Day in the Life as a Full Time Blogger- Reality of Being a Blogger
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Last Updated on December 27, 2024 by Tiffany
When I tell people that I’m a full time blogger, I get asked many questions with one of the most popular being- “So, what do you do in a day?”
Truth is, I wear MANY hats as a full time blogger. I run my all my social media platforms, am in charge of newsletter blasts, take all the photography and videography for my recipes, and manage brand sponsorships!
Today I want to share a bit on the day to day responsibilities of being a full time blogger and how I manage my schedule working for myself!
When I first decided to take food blogging full time in January 2024, my schedule was very hectic. I would wake up a different time each day and not have a set outline. Basically, I just kind of wandered around my platform doing what needed to be done working until around 10 pm or even 1 am sometimes.
I quickly realized that if I wanted to make this career last, I needed to set a strict, outlined routine.
Since becoming more intentional and structured during my days, being a full time blogger has gotten much less stressful and I’ve been getting more done during the day!
Having a routine and structure is soooo important, especially as a full time blogger! Even though I can wake up at anytime I want and start my day at 12, I choose not to.
Starting my day earlier allows me to go to bed earlier and have more me-time when the sun goes down which is what I want!
So, I hope this day in the life as a full time blogger helps to provide more structure for you too. Let’s get into it!
What do you do as a full time Blogger?
Working as a full time blogger is a business, and it’s not as easy as people like to think. As a company of one, there are many hats I have to wear.
Here are just a few responsibilities on my plate as a full time blogger.
Manage Pinterest Account
Pinterest is one of the BEST ways for bloggers to get traffic back to their websites. My current schedule for Pinterest is so upload 4 pins per day weekly to help the algorithm recognise my website.
Host Newsletter
I send out a newsletter every other day (about 3-4 times per week). This helps my community feel close knit and subscribers are sent recipes straight their emails.
Recipe development
A lot of my time goes into developing and perfecting a recipe. As a food blogger, I cannot just make a recipe one time and guesstimate the measurements.
To make sure my recipes are perfect and easy to follow for my audience, I have to test them. This might look like making a recipe 2-3 times before writing the recipe and sharing on the blog.
Youtube (Long Form Content) Editing
All of my Youtube videos are edited by me, myself, and moi. In the beginning (before I knew what I was doing) I used to take DAYS to edit a single video. Now thankfully my editing skills have grown and it only takes a few hours to get a video uploaded!
Photography
All of the photos for recipes on the blog are taken by me and it’s a lot harder than what it looks. For most of my recipes, I have a professional lighting set up, Canon camera, and backdrop to make the pictures look appealing.
Food styling and tracking every step of each recipe can tend to take a few hours.
Brand Partnership Management
I currently do not have a social media manager to handle my brand collabs. Every company I partner with is dealt by me including negotiating prices/contracts and the content creation for it.
In the future I will look for a social media manager or virtual assistant to help me manage all of this!
Day in the Life of a Full Time Blogger
Now that we’ve discussed a few (and those are just a FEW) of the hats I wear as a full time blogger, lets take a peak of what an average day looks like!
I would like to make a quick disclaimer and say that I’m not perfect, not everyday looks like this. This is the example of a well planned day in my life.
Some days, I will have gone to bed later resulting me in waking up late and pushing everything back or even missing a few areas.
The goal is not to necessarily be perfect, but consistent and efficient. Let’s get into it shall we?
7:30-8:30 AM- Wake up & Start my Day
This is my sacred me-time. As soon as I wake up, I grab my book from my night stand and read for about 30 minutes. It is said reading helps to improve your eyesight AND memory so I read in between 3-7 books per month. When I’m not working on the blog of course!
Then, I go for my morning stretch, and meditation which typically takes no more than 20 minutes. NO technology is allowed during this time period.
When you are a full time blogger and entrepreneur, often times as soon as you open your eyes, you want to start working. I used to wake up and immediately check emails, commissions, and social media.
It’s always exciting to see how much money I made while I was sleeping. While that can bring lots of anticipation, it’s not a healthy habit.
My me-time before work is very important because days in the life are typically jam packed with staring at a computer for HOURS. So, I prefer to have my first 30 minutes to one hour of the day to be free from a screen.
During this time period, I will also have a liter glass of lemon water to hydrate myself and start to mentally prepare for the day.
9:00 AM- Start working on the blog- Full Time Blogger
Believe it or not, despite me working fully for myself, I try to work on a 9-5 schedule. I can’t be up all hours of the night working!
Entrepreneurs tend to have very blurred lines between work and personal life. I’m determined to create healthier boundaries for the future to prevent burnout.
At this time, I’ll check emails, views different affiliate programs I’ve partnered with to see how much I made the day before, and prepare an Instagram/Tik Tok short video or YouTube Long Form Content upload.
When I’m on a posting day, I may need to finish editing a few minor tweaks for short/long form content. Content posted to social media will ALWAYS be related to the blog. After all, the goal of a social media presence is to draw people back to the blog, not for fame!
This is also the best time to post stories on Instagram, schedule the week’s newsletter, and work on Pinterest. Most importantly, I like to start/continue writing a post/recipe for the blog.
10:30 AM- Break to Break My Fast- Full Time Blogger
I practice intermediate fasting so I don’t eat any solid foods until around 10-11 AM. Before that, I’ll drink lemon water, coconut water, or a fresh juice to hydrate after sleeping for 8 hours!
For my first meal of the day, I typically like to have fresh fruit and then follow up with a more hearty breakfast about 30 minutes later.
11:00 AM- Back to work, Meetings, Planning, Etc
After eating a nice bowl of fruit or a fresh cold pressed juice, I’m back on the clock. This is around the time I like to schedule meetings because I will have gotten food in my stomach and start to feel alive.
Apart from meetings around this time, I will continue to plan out my day, determine what content needs to be scheduled for what platform, etc. I’ll continue to wrap up any blog posts/recipe I started and prepare for the shift to social media.
12:30 PM- Post on Instagram/ YouTube- Full Time Blogger
My posting schedule for Instagram, Tik Tok, and Youtube are always between 12-1 Pm EST. Majority of my audience lives on the eastern coast of the United States and I’ve found posting during lunch time does well with my peeps.
This will look like creating captions, adding text to videos, and updating stories revolving around the posts. I’ll also stay on each app to respond to comments and other DMs received. Posting can take anywhere between 30 minutes to one hour.
When I first started out on Instagram and Tik Tok, I posted nearly every single day. However, after a year of that consistency you can get burned out easily! My current schedule is to post twice or three times per week and it works well for me. It is important to note the algorithm is always changing. To succeed, you must study social media like a HAWK!
1:00 PM- Start Writing a New Recipe or Blog Post
I try to write at least two new blog articles or recipes each week. However, the goal is 3-4 new pieces of content. That way my audience receives fresh content and Google continues to recognize my blog as a profession versus a hobby.
Each blog post can take anywhere between 2-4 hours from start to finish. I have previous experience freelance writing so I am quite efficient when it comes to writing!
As a relatively new blogger (in the game for 2.5 years) there are certain keywords I’ll write about to help my blog rank higher in Google.
It’s important for me to write SEO articles so my blog can be found in Google. SEO stands for Search engine optimised. Keywords are words that are commonly searched for.
For example, it will be smarter to title the recipe as “healthy vegan brownie recipe”. That will much be easier to find than a title listed as “super healthy sugar free carob chocolate replacement brownie recipe”, LOL!
3:00 PM- Get ready to film a recipe- Full Time Blogger
This is one of my favorite parts of the day! After all, I became a food blogger because I LOVE to cook! I set up my backdrop, artificial lighting, and get to work.
The filming process of a recipe tends to be quite strenuous and can take a long time. If a recipe is supposed to only take 30 minutes, filming might take 2-3 hours. It’s important to get all angles and track every step so that the recipe is easy to follow.
Check out my recommended lighting and camera equipment for food photography!
6:00 PM- Plan out new Youtube Video, schedule next day
This year, I have put more focus on growing my YouTube and it has greatly paid off! My channel had about 5,000 subs to start and we’re ending the year with nearly 12,000! Between all the social media platforms, I think Youtube is the best. You have a more engaged audience and a tighter knit community.
Around this time is when I will start thinking about what YouTube video to plan out next and wrap up my day.
As mentioned before, I try not to work beyond 7 pm. If I don’t set healthy boundaries, I will find myself happily typing away until 1:00 AM! Apart from YouTube, I will also plan out tasks for the next day, marking off what I accomplished that day. The goal is to tie up loose ends and close my computer for the night.
7:00 PM and on- Night – Full Time Blogger
By now, all work related tasks will have finished regardless of whether I not I completed everything on my to-do list. As you an see, I’m very strict about creating healthier boundaries between my work and personal life!
I will also try not respond to or send out any work emails during this time (the key word is TRY lol). Once I log off the blog, my hobbies come to life.
I am a huge bookish gyal, I love to read! Reading is also a great way to give my eyes a break after staring at a computer all day. Coloring has also been a recent hobby of mine along with dancing and attempting to learn how to bake. (I’m a food blogger that COOKS, not bakes, there’s a difference!!)
This is also a great time for me to go to the gym, decompress, have a nice hearty dinner, and rest. Because I wake up around 7:30, I am in bed no later than 11:30. I like to have my night time routine that consists of ambient lighting and pinning inspirational quotes on Pinterest! (Yes I know, I am SO 2014, it is what is is).
I hope this day in the life as a full time blogger has helped or even inspired you! Just keep in mind that every day is different.
Some days have a lighter work load and others I work much longer hours. It all comes with the flow of being a full time blogger and working for yourself.
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