Blogging is not easy. It consumes your life, but also puts many aspects of your life on display for all to see; opening your life for both lovely comments that brighten your day but also nasty verbal abuse thrown at you over social media (both of which I’ve had – nasty verbal abuse more recently than nice comments). Many bloggers (specifically those who have been blogging for years and who have a massive following) do so for a living, making enough money to support themselves from their blog on it’s own. I applaud those people! Good for you!

But that’s really not realistic. So many people ask me about starting a blog and one of the first questions I get is “How much money do you make”. Truthfully? NOTHING! Absolutely no income comes from blogging as a hobby. That is unless you take a few steps to make a bit of dough, such as advertisers on your page or charging for sponsored posts. After two and a half years of blood, sweat and tears going into my blog, I bring in about $30 a month…..pennies. So how do you handle blogging as a second job or a hobby? How do you keep up with a schedule while enjoying the task and not turning it into a burden? How do you balance it without getting discouraged and upset that you’re doing this all for free, maybe even at a loss?

Obviously, my number one advice is to always blog about something you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, it will eventually turn into a burden. I’ve been creating content for Lipstick and L’Attitude for two and a half years; makeup and life with attitude, that’s all me! I enjoy it all so it comes easy to me. Writing is something I love, so after a long day of work, creating blog posts while catching up on Netflix series is my way of relaxing and unwinding. It’s not always easy to come up with new content, but that’s the beautiful thing about it! I look at my blog as a business I own – I’m the boss, I make the decisions. Who cares what people are expecting? You create the content, you decide what to post, and eventually you will develop a following of people who love you for your past work, rather than because they’re expecting certain things from you (trust me, that took me a long time to realize).

Everything is about balance. Remember, it’s a hobby. Just like any hobby in your life, it’s something that you do in your free time. If it becomes to stressful, take a break. But if blogging is your dream, just be prepared for a lot of hard work. Nothing comes easy and the blogging world is a tough one.

Sometimes it overwhelms me (hence the short break at the beginning of the month), and other times I’m on fire (like my 25 days in a row of Blogmas last month). I’ve had my ups and downs and I’ve had many many tears, but no matter how hard it’s been it is also a complete joy! So good luck new bloggers and fellow hobby bloggers. Maybe it could be a job in the future. For me it will always be a happy whobby since I’m pretty set in life as far as my career goes.

Thanks for your support in this little hobby of mine!