasn't able to sit down at my PC for the last few days, things have calmed down again. Trying to blog daily and do it part time can be like working a burdensome second job, but overall it's been quite an enjoyable hobby. I really like the social interaction and information exchange I get out of it. So it's back to writing I go!