"How much do you make through your blog? What does it feel like now that you have your creative work as an income? Is anything different than you thought it would be?" These are questions I get asked quite a lot since people noticed the ads popping up on my blog, and now I'm here to answer some of the (very, very many) assumptions about working online.
Often when people see a blogger, a youtuber or any other kind of online celebrity, they tend to see only the exterior. Maybe the pretty makeup, the amount of comments or readers, or maybe even just knowing that the person has a following is enough. Working online, big audience or not, just seems glamorous (I know, I’ve been there too).
But I can tell you, from my own first hand experiences, that blogging and working online is not as glamorous as it seems. Most of you know that my blogging is part of my income nowadays, although it’s a very small part of it, but that does not make me in any way famous, and I still remember all too well what kind of dreams I had for my creative work online. I was going to make it big, and I was going to get there fast, because who wouldn’t want to read about the same things as I did?
The first thing I noticed it that it takes one hell of a lot of time to build an audience. The small audience I have now, I’ve built up during an entire year. Being an overnight sensation isn’t something that happens to all the people working out there, no matter if you post on a blog, youtube, instagram or make online comics!
The second thing that came to my mind when asked about what was different than I thought it would be when it came to running a blog, is the amount of time it consumes. I can easily spend several hours a day in front of a screen, either writing blog posts, reading other blogs (which is more important than you may think), browsing social media looking for trends and posting on other social media. You’d think your favorite online celebrity just sits down and writes a post/makes a comic/records a video/whatever they do, in 15 minutes. It doesn’t happen that way.
One example of this is my posts, take a short one (a movie review for example). It’s just a couple of details from the movie, a few opinions about it, and then whether I recommend it or not. At least that what you’d think. The fact is that only writing a post takes at least half an hour, and that’s before I’ve looked through it for errors, rephrased half of it because I didn’t like it, double checked all the details and found fitting pictures to post with it.
The truth is, working online is just as time consuming as working at any other place, you just don’t see it, because all you can see is the finished result. And you know your favorite fashion blogger, who always looks flawless in every picture they post? They’re probably editing those photos and writing their posts in a pair of cozy pants and a sweatshirt. People who work online are people too, just because their job is different from yours doesn’t mean they don’t put in as much effort or time as anyone else.
I, by no means, consider myself an online celebrity, I’m just an ordinary woman who run a tiny blog in one of Finland’s most gorgeous cities. I get a small revenue from my blog, and if I can realise online celebrities are people, then so can you.
~ (Photo sources: The Viral Zone (upper) and poorlydrawnlines.com (go support the artist!) )
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