Taking my blogging as a job
A few months back I blogged about professional blogging, but I don’t think I made my point very clear. While having lunch this week at Nuba with Erin McConnell, Michael Allison and Trevor Boudreau (all from Wilcox Group PR) and earlier in the week while on a walk along the seawall with Grace Carter (Invoke Media), I commented to all of them that I do book time to blog, even if I do not get paid.
The notion that I treat blogging as part of my work schedule has come up recently, and I don’t think many people understand what I mean by that. I receive a solid 100 emails a day from PR companies, theatre companies, dance companies, restaurants, etc. On top of those companies who have anything to do with environment and want me to profile them on my blog.
Thus, I need to set aside time to (a) read the email pitch, (b) decide whether I want/can write about it, (c) writing the actual blog entry (and sometimes, finding and processing photographs to make the post prettier), (d) in the case of ticket giveaways, I take time out of my day to contact the winners, organize the contest, promote it, etc. So, all in all, I do spend a substantial amount of time dealing with blogging stuff (outside of my social media consulting).
So, do I take blogging as a job? Yes and no. Yes, because I block off time out of my day, every day, to deal with blogging-related stuff. And it DOES take time (just notice that I’m running 5 contests this week!). But no, because I really love blogging and I do continue to blog for myself. And blogging has brought me access to a lot of cool stuff I wouldn’t have had otherwise. And I love giving away stuff to my readers, and honestly I wouldn’t be able to afford those giveaways out of my own money!
