I know so many of you are running awesome online spaces alongside a full time day job, and finding balance and the time to really focus on your blog can be tough when there are a million and one other tasks demanding your attention throughout the week. My awesome friend Anastasia, who is a freelance social media consultant and copywriter (and also one of our very talented writers over at ALO), has come over to Jennypurr today to share her best advice for anyone who wants to focus on growing their blog while they're working full time at their day job.

She's sharing some seriously helpful and implementable advice and I'm so excited to be able to share her awesome words of wisdom with you guys today.

How To Grow Your Blog While Working Full Time by Anastasia Sproull

So, you’ve got a full time job, and you also have a blog. You want to grow your blog but you’re only one person and there are only so many hours in the day.

How do you manage working full time whilst still giving your blog the time and energy that you feel it deserves?

1. Make the editorial calendar your new bestie Seriously. If you’re not particularly fond of organisation well, tough – because this one is going to make the biggest difference. Get into the habit of scheduling your posts ahead of time and plan them all out in an editorial calendar. Having them pre-written and ready to go will be a lifesaver on those days where work just sucks the life out of you and the last thing you want to be doing is writing anything down. And as for the editorial calendar, seeing your posts all visually laid out will give you a better idea of which topics you’re featuring too much/not enough and will help you keep a consistent blogging schedule.

2. Plan like you’ve never planned before! Whenever you think of a potential topic idea, write it down. I personally like to keep little notebooks and bits of paper anywhere because for me, inspiration can (and often does) strike in the most inconvenient of times. Treat your blog like work – you need a solid plan and you can’t afford to let good ideas go to waste!

3. Set goals This one is super-dooper important if you’re actively trying to grow your blog. If you can define what success will look like for you (whether it’s x amount of followers or page views, or just the knowledge that anyone is reading what you write), you’ll be able to achieve contentment with your blog so much more easily. Plus, this will help keep you motivated and let you know when things aren’t working and need to be switched up.

4. Take breaks Taking time away from your blog sometimes is crucial to the success and growth of your blog. Sound counter-intuitive? Think about it – if you’re constantly churning away, getting progressively more and more burnt out, your pool of ideas is going to dry up. You’re going to resent having to blog again. You’re going to want to quit and it’s going to become a chore. But if you take breaks, you’ll come back to your blog with fresh eyes. You’ll have been inspired by the outside world and feel re-invigorated – and that’s what you want!

5. Blog only when you feel inspired I know, I know – consistency is really helpful for your blog’s SEO. But good SEO isn’t going to help you nearly as much if you’re pumping out blog articles just for the sake of it. People can tell when there’s enthusiasm behind what you write vs. when you’ve just thrown something out there because you felt obligated to. It’s better to blog with passion once a month than it is to blog with tired ideas and overwhelming boredom five times a week.

6. Forget the rules There are so many “rules” to blogging when it comes to SEO, keywords, posting frequency, image to text ratio; word count… the list goes on. But at the end of the day, the “rules” of blogging are malleable – bend and shape them into whatever works for you. If you only do what everyone else has done, you may never carve out an even better position than what’s been experienced before. Define your own success and set goals for your own growth and your achievements will be so much sweeter.

Connect with Anastasia

I just want to say huge thank you to Anastasia for sharing her advice with us all today, and make sure you check out her blog as it's one of the most positive online spaces I've ever stumbled across. It really is fantastic, a must read in my opinion!

Do you run your blog alongside a full time job? What's your best advice for maintaining your online space?

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