Recently in my personal offline life, there’s been talk whether I really have a job or is this blogging malarkey is a bit of fun and not really qualified as a proper job. Well, here is why I believe blogging is a real job.
I know the cheek of some people, but recently I had people (not some random strangers, but people I actually know or knew) that have come up to me and blurted out that this blogging malarkey is a bit of fun and games, not a proper job. And then have the cheek to ask me when am I getting a proper job.
Some people, really. If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all, that’s my motto. But in honestly It still astounds me that people genuinely believe that blogging isn’t a real job and just something you mess around on a weekend with your mates.
To be fair, the people who have comes up to me saying all this is on the older side of life. If you know what I mean? I feel (and please feel free to tell me I’m wrong on this) the older generation doesn’t get online publishing and how the majority of publishing is now online. That essentially what blogging is, a new way of publishing. There’s no more machinery to publish the local newsletters, now all print is in pixels.
It was fate I would even end up in online publishing as my dad (before he retired) use to own a print/publishing company. I remember as a little girl he would work in an old big warehouse and would have all these big machines.
But that a different story for another time. Anyway, where was I? The generation gap.
So I do understand how there is a massive generation gap and it does seem harder for that generation to gasp at the concept of blogging.
But for me and for anyone, life have moved on. Society has moved and so have technology. What was once a pain in the arse to send a letter overseas, now can be done in the matters of minutes done through emails.
That the same with blogging, once upon a time you would need big machines to print out something, and even then you would still need to wait for delivery or for the ink to dry out. You couldn’t have the ‘news’ instantly. With blogging it is instant and available 24/7, whenever you want it.
Blogging has changed how we consume our news, whether it fashion news or Taylor Swift gossip.
For me, and I think for the majority of bloggers (once again, tell me I’m wrong!) that what makes us want to blog. To consume news fast and instantly. Ok so it doesn’t have to be fashion news or Taylor Swift gossip, but it could be a diary entry from a girl from Ireland who thinks that it is newsworthy to tell people about their day or life.
I love getting feedback from people and reading all your lovely comments, I love the instant that blogging provides. I can write about a new dress I saw online and then publish it and tell everyone from all over the world about it.
It fair to say I’m a big fan of blogging. So while I do understand the older generation might not get blogging, there’s no need to feel that blogging isn’t a job. But I believe it is.
On the other side, I had people telling me that they think blogging is oh so easy-peasy. A waste of my time and energy. I should be doing something better with my skills.
What a lot of people don’t realize how wrong there are. Blogging is far from easy-peasy, and totally not a waste of my time and energy. I also feel I can use my skills to its full potential. Something that I would feel I couldn’t do if I still worked in retails.
The nayer (as I’m calling them) and the generation gap folks, don’t see the full works that is involved and how much effort goes into running a blog.
On that note, here are 5 reasons why I believe blogging is a real job and something that shouldn’t be dismissed.
I still get paid.
Since blogging full-time I have never missed a mortgage payment and let just say my bank balance is in ok shape. So yes through blogging I do get paid. With my income at the moment, I’m getting pretty much the same amount I would have got through a normal traditional employment. Money does make the world go round, after all.
You are the admin, customer service, writer, accountant all in one.
What a lot of people seem to not know is, that with blogging there is a lot of admins, customer services and accountant involved. Where there normally be an office filled with people who all do different work, with blogging you are that person all in one. So you do need to concrete on the admin side as well as the writing and customer service. And largely that what I do for the majority of the time. Chase people up with invoice payment, do excel spreadsheets, ring people, emails brand; You get the picture.
There’s still equipment involved.
One woman has said to me that with blogging there’s no equipment involved. I just smiled and said that my camera, laptop, phones, tripod and books are all equipment’s. And without them, I couldn’t exactly do my job properly. Ok so there no olden days’ machinery like I talked about earlier, but as I said; technology has moved on and the machines are now smaller and more mobile.
Blogging is very time-consuming.
But in a good way may I add. I do start first thing in the morning to last thing at night. Blogging is not a 9-5 job. I have to write, edit, photograph my next day’s contents, I would have to spend some of that day promoting my current piece of contents. If I’ve gone out for the day, I often have to edit all my photos and then write about it. As well as that I have to be the admin and answer emails and chase people for invoice. Even when I’m away from the computer I still check social media pages and emails. Often there’s no rest for the wicked.
I still pay taxes.
Instead of a little payslip at the end of the month that tell me how much tax I paid throughout that period. I just get told at the end of the year when I do my self-assessment how much tax I need to pay or if the tax man feeling kind, how much they owed me. It has happened!
I think I have made my point clear enough now (and cause now I feel I might have rambled on enough!) and why I genuinely believe blogging is a real job. A more 21th-century job, but to be honest if you think back 100 years ago, working for the BBC would have seen alien and strange.
What do you feel about this subject and why do you (or don’t) believe blogging is a real job?
