The short answer is YES but it would come with a price and you must prioritize and be disciplined.
I starting blogging on the side for a few years while holding a full time job. That time, I had a dream to quit my day job and turn my passion of blogging into a full time job. So I decided to give it ago.
This situation is similar if you are studying in college or university and decided to go into blogging. My sincere advice to you: please DON’T DROP out of school to blog full time. Complete your studies first because you may need your academic qualification to look for a job in case your blogging thingy does not work out.
Here is what I’ve learned about blogging while still holding a full time job:
1. You have to make a lot of sacrifices and choices with your time
On Friday night, you would have to decline invitations from your buddies for a drink or night out in order to stay at home to blog. You have to cut down on the time that you spent on social activities, social media and the TV/ internet/YouTube/ games in order to have time to research and write.
There is also lesser family time. And if you do most of your blogging at home, you would need to explain and make your family understand your decision- delay gratification for potential gains in future.
If you are an introvert by nature, it may not be so difficult. But if you are an extrovert and crave for human interaction most of the time, it is going to be extra difficult thing to do.
2. It is hard to actively blog if you have a demanding day job
Blogging is hard work. There is a lot of mental energy that goes into typing out each and every blog post. The more demanding and more responsibility that you hold in your job, the more mentally tired you may feel.
In most of my career life, I’ve held position with a lot of responsibility on my shoulders and demands a lot of my mental energy. Each and every single day, almost without any break. During that time I also find that I am unable to sleep well because my mind is constantly active. Weekends were used to recuperate. It did came to a point where I knew I had to make a choice and decided to temporarily stop my blogging activities.
Whereas, there was a year where I did hold a less stressful job. It was between the time after I quit my first corporate job but before I join my second corporate job. For one year, I decided to give it a go to blog full time but took on the day job to have money to pay the bills. And it does make a difference- with a less demanding job, I had enough mental energy to blog after office hours. That year (2009-2010), I wrote a number of evergreen posts that are still generating traffic and earning me revenue till this day.
3. It is a lonely journey and you need to find ways to keep yourself motivated
I don’t know about you. For me, NONE of the people I know in real life is a serious blogger like me. My friends and family would rather go shopping, watch TV, holidays, learn other skills and hang out. One or two of them do sell stuff online and a few does do mutual funds or are into real estate. But they have no interest in blogging, writing or building websites.
So, it is going to be lonely at times. When you go out and tell your friends you are a blogger, they would shrug it off like some sort of hobby like gardening or cooking. Not a serious venture that can potentially earn or replace your full time income.
During the beginning, you ain’t gonna see results. No matter how awesome your website is, unless you are a well known public figure or a celebrity, you will not get substantial organic traffic until 6 months and up. You would be writing for months for yourself without much visitors except for those fake traffic from bots or spam.
You must have a passion to blog and write because without it, it would be hard to keep going. But even with passion, sometimes you would feel discouraged….
If you cannot find like-minded friends bloggers in real life, then you need to head on to the virtual world to find blogs or YouTube channels that motivate you. Here is a channel that I have recently find- a YouTuber called Jenna Moreci whom I came about through YouTube’s recommended videos.
Jenna Moreci used to work as a full time stockbroker, and then an accountant. While holding her full time job, she wrote on a part time basis. Eventually she become a full time writer.
A lot of the advice that she has given on writing is relevant to blogging as well because both involve writing. She talks openly on the challenges and sacrifices that she has made in order to transition into a full time writer and other tips like how to say focused, plan, write when there is no motivation, etc. Do check out her YouTube channel:
Is the effort worth it?
Granted, many blogs are now in the internet wasteland…. abandoned and no longer updated. Sometimes it could be due to the blogger not being able to make it or it could be due to lost of interest in blogging.
Blogging can feel like a real chore if you have no interest and passion. After a while of not writing, you can easily develop writer’s block.
However for me personally, it has all been worth it. I did neglect my blogs for a few years because my day job got so demanding. But last year when I decided to quit my day job to be a full time caregiver, I could not have been more grateful that I already have a few blogs with established traffic due to its age and number of articles.
When I started monetizing my blogs last year, the earnings helped to cover for my hosting, covered some of my credit card bills and tie me in for times when I do not have enough money.
Granted, I could have taken other more active routes that would earn more income such as taking a part time writing job, managing more websites or building sites for others. But nothing gives me more joy that to write for my own blogs. Because in my own blogs, I am able to write in my own style and give out my honest advice.
That is why, if you have genuine passion in blogging, then your effort would not be wasted. However, plllllleeeeaaase remember to take care of your health and do not completely neglect your family and loved ones. These are also very important aspects of your life…. after all, you need to have your health to be able to enjoy your wealth. And the bottomline of working an extra gig is as much for yourselves as well as for your loved ones…. to give it a try at possibly doing this full time and to eventually have the freedom to spend more time with them.
Finally, I would leave you with a channel that I follow regularly:
In the video above, Rick from IncomeSchool talks about how building passive income sites has enabled him to work from home and able to spend time with his family. And they do it the old fashioned honest way- build niche sites and write good quality articles to attract real traffic.