Today, we have the lovely Sarah Marie Blog as a guest poster. I’m super excited to have her share her blogging routine with you all. She’s someone who really knows her stuff! Be sure to check out her blog! Also, be sure to check out yesterday’s blogtober post here if you haven’t already.
As a full-time blogger, I have a very busy schedule! I run a blog, a YouTube channel, and I am also a Pinterest manager for a few clients a month as well.
So with a lot of work to get done, and deadlines to hit, I need to be very organized! Over the past year of jumping into full-time blogging, I have added a bunch of tasks to my plate. So, in this blog post, I want to give you a good overview of what I do each and every week.
Many people think that blogging is easy and that it’s not a real job. This post may help shed some light on how much work it actually is, and give you some insight into what it’s like to be a full-time blogger!
So, if you’re looking to get into full-time blogging, I hope this post will not scare you away but will prepare you for how much work you may need to take on!
My Schedule
I pretty much work at least a few hours each day. Both because I love my job and can’t stay away from it for too long, and also because I just have so much to do!
It’s a bit difficult to say what my “schedule” is each day because it changes so often!
so, to give you a better feel for what it’s like to be a full-time blogger and YouTuber, I’m going to break down all of the tasks that I do. And there’s a lot!
Blogging tasks I do
Writing blog posts
So the first task is obviously writing blog posts! But there is more that goes into it than just picking a topic you love and putting words on a page. There’s keyword research, writing, photo-creation, promotion, and more!
- Keyword research and idea phase
So the first thing I do is obviously come up with an idea. I come up with a general title and then it’s time to research it! Because you don’t want to spend a bunch of time researching, writing, and promoting a post that no one wants to read!
On top of that, I also want to do keyword research so that my blog post has a chance to get picked up in Google search! This will help bring organic traffic to my blog. So I research a few keyword ideas and come up with some that I want to rank for.
I also run my ideas through Pinterest as well. I want to see not only if I can rank in Google, but also how many people are actually interested in the topic I’ve chosen, along with any words or titles I see that may work well for the blog post.
- Write the post
So now comes the part where I outline and write the blog post. First comes the outline, where I write down key points that I think will be helpful to the reader and any questions I want to answer.
These become the main headings of my blog post. After that, I add in any information and actually begin writing the post. Next, I’ll go through and proofread it at least one to two times.
I want to add in any information I may have forgotten, fix any spelling or grammar mistakes and make the post flow better.
Once I’m done with that, I will copy and paste the post into my WordPress site.
- Adding the finishing touches
The last step to getting the post written is adding in any links, creating any images for the post, and doing all of the sidebar stuff. Like adding tags, meta descriptions, checking the SEO score from my RankMath plugin, and so on.
Once I finish, I double-check the post to make sure it flows the way I want and then schedule it out!
Related: The Truth About Being a Full-Time Blogger
Youtube work
Next, we have all of the work that I put into my YouTube channel. There is just as much work, if not more, that goes into creating a YouTube video so let’s break that down now.
- Idea creation and researching
The first step here is much of the same as writing blog posts. I come up with ideas and have to keyword research them to make sure I can have a chance to rank on YouTube, and also to see if my idea is popular.
The routine is much of the same, but the tools are a bit different. I use a tool called VidIQ that I pay for each month to keyword research all my ideas. It’s a really helpful tool that I find to be worth the money.
- Writing the video script
Next, I again do much of the same process as for writing a blog post. I come up with the main points, write out the information I want to give and then proofread once I’m done.
I end up writing the video scripts in a little bit of a different tone than I would a blog post because I speak slightly differently than I write.
- Recording the video
This is where the process gets to be a bit different. I have to record the video, and this includes time to get ready to be on camera, getting a shot list of the different angels and b-roll (extra footage) that I want to grab, and getting my camera gear ready.
I need to position my lights and camera properly, make sure my battery and mic are charged fully, and grabbing an extra change in clothes if I plan to record more than one video at once.
It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours to record a video. Depending on how in-depth it is, and how many different shots and scenes are required. You also have to make sure that your background is clean and looks nice so that you can have a pretty background to record in front of.
The last step is to take a variety of photos for a thumbnail!
- Editing the video
Next, it’s time for editing. This part takes me at least a day or two because I find editing a bit boring and repetitive, so I like to break it up over a few days.
It can also depend on how many shots I got and how in-depth the editing needs to be. I will also go through the footage and re-shoot anything that I didn’t like, didn’t record correctly, or if the sound isn’t great.
Once I’m done, I export the video out of my software which takes some waiting time as well, around 10-20 minutes.
- Uploading the video to youtube
Once all of that is done, we still have some steps left to do! I now need to upload the video to youtube, and depending on how long the video is, this could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 ½ hours of waiting. Yes, seriously.
While that is going on, I will create the thumbnail, write out the description and do all of the back-end things. This includes writing tags, adding in video elements, adding videos to a playlist, and more.
Related: When to Know You’re Overworked in the Blogging Industry!
Promotion
You would think after all of that work, you’d be done with the video or blog post right? Yeah, I wish. Now it’s time to get that blog post out into the world!
I spend pretty much an entire day promoting my blog posts, youtube videos, and other links on Pinterest. I create about 70 pins a week.
So this process includes checking my stats to determine what links to promote, creating pins, writing descriptions, and scheduling.
I also promote my posts on Twitter as well. I usually take about two days to write out around 300 tweets (that’s 10 a day) and schedule them for the month.
Pinterest manager
On top of all of that, I am also a Pinterest manager. I run around 1-3 accounts each month for clients. And then pin around 2-5 pins a day for them. So add those pins to what I create each week for myself!
This job also includes checking their stats to make sure their account is growing, deciding what blog posts to promote each week, doing research for their accounts, updating their Pinterest accounts with keywords, creating pins, and scheduling them out each week.
Conclusion
Honesty, even after all of that, there are still some other jobs we could talk about. Like writing guest posts, managing my Etsy store, being an email marketer, going through my own emails. And the thing I haven’t even dove into myself yet, like working with brands.
So, as you can see, being a full-time blogger is so much work! But even so, it is the best job in the world and I wouldn’t trade it for a thing! I hope you enjoyed reading about the many different crazy tasks I do each and every week, and I hope this gave you an insight into what it’s like to be a full time blogger!
Author bio:
Hey! My name is Sarah, I’m a blogger and YouTuber over at sarahmarie.blog. I blog about productivity, mindset, manifestation, and blogging tips! On my YouTube channel, I mainly cover social media and Pinterest marketing! You can find me at my socials down below!
Blog: https://www.sarahmarie.blog/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BusinessWomenThrive
Twitter: https://twitter.com/B_WomenThrive
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