Hello and welcome back to the last of my blogiversary bonanza! It was my blog’s first birthday last week and I felt it needed properly celebrating, so for the last 7 days I have been sharing all the things I’ve been learning in my first year of blogging.
Yesterday I shared How to start a food blog. But you may be wondering what exactly does a food blogger do all day? I mentioned last Friday that blogging takes up an enormous amount of my time. Well, today I am welcoming you behind the scenes to see what it is I do all day and why it takes up quite so much of my time!
Or maybe you are a food blogger and you are wondering what I do and whether it’s the same as you or not. I’d love to know what you think in the comments below…do I do things the same way as you, or totally differently?
A day in the life of a food blogger
Blogging is an incredibly varied job and so consequently every day is different. I mentioned in my post last Saturday that I try and theme my days to make sure each day has a focus and I get everything done. Monday is about writing and editing my recipes, Tuesday and Thursday are about promoting my posts on social media and blogger linkups, Wednesdays are all about reviews and Friday is when I focus on developing my blog and making it even better.
Since Tuesdays and Thursdays are probably my most interesting days (these are the days my posts usually go live), I thought it would be most interesting to look at one of these – so here is an example of what typically goes on on an average Tuesday…
7am
Like most working mums the first part of my day revolves round my children, getting them (and myself!) up, washed and dressed; eating breakfast and washing up afterwards; getting the kids ready for school and walking to school. I always try and walk to school unless it’s absolutely tipping it down with rain – it’s good for them and me to get a breath of fresh air before the day starts and the school run is often the only exercise I get in the day!
9am
I often walk home via the shops (we live in a small village so everything is walkable), where I’ll pick up essentials like bread and milk as well as anything I might need for recipe testing / photography that day.
When I get home, I’ll chuck a load of washing on and then fire up my computer and make a coffee. I really need coffee by this stage in the day! I try to have one straight after breakfast, but I often only manage to drink half of it (or less!) before I have to leave the house. 🙁
The first thing I do is check my latest post – mostly to make sure it has published correctly, but also to give it one last proof read. Somehow I find that so often typos only show up AFTER the post is published – it’s like they hide until then – gah! I always schedule my posts for 9am. I have read in many books and websites that it’s good to be consistent, so I am – mostly!
The next job is checking my comments and replying to any that have come in overnight and then checking my social media and again replying/retweeting/liking/commenting as necessary. I try to be strict with myself, though and only allow myself to do 5 or 10 minutes at this point in the day. I allow myself more later on. (If I wasn’t strict, I’d probably be on social media all day!) Then I check my e-mails, delete the rubbish and reply to anything urgent, but then, again, I leave everything else until later. I also usually take a sneaky peak at my stats (I’m obsessed – this usually happens several times in the day – silly, I know!).
10am
The main job on a Tuesday is to promote my latest post. I begin with social media. For pretty much every post, I will do the following: schedule a selection of tweets (using Hootsuite), post on my Facebook page, post on Google +, pin a few images onto my Pinterest boards, share an image on Instagram and submit to Foodgawker and Tastespotting.
After I’ve promoted on social media, I share my post on blogger linkups (blogger linkups, also known as linkies and link parties, are another way for bloggers to promote their posts – basically I get to put a small photograph and a link back to my recipe on someone else’s blog). Pretty much every week I do the following ones: Cook Blog Share, Recipe of the Week and Cook Once Eat Twice.
Once I’ve added my latest recipe to the linkup (and added a link from my recipe post back to the linkup), I then tweet the owner of the linkup to let them know (which they usually share – lovely people!) and also post in the Cook Blog Share Facebook group (if you are a food blogger and you are not yet a member of the Cook Blog Share Facebook group I thoroughly recommend you join – it’s a great group, very friendly!)
11am
Next I spend some time commenting on other food blogs. I usually start with others who have linked up to the linkups I’ve done (and the linkup owner usually as well – it only seems polite) and whilst I’m at it, I do some pinning / tweeting / Facebook sharing of anything I find interesting. Then I’ll move on to commenting on other blogs I follow. After that, I check Twitter and do some retweeting and commenting and if I have time I’ll do the same in Facebook and Instagram too.
12am
If I have something to photograph, that usually happens around now. I’ll make the dish and photograph it and then eat it for my lunch (whilst watching the last 15 minutes of Daily Politics – I’m addicted! And sometimes the first 5 minutes of the news). I also use my lunchbreak to unload the dishwasher and hang up the washing – all the glamourous jobs!!
1am (ish – I usually catch the headlines of the 1 o’clock news first)
I tend to do a quick whizz round my comments / social media / emails and reply to any comments and urgent emails. Then I’ll edit the photos that I took before lunch and save them in an appropriate file, write up the accompanying recipe and the rest of the text and then upload it all onto WordPress and schedule it for whenever I’ve planned it in for.
If there’s any time left after that (unlikely), then I’ll have a quick check of social media and do some retweeting / commenting etc.
3pm
Time to go and collect the kids from school. I try and keep this time after school until about 4.30pm sacrosanct. If it’s dry, we might go to the park or the shops. If it’s wet, we go to the library or come home and play games. From about 4.30 onwards, they are allowed to watch TV, which gives me an opportunity to get some more work done.
4.30pm
I do a quick check of comments and social media and then tackle my emails – I’ve generally tried to keep on top of the urgent stuff all day and deleted anything I don’t need, so now I just have to deal with the less urgent and/or more long-winded bits and bobs, and generally try and get my inbox down to one page, if I can. I also use this time to deal with any bits of household admin I need to – usually school related!
5.30pm
Time to start making dinner, if I haven’t started already. My work area is also the dining room, so dinner time means I have to clear everything away! Quite often I am also photographing and/or recipe testing dinner!
6pm
After I’ve taken any photos I need to, it’s dinner time, followed by bath time and bed time (for the kids – not me sadly, though I’m often sorely tempted by this time!).
8pm
I don’t work every evening, but once the kids are in bed I do generally check my comments / social media / emails one last time and reply to anything that needs to be replied to. I also find this is a great time for getting into conversations on social media – especially on Twitter, so if this is a work evening, that’s often what I will do next.
Alternatively, I might use this time to read through my latest copy of a foodie magazine or a blog related book
9pm (hopefully)
Time to switch off the computer, put away the books and have some time off – or at least in theory!
10.30pm (very ish)
Time for bed. Except, of course, I’ll check my phone ‘one last time’, inevitably to discover something urgent has come in that I really need to deal with…and I’ll have to fire up the computer again!
So there you have it – a day in my life. Of course, they don’t all look exactly like that (obviously!) – I don’t have a post to promote every day and I don’t always photograph my lunch/dinner or have a post to write up in the afternoon…and I’ve probably left out a good deal of random faffing and reading of stuff I’ve found on Facebook…and then there are days when I am required to help out on a school trip or I have some errand to run and the whole day is out! But it’s a good flavour of the sorts of things I get up to on a regular basis.
If you are a blogger I’d love to know if this is similar to your days or totally different!
If you are not a blogger, I wonder if that was what you expected? Did anything surprise you?
And if that’s not put you off and you fancy starting your own food blog, I recommend reading my previous posts on 10 top tips for wannabe food bloggers and How to start a food blog.
And that, I’m afraid, was the last of my blogiversary content 🙁 Thank you so much for all the lovely kind comments on my posts and all the likes, shares, comments and retweets on social media. I’ve had a lot of fun putting together these posts and I’m a little bit sad that it’s over (though I will be glad to get my life back – I’ve definitely been working overtime this week!!)
If you missed any here they all are again…
Part 1: 10 things I have learnt from my first year of blogging
Part 2: 10 Highlights from my first year of blogging
Part 3: My 10 most popular recipes from my first year of blogging
Part 4: 10 things I’ve learnt about food photography from my first year of blogging
Part 5: 10 top tips for wannabe food bloggers
Part 6: How to start a food blog
Part 7: A day in the life of a food blogger
I really have enjoyed writing these posts on blogging and plan to write more in the future, so if there’s anything else blog related you’d like me to write about, do let me know in the comments below and I will do my best to cover it!
And for those of you who are somewhat puzzled as to where all the lovely recipes have gone – don’t worry I have one scheduled to go live tomorrow (at 9am funnily enough..!) and normal service will resume next week. Well…kind of normal – I have two school trips and a visit from my parents next week, so probably only semi-normal! But there will be two recipes!!
Eb x
clare says
Hi Eb – Oh I wish my days were as organised as your’s – well done you!
I work full time and travel Europe too – so my days are similar but a lot less organised and I spend almost every evening glued to my Mac or my oven and I have to take my photos in the evening 🙁 – I try and switch my Mac off at 9.30 but usually it’s more like 11.30 – I’m not sure this is that good! Then I go to bed and wonder why I cannot sleep!!! I try and schedule a few posts in the day and do a little at lunch time too. BUT I LOVE blogging!
Congrats on your year of blogging!
Cx
Eb Gargano says
Haha – well, this is how the good days go. The bad days go 9am: Check Facebook 3pm: Oooh how did that happen?!! I am hugely fortunate that I am able to blog full-time. You manage to achieve loads considering how much you have to work!! Oh yeah – that happens to me too – I often get carried away and end up working till late then wonder why I can’t sleep! Duh!! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Jacqui says
“The bad days go 9am: Check Facebook 3pm: Oooh how did that happen?!! ” Ha Ha thank goodness you are human after all 🙂
Eb Gargano says
Oh – most definitely human!! 🙂
Jacqui says
“Somehow I find that so often typos only show up AFTER the post is published – it’s like they hide until then – gah! ” Oh how I know that feeling!!!! your right they do hide:)
You seem to be so much more organized with your social media than me, i quite fancy trying your strategy.
Interesting to know your post times. any particular reason why you choose those days and times? I wonder what other bloggers do. I post Monday and Friday at 7 am. Must admit the Monday post is annoying as i often have to do a bit of last minute editing at the weekend and I do try not to work on the blog at weekends, so maybe changing to a Tuesday would be better.
I have enjoyed reading your week of posts so much. Best of luck for the next 12 months, I am sure your blog will go from strength to strength and look forward to hearing all about the miles stones you have past be tween now and then, next year. xxx
Eb Gargano says
Oh they do hide! They do! I proofread several times before posts go live and read aloud at least once and they still hide! Pesky things!!
I like 9am because it means the post is live by the time I get back from the school run, but has only been live for a few minutes – so I can get to those pesky typos before many people have had a chance to see them!
I don’t post on Mondays because, like you say, it might mean working on Sundays which I don’t like doing much. I like having Mondays to get myself organised for the week, without having a post going live, Tuesdays also coincides nicely with Tasty Tuesdays and Cook Blog Share going live. And Thursdays because it spreads the posts out a bit over the week and because then I can take the occasional Friday off!! It also coincides with Brilliant Blog Posts going live, which I like to do too! I do sometimes post on Fridays too – usually I do recipes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and reviews on Fridays…but I sometimes mix it about a bit if I need to! Thank you for all your kind comments! And best of luck with your blog too!! Eb x
Jessica Cantoni says
Oh yes, my days do look a bit like yours! Although you are definitely more organised than me! I tend to do things as and when I think of them… Not good! I don’t have any children yet, but I can see how you would need to structure things and factor in time with them too 🙂 I will definitely be looking at this post and taking some tips from it! Especially the social media side as I do try, but I tend to do it all at once: edit photos, post, social media, linkies etc! So thank you 🙂 I do feel slightly better though knowing my day is similar to someone else’s, and it’s not all miracles! X
Eb Gargano says
Haha – good to know I’m not the only one! I am pretty organised, but I have to be – otherwise I just wouldn’t fit it all in. I generally write a fairly detailed to do list in the morning, but occasionally I don’t write one and they are always my worst days!! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Martin @ The Why Chef says
Cor! Organised to the note!
My blogging *week* goes:
Thursday – cook, forget to weigh and photo what I’ve cooked
Friday – cook, forget to weigh and photo
Saturday – cook something that takes a long time, enjoy it so make rough notes for later, forget to weigh and photo
Sunday – cook for extended family/friends, photo just to show off, forget to weigh
Monday – start writing a blog post instead of working as I hate Monday mornings, schedule in a lunch/dinner, cook, forget to weigh and photo
Tuesday – rewrite blog post as hated the first draft, cook blog recipe and take photos, guess at weights by this point
Wednesday – PANIC IT’S PUBLISH DAY TOMORROW, rewrite yet again, cook again with proper weights, hate last nights photos so photo all again, cry, have about 30 things going on, get to sleep at 12am
Thursday – SUPER PANIC edit photos instead of working before blog goes live at 12pm, edit lots after publishing, finish other blog housekeeping, relax, share, then later – cook, forget to weigh and photo
Eb Gargano says
Haha – hilarious, Martin! I don’t usually have whole weeks that go like that – but I’m certainly familiar with the ‘make a fabulous meal and forget to write it down’ thing. And the ‘hate all the photos and have to reshoot’ problem. I usually get round the former by writing a rough recipe first (in one of my many notebooks) and then editing as I cook. The second is a product of my increasing fussiness about photos and will probably get worse!! Thanks for making me laugh 🙂 Eb
Martin @ The Why Chef says
I have Evernote for my notes (I tried a proper pad and it got covered in food by day 1!) but I find it difficult to write as I go, and then I forget within 2 minutes! I’ve started employing Emma to take notes for me, so I may be slowly winning this war! 🙂
Eb Gargano says
Oooh no I could never use anything electronic to write notes on – it would get covered in food and break. Yes my (paper) notepad gets food splattered on it occasionally, but at least that doesn’t stop it working! I think there’s a running theme among bloggers and their OHs: Charlotte has Jon submitting her posts to food photosharing sites, Angela has Mr E proofreading and now you have Emma taking notes…I think I need to get Mr G more involved – his main involvement at the moment is taste-testing, which he does very well to be fair! He and the kids are the only ones who are 100% honest in their feedback – everyone else is too polite! 🙂
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
You are super organised Eb, and I love how you’re disciplined with yourself on social media at certain times of the day. It’s soooo easy to get sucked in isn’t it, social media must have some sort of timewarp built in – as Jacqui says before you know it the day has simply flown by…..either that or I’m getting old – mum always says time goes faster when you get older!
I too only find those random typos when the post has gone live…I read and read and read again in draft form. Mr E even reads it for me too bless him. But then as soon as that publish button is hit and I visit it a few hours later I spot one of the little blighters!! My biggest nightmare is having a typo in a recipe (especially a quantity or time measurement!) For some reason I often find my typos when I re-read the live post on my phone…I think it’s because the lay out is a wee bit different and the lines of text shorter.
You’ve certainly had a busy birthday week Eb. I imagine you need to have a good old rest tomorrow – once yoi’ve posted and shared your recipe 🙂
Angela x
Eb Gargano says
Haha – on good days I am yes! On bad days it all goes a little off piste – usually social media related – I’m sure you are right about the time warp!! Oh, I’m glad it’s not me which has trouble with pesky hidden typos!! At least we have the luxury of changing them when we spot them – imagine how frustrating it would be if it was in print and unchangeable – or at least not without a cost attached! I once worked for a wine merchant where a whole batch of envelopes had to be pulped because the word ‘Bordeaux’ was spelt wrong!! Eeeek!
Sadly there is no rest for me tomorrow – I have to promote my recipe on social media etc and then crack on with next week’s content. I need to get ahead of myself because I have another half term coming up in a week’s time – plus two an a half days out next week due to school trips and my parents visiting – all nice stuff, but this is why I need to be super organised!!
Thanks for all your lovely comments, this week! It’s been lovely having all these virtual chats – and congrats again on that Foodgawker acceptance 🙂 Eb x
Charlotte Oates says
I’m jealous of how productive you are during the day. I’ve still got Josh at home every day so everything I do is arranged around him (with regular interruption for various very important 3-year-old things!). Come September he’ll be at nursery (that just autocorrected to misery – I hope it’s wrong!) every morning so I’ll need to squeeze as much as possible into two hours. I’m hoping I’ll get a lot more done. I think one area I’m missing out at the moment is having the time to spend commenting on and sharing other blog posts, I’d also like more time to work on the appearance on my blog and developing my skills in various things.
Eb Gargano says
I am seriously impressed, Charlotte, with how much you get done, considering you still have a little one at home with you all day – I have no idea how you do it – an all those extras you get done, which go in your monthly reports. How do you manage it?
There is always so much you COULD be doing on a blog isn’t there? I would really like to be able to pause time, just get everything done that’s on my to do list / wish list, and then restart time again! I always feel like I’m not doing enough commenting and sharing…I would love to spend more time on that – it kind of gets squeezed into an hour on a Tuesday and another on a Thursday…I feel especially guilty this week – I’ve hardly done any commenting, I’ve been so busy with my crazy mad birthday week (who’s bonkers idea was that???).
Well, I hope Josh enjoys nursery and it’s not misery! It’s not usually I don’t think – both mine thoroughly loved it and regularly tell me they wish they could go back there instead of school (they don’t hate school, they just really loved nursery!) And I hope you manage to use the time to full effect – something tells me you will 😉
Eb x
Charlotte Oates says
He already goes a couple of afternoons a week and loves it so I know he’ll be fine. I volunteer in the school so don’t get that time for blog work though. The nursery is at the school and they share some of the staff so it’s a nice transition for them, although I think Daniel misses how much playing he was able to do back then!
Eb Gargano says
Oh I’m glad he likes it – what a nice set up having nursery and school on the same site! Our nursery was in a completely different village, sadly. It was lovely and they run a brilliant after school club, but they don’t run a minibus shuttle from our school, unfortunately 🙁 What year is Daniel in? My son is in Year 1 and it was a big shock for him moving from nursery/reception’s free-flow type setup to Year 1 which is much more proper work. He moaned a lot about it during the autumn – bit better now, or maybe he’s just resigned to it!
Charlotte Oates says
Daniel’s in year 1 too. He seems have to adapted to it just fine, although I think the setup is a little different in Wales to England so I don’t think there’s quite as much of a jump. They also have things like forest schools and golden time on a Friday which keeps things fun and not too formal all of the time.
Eb Gargano says
Interesting – felt like a very big jump for my little boy – far less outside time and a lot more sitting still!! Hard work considering he is still not 6, yet (his birthday is in July). I don’t envy Year 1 teachers trying to get all those bouncy boys to sit still!! We have golden time, but no forest school – that would be awesome! Eb x