Every blogger’s life is filled with plenty of ups and downs; in the end, what counts is the way they’ve handled their failures and successes and what decisions followed as the result of their previous experiences.

What’s important to gather from the very start of this job is that no matter how complicated and difficult everything may appear – it’s not. The well-known “like riding a bicycle” parallel works perfectly here; at first, it all begins with a feeling of the task upon you being horrifying and impossible to achieve. But once you start spinning those pedals, the sense of balance overpowers and before you know it – you are riding into sunset! In the end, it all comes down to our-own-selves and the amount of effort we are willing to invest in our personal improvement and ultimately – progress.

Research

To run a successful blog you need to start with the research before you even start the blog. All aspects are subjects to research if you know when to start and how to proceed with the further inquiry. If you start from the beginning, you should first think about all the things you are good at, then explore the number of qualities people recognize in you and see as interesting and useful. At the end of the beginning there comes the exploration of ways that will help you introduce yourself to your target readership in a manner you’ll later become recognizable for.

Once you get through the beginning, you may continue with the research. All the qualities and values are still to be examined, both our personal and the values we find in our competition and overall offer in general. Research is a great way to spring your interests, provide useful information and make blogging exciting. The endless upgrading of information is forever-inspiring and it spreads on many paths. Apart from being able to explore particular topics we are discussing on the blog, we can focus on our writing styles and expressions, as well as better ways of presentation and photo or video processing.

It’s important to always stay in touch with web trends, social networks and overall ways of communicating. It is good to know what people are thinking (although not easy!), what they’re admiring and what’s trending this season. To stay up to date with all the events, find new materials to connect with the old ones, come up with a plan and make the best contacts possible. This will definitely make for a great research technique.

Specifically, here are the items you will need at the beginning (or during blogging) to fill your time in a quality manner. At the same time, it will provide you with the material necessary for the work and progress:

• Search for the real communication – Writing styles are not as variable as the next items, but then again they are not so strictly fixed, either. Depending on your thoughts, ideas and general ways of communication you’ll adopt as your trademark, you’ll be lead towards appropriate communication with the audiences and further exploration of the direction your blogging will take.
• Studying of Google trends can be done directly through an application designed for that purpose only. This is a great way to synchronize your creation with current trends and topics that people browse. See more on: Google Trends Tracking
• Researching and monitoring of SEO trends, news, and ways to optimize sites required by search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing – SEO is not strictly linked to the coding part of the site, it applies to writing also, as well as on the selection of words and behavior on the Internet.
• Monitoring the development of social networks and harmonizing with new ways of sharing and advertising will help you stay in touch with your readers and help you further expand your network. If you are no stranger to English language, following texts on these topics published by Mashable: Mashable – Social Media will do the trick.

Final decisions and taking blogging on a real path

Even when used in the context of research work only, it is not as difficult as when used separately in a sentence. The work is hard but inevitable. If you’ve heard about the myth of self-serve websites that only need to be run for the money to start dropping in, you should know straight away that such sites do not exist. Work and dedication are essential to everything. The sooner you get used to it, the quicker you’ll make progress.

Many will argue they have chosen the blogging career just so they didn’t have to work. Perhaps that’s the reason why there aren’t as many bloggers making money. Persistent and dedicated work is constantly required, whether you yourself have set the deadlines or you had them set by an employer. The true difficulty of blogging is precisely in the fact it does not require any physical engagement. Determining the measure, disciplining yourself and getting your thoughts in order can be very challenging and difficult. Getting them on paper or a web page may perhaps be even harder, but if blogging is what attracts you, you won’t have a problem to constantly learn and work even when you reach the point of questioning your whole mission or even abandoning it altogether:

• Finally, I am realizing that blogging is not for me
• This is just another obstacle to solve

If you choose this second way, you will still have to decide whether you’ll be able to go around an obstacle, overcome it or control it in such a way that you make it your constant source of knowledge, inspiration and strength for the future obstacles. Selecting the first option mentioned above is better than forcing yourself to do something you understand and feel is not for you, and waste priceless time and energy.

If you are just at the beginning of blogging, know that the final decision on blogging as a commitment is not yet to be made as the very beginning of it is definitely not the time for any final decisions. Once problems start occurring as well as (extended) criticism, self-criticism will follow and this is when you’ll learn whether you are cut out for this career or not.

Sacrifices and benefits

If you’ve decided to replace your steady job with blogging, you probably know that you will only change the workplace. You may start spending much more time with your family since you’ll be working from home, but it is still necessary to stick to particular working hours. The advantage of blogging is that the time you are creating and writing is entirely up to you so your new job can easily be done while your kids are at school and your spouse at work. If you are properly concentrated, you’ll be able to write regardless of the environment. Again, there are times, situations and tasks that require an uninterrupted stream of thoughts – this is when you have to look for a secluded corner. Therefore, free time is what you will usually be renouncing for the sakes of blogging. All this free time that you could be spending with your children and family, or in plenty other ways will be occupied by your new job and your personal life will suffer unless you organize your days properly. This is why it’s essential you cleverly and in a rather committed way make a working plan and stick to it, to avoid sacrificing anything. Proper organization from the get-go will pay off in the long run.

Motivating examples and the awards that followed

There are plenty of examples where people have given up on their well-paid jobs that were suffocating their creativity, left their maternal cities and pursued blogging careers. This made them creators of their own destinies and enablers of their personal adventures, followed by a fulfilling life lived by their own rules. Amazing!

Here are some examples:

Jody Ettenberg – Legal Nomads Blog

Jodi Ettenberg

Jody had spent five years working as a lawyer in New York. One day she decided to pack up and start a one-year trip around the world. One year turned into six, and there she was – a blogger traveling to distant parts of the world, exploring it, tasting foods and writing about it. She currently lives from freelance writing for others and consulting in the field of social media after she’s decided to have her site free of ads and sponsored links.

Liz Carlson – Young Adventuress Web Site

Liz Carlson

For several years, Liz has worked in Spain as an English teacher. She did not need much to fall in love with traveling. After a while, though, she returned home to Washington DC and worked in the office from 9AM to 5PM, believing that’s the right path to follow. However, it wasn’t long before she’s realized that’s not a path for her. After deciding to take up writing as a career, she quit her job and went on a journey. She now spends time camping with Bedouins or paragliding in New Zealand. In addition, apart from living a much happier life this way, she is constantly encouraging others to do the same.

Robert Schrader – Leave Your Daily Hell Web Site

Robert Schrader

Robert left his “real job” and decided to travel. After visiting over 50 countries and spending five years on the road, he’s launched a blog-guide Leave Your Daily Hell. He is using his blog to inspire people, provide them with information, entertainment and encourage each and every would-be escape-artist.

These days, his blog is visited by over 150,000 travelers per month and is one of the world’s most popular travel blogs. He says luck has played a role in everything, too – but that the hard work and commitment were as well crucial in everything he did.

There is always only one road and everything’s entirely on us

As I have written at the beginning – all accomplishments come easier once we realize that all our successes depend on us. No one had it easy, not even Jody, Lizzie and Robert who had to choose one path to follow in order to achieve anything. It is always easier to opt for the old 7AM to 3PM drill and not think further than what you were assigned to do. It is difficult to rely on yourself all the time, stay 365 days a year fully committed to your work, knowing it all depends on you and you only. Running a blog is constant work, despite people claiming it to be 0-24 party. Being a blogger means being both a manager and the employee. If you are aware of that fact and you are accepting it, you are already on the right path to leaving your “real job” and achieving something wonderful. Good luck!