Random orangutan not related to this post at all, what else is new?
At least he has a stylish canvas sack.
Well I’ll start with the biggest news for me. Yesterday I started a new full time job! Today will actually be my first full day.
It’s a little bitter sweet for my blog. Since I’ll be making pretty good money, there’s a lot less pressure to milk some income out of this blog with less than desirable methods. Instead I can take my time and let things build up to the point that affiliate income is more realistic.
The downside is that I am forced to drastically scale back my blogging time so that I can put full effort into this new job without burning myself out. So for now I have decided to step back from blog commenting. That is at least until things settle down and I get into the rhythm of a new routine.
Hopefully some of you guys (and gals) stick around to comment, but I do understand that for some people it is a mutual thing. Keep in mind that I do offer dofollow links from my homepage to the most active commenters. Also my blog seems to be sending a lot of referral traffic as traffic has doubled this month. I’m hoping that keeps it beneficial to comment here.
As much as I can, I’ll be trying to keep up with tweeting posts and doing weekly link round ups. Also, after next week I’ll probably be taking a break from my Wednesday social sharing acknowledgements. Depending on how things go, there is a good chance that I’ll start that up again at some point.
I appreciate everyone’s support. Thank you! As soon as I can I’ll try to get back commenting. Plus in the meantime I’ll do what I can to keep helping people out in other ways.
Regarding more details about my new job, I’ll share a bit more on my Monday post.
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Of course as soon as I have to scale back my blogging efforts I get another week with a ton of mentions. It’s nice to know that when I get back into full on blogging there are plenty of supportive bloggers that I can connect with. With any luck I’ll even be able to carry some of that momentum forward while putting in less hours. Thanks to everyone who linked to Modest Money this week.
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I’m curious to know what all of you would do with your blogs if you were suddenly in a situation where you just couldn’t commit close to the same amount of hours. Where would you scale back? I know a lot of bloggers just end up stepping away from their blogs in this kind of situation, but I realize I’ve got something good going here that I want to keep going.
Congrats on the new job! Burn out is never fun so it’s probably a good thing tht you scale back a little
Bobbie @bogofdebt recently posted..Top Tips for Apartment Hunters
Thanks Bobbie. Good to see you using your name with your commenting. It’s good to have a name to associate with people. Not that I care if people comment with just their blog name, but it’s good to at least know what it is.
Congratulations on the new job, man! Awesome!
I find with my full time job and then having a family at home, I go through times when I can do more for blogging and less. The first thing I usually drop is twitter, then I read less blogs and leave less comments. The last thing I’ll resort to if I run out of time is not posting new posts. I think content is the most important thing, then interacting with other bloggers, and then tweeting and doing other blog things. So that’s the order that I let things drop when I get too busy.
TB at BlueCollarWorkman recently posted..What Happens to Kids Who Were Bullied?
Thanks TB. I’m pretty happy about it too. It’s been a while since I was working full time. So it’s nice to land a well paying job.
I do agree that content is the most important thing. I am willing to let my blog coast with posting being the only activity if necessary. I find that link round ups and twitter are the next most important thing for my blog though. Commenting on other blogs is by far the most time consuming task for me. It probably gives the least benefits too. As much as I appreciate all the comments I get, I know it doesn’t ultimately help my SEO goals which is my main blogging priority.
I hope you love your new job!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..The VIP Club – Weekly Roundup 5th Edition
Thank you Holly. It’s going pretty well so far, but I haven’t really dove too far into the actual work yet. So we’ll see how it goes in the coming weeks.
Congratulations on the new job. I bet it feels good to be getting back into a normal routine again.
Thanks Sean. It does feel rewarding to be back working, but I wouldn’t call it a normal routine. With all the blogging work, it’s going to be a struggle until I get it all properly scaled back.
Congrats on the job Jeremy! If I were to scale back, it’d probably be from commenting as much and just share posts via Twitter. I find that the social sharing does not take me as much time as the commenting, but realize it’s different for everyone. I can relate to the burn out…I run my blog on top of running a business with my wife, so you need to find time away from it to keep yourself going.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..Frugal Friday: Posts That Ruled This Week
Social sharing does take way less time and ultimately it helps each other out a lot more. I just hope my blogger friends appreciate that side of things. I do feel bad for the ones who don’t get many comments. I know some people care a lot more about their comment totals.
Since hosting and domain renewals aren’t that expensive I would just scale back the postings and networking as you mentioned. Seems like you have a solid network of friends and by devoting what time you have, the site can still grow, just more slowly.
You could spend a little and outsource some of the other functions, but that has to be to people you trust and that would provide the same level of quality. Of course the revenue the blog is producing has to cover that.
Thankfully my normal sales have allowed me to not worry about our site so much. And doubly helpful with apparently being affected by both Panda and Penguin.
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I would try to outsource something, but in blogging most tasks are just not worth outsourcing. Most of it just relies too much on a personal touch. So to find someone who could do things at the level that I’d want, it would just cost more than it’s worth. I think just by not commenting for a while I should be able to get it all under control. I know there are lots of bloggers who have expressed an interest in guest posting. That is sure to help with the posting commitments.
Congrats on the job!
Michelle @ Making Sense of Cents recently posted..Rise of the Female Trader
Thanks Michelle. And congrats to your boyfriend for his new job and his awesome progress so far.
Congratulations on the new job! I would probably scale down on trying to be everywhere, and concentrate on a small number of blogs that I enjoy to comment and link. Twitter can really be time consuming too.
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I’d thought about trying to concentrate on certain blogs, but out of all the ones that I’ve been commenting on, it would be tough to limit it. Rather than try to pick favorites, I think it will be easier to just switch to tweeting only for my offsite marketing for now.
Congrats on the new job. If my blog was making money I would consider outsourcing some tasks to keep the blog and income growing if possible. Congrats on being a blogger jumping into rather.than out of the rat race!
Yeah isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? I’ve got things all backwards. Ironically it was my most profitable month for online income in a while. So technically I probably could’ve just quit my other job and gone all out on blogging. The thing is that I want to be making some really good money to get a jump on my retirement savings and maybe finally buy a home.
Enjoy the new job! I think you’re taking the right tack by scaling back commenting. As you get adjusted to the new time constraints we’ll likely still be here!
For us, if we had to scale back we’d probably try to get guest posts sine we haven’t had any on our blog yet.
Mrs Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted..Guilt Over Quitting A Job?
Guest posting is something that I’ll want to increase going forward too, especially from fellow bloggers who can help with responding to comments. I do accept a lot of posts from other writers already, but with a lot of them it’s almost as work since I respond to all comments still. If I wasn’t such a slow reader it would be a lot easier to keep up with it all.
New job sounds pretty sweet. Woot! It’s always good to receive regular income from multiple sources. Yeah, I would probably scale back on commenting as well. And maybe even consider writing shorter articles. Thanks for the mention.
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Interesting idea about shorter posts. I know some bloggers stick primarily to posts that are 400-500 words long. I do get carried away with some topics though, especially with my blogging tips posts. The income from multiple sources will be pretty sweet. Now it’s really time to get serious about learning investing strategies.
Dude who starts a new job on a Friday?! haha but congrats man you’ve been a big help to me personally and given me some great ideas.
Harry @ PF Pro recently posted..Investing in I Bonds: An Intro to I Bonds for Young Investors
I guess someone who wants to ease into it rather than doing a full week all at once
Technically I probably should just be doing part time for now while I transition out of my old job, but I want to do what I can to keep the new boss happy. Plus the money makes it pretty motivating to put in lots of hours. Let me know if there’s ever anything else I can do to help out.
Great news, Jeremy! Glad to hear things are working out well. Don’t worry, I won’t shun you if you don’t comment or post about my blog, it’s all good man.
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Thanks Jacob. I’ll be sure to keep mentioning all of you and I’ll try to at least tweet blogger friends’ posts. I wouldn’t want you guys forgetting about me while I’m cutting back.
Congrats on the new job sir. Glad I could be a reference for you!
I’d personally hire a few staff writers and manage the rest of it on your own. If it still was too overwhelming then I’d look to sell my site or find a partner that would take on the majority of the work.
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I am thinking about the staff writer route. First I think it makes sense to accept guest posts from everyone who’s asked about it though. I have a bunch of written posts in the queue and a bunch of people who would want to submit a post. Maybe once I exhaust that option I’ll try to hire a writer or two.
Congrats on the new job
I hope you are able to find a happy balance between your new position and your blogging. Best of luck to you.
Thanks MSM. I hope you stick around even though you’re a new commenter. Finding balance between work and blogging always seems to be a struggle.
Congrats on the new job. Great news! It only makes sense to scale back on the blog and commenting.
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Good to hear from you. Sure, drop by as soon as I’m trying to scale back
I’m hoping that scaling back is only temporary as I get used to working a full time job again and get some things streamlined with my blog.
Congrats on the new job Jeremy. I look forward to Monday to find out more details. As for the blog thing, I’d probably cut back on writing, which is what I’ve been doing lately with not having as much time.
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Thanks Stan. I would scale back on writing, but I already only really write 2 full blog posts each week. The rest is update rambling and guest writers.
Congratulations mate… welcome to the full-time job and try to blog and live life group… It’s not easy but it can work. Cheers Mate. MR.CBB
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I am gradually getting into it since I started with full time blogging. Then for a while I was working a nearly full time job, but from home. Now working a full time job in an office will be the ultimate juggling test. At least I had time to build up my blog to the point that some momentum should carry it forward.
I found out a long time ago that sleep is for the birds. Just kidding. Congrats on your job. I hope it’s something you enjoy. I’ve been reading Modest Money long before I had a blog and I wouldn’t stop now. Maybe you could sell it for some big $$$, but that would be a little sad.
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Nope I have no intention of selling it off. I know I wouldn’t get anywhere close to how much I can make in the next year, nevermind the next 3-5+ years. Selling it off would be a big mistake. I’ll do everything I can to keep it going, even if it means slowing right down on the marketing side of things.
Hope all goes well mate. You’re not wrong, I’ve had a load of extra traffic from Modest Money this month so I can only say thanks for that!
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Good to hear Adam. I don’t think that traffic will slow down much since it was mostly coming from search engines. I do acknowledge that it’ll drop a little bit since I’ll lose referral traffic from comments for now.
Hi Jeremy, Thanks for including frugal habits!
I can understand cutting back. I’m also employed full time, which is why I only post twice a week (Monday’s and Thursday’s) This leaves me time for work, family, social, and blogging. Otherwise I would burn out fast.
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No problem Jason. The thing is I know that most bloggers work full time jobs. So I’m sure I can figure something out eventually. I just don’t want to take on too much during the transition. It will be interesting to see what this does to my traffic and comment counts.
Thanks for the mention.
Despite the new job, I hope you are able to keep the blog going enough to keep us posted on your activities.
Terry recently posted..Dreams Still Come True
Don’t worry…I will at least ramble on diary style about what’s going on in my life. I gotta rant to someone about that stuff anyway lol. This blog isn’t going anywhere. The marketing is just going to slow down for a while.
I do allow massive guest posting at my blog if gets myself into any trouble like the recent one was the disconnectivity from the Internet and I told my younger brother to deal with the guest authors.
Congratulations on your new session at your job, hope you would be able to keep this place live as at the current levels because it’s really a great one.
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Thanks Robinsh. It’s funny to see new commenters on this post of all posts. Hopefully that’s a sign that lots of people will continue commenting. Accepting a lot of guest posts is a good way to keep things going, but I don’t want to accept much more than I already do.
Congrats to a new job. You can still blog but maybe less compared before since you have now a full-time job. These days I have limited time to write bog post because of busy schedule at work.
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Thanks Gil. That’s pretty much what I intend to do. Work and keeping happy will be a bigger priority while my blog takes a bit of a backseat.
Congrats Jeremy! I wish you the best of luck, my friend.
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Thank you Shilpan. It’s good to get all this support from my blogger friends.
Congrats on the job. Starting a new one is always a bit scary and exilerating. I can certainly understand your dilemma as my job doesn’t exactly leave me a lot of time to spend on my sites. One thing I’ve wound up doing is scaling back on other commitments, such as guest blogging. There are probably a dozen posts that I’ve half-committed to that I haven’t written. I also dropped a weekly series on If You Can Read, You Can Cook. It took the longest for me to write and was getting less than 10% of the traffic, so it was a pretty easy decision.
For sure, a new job is both exciting and a bit overwhelming. I’m sure it will be fine. I know that if I tried to keep up all my other commitments it would be way too much though. Long hours of doing my work can be quite draining even though I’m sitting in front of a computer all day.
Congrats on the job! I have had a full-time job the entire time I’ve had this blog, and it takes up almost all of my spare time. My wife has been very supportive, which has REALLY helped. I constantly have to prioritize what I do with my time, and I’m sure you will still be able to get a lot done on this site even while working full-time. It’s all about priorities.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted..Quick Hits and Weekend Reading
The problem is that my priorities keep getting pulled in different directions. Too many of my priorities have been completely pushed to the side while I got busy with my blog and work. Putting even more time into work will really test the commitment level to those other priorities. It does help a lot to have a supportive partner.
Congrats on the new job! I don’t spend near as much time blogging as you do but if I was in your situation, I basically stop blogging until my scheduled posts run out. I’ve done so in the past and it will probably happen again in the future since blogging is something I do for fun, and not for money. I do still check with other blogs but I generally spend very little time writing or commenting, life happens!
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I guess I’m a bit more OCD once I get started on something. I’d get all anxious if I just left my blog without new posts going up. I know it ultimately wouldn’t affect a lot, but I guess I want to keep any momentum going even if I don’t have time to comment for a while.
Congrats Jeremy! (on the new job). You must be excited. I can’t wait to read more about it on Monday.
I’ve spent a lot less time commenting these days than I have in the past, and it’s really nice to just read without worrying about commenting. My traffic has stayed the same, I may get a few less comments but there are other ways to interact with bloggers!
Glad to hear it has worked out for you Daisy. I do expect things to slip a little bit, but I’m not too worried about it. I’m more concerned with keeping the SEO strength build up continuing. As long as I can manage that I’m happy. It is nice to be able to accept not having commented on 30+ blogs each day.
Jeremy, congratson the job! That’s great! I think you’ve buil up a large enough blog following that you’ll be fine even if you scale things back. There are a lot of things you can do, as everyone else mentioned. It sounds like the most difficult thing for you will b accepting The fact that you’re only one person and can’t handle the crazy amount of blogging you do when you add a full time job on top of it, lol.
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Thanks Justin. You’re right…the difficult part is accepting it. The workaholic in me just wants to keep doing as much as I can all the time. Scaling back seems like a scary thing for some reason.