Come the start of 2016 I will have been beauty blogging for 6 whole years, half of which it's been my full-time job. This still amazes me that something that started as a hobby is now my career and will hopefully be for a long time to come! So today I thought I'd talk openly about full time beauty blogging for all of those that are interested or thinking of taking the plunge into it.
Admin will take up too much of your time and it will always feel like a chore (unless you like spreadsheets)
When you become a full time blogger of any kind you will instantly find that you have to be on admin from the get go or it will build up until it pains you to think about it. This includes replying to endless amount of emails to no outcome/benefit, looking through emails and hitting delete for 20 minutes on end, writing up invoices and of course doing your own tax... unless you're wise and decide to employ an accountant to do it all for you (5 years on and I'm still not wise). Doing admin will become part of your life whether you like it or not and it won't feel in the least bit creative!
Brands suck at paying on time
Sadly this is so very true. When a sponsored post arises a deadline is agreed upon between you and the company you are dealing with but when it comes to payment it couldn't be further than that. Even mentioning if you can be given a rough payment time frame and you are likely to be ignored or fobbed off with "we will ask the account department" and then of course it 'slips their mind'. Of course waiting 30 days for a payment is the norm but annoyingly many companies like to overlook this.... though I'm maybe still bitter about waiting 5 months for a payment recently. Basically you will want to crack open the champagne when a company pays you in advance!
Sadly this is so very true. When a sponsored post arises a deadline is agreed upon between you and the company you are dealing with but when it comes to payment it couldn't be further than that. Even mentioning if you can be given a rough payment time frame and you are likely to be ignored or fobbed off with "we will ask the account department" and then of course it 'slips their mind'. Of course waiting 30 days for a payment is the norm but annoyingly many companies like to overlook this.... though I'm maybe still bitter about waiting 5 months for a payment recently. Basically you will want to crack open the champagne when a company pays you in advance!
You will always under estimate your worth/ never know how much to really charge!
This is a tricky one that you feel more confident with in time, but in the first few years you will certainly feel like you are winging it. The problem with coming up with set fees for sponsored posts, social media promotions etc etc is that you have nothing to go on unless you have inside knowledge of the PR beauty world from a previous job or you have an open bunch of blogger friends with similar stats to yourself - unlikely to happen. Of course having blogger friends that you can discuss it with does help but you are basically in it alone and you have to come up with fees that are worth it for the brand and also worth your time. Even now, 5 years on, I still kick myself when I sense a PR has snapped my hand off after I state my fee, knowing that I could have pushed it that bit higher, but you live and you learn. My one piece of advice here would be dramatically increase the fee you have in mind to allow for brands to bring it down slightly.
This is a tricky one that you feel more confident with in time, but in the first few years you will certainly feel like you are winging it. The problem with coming up with set fees for sponsored posts, social media promotions etc etc is that you have nothing to go on unless you have inside knowledge of the PR beauty world from a previous job or you have an open bunch of blogger friends with similar stats to yourself - unlikely to happen. Of course having blogger friends that you can discuss it with does help but you are basically in it alone and you have to come up with fees that are worth it for the brand and also worth your time. Even now, 5 years on, I still kick myself when I sense a PR has snapped my hand off after I state my fee, knowing that I could have pushed it that bit higher, but you live and you learn. My one piece of advice here would be dramatically increase the fee you have in mind to allow for brands to bring it down slightly.
You will feel lonely at some stage
With days on end of typing away at your desk (often the sofa for me) with little human interaction it's easy to feel lonely. This of course isn't confined to blogging, it's part of being self employed and working from home. I've personally had bouts of loneliness, generally in Winter when I feel like there's no point in going outside in to the miserable cold weather especially when there's work to be done. But even if it's popping out to see someone for a few hours or to treat yourself to lunch then do it. Feeling lonely is rubbish in so many ways but it's definitely something that can be overcome!
As some point it will all feel materialistic and pointless
Another pretty miserable one here that I actually wasn't sure if I should include because I'm not really sure if other bloggers felt like this. You see most of the time writing about beauty products is fun and having more lipsticks than you will ever need is a strangely good thing. But then sometimes (thankfully rarely) life happens - a death in the family, illness, a stressful event etc, and it will all feel so pointless and trivial. These are the times that you will question why you are writing about such materialistic things and why you need so many nail polishes. I've certainly had moments like that and though I don't have any advise if you do end up feeling that way I promise once life gets back to normal the doubt and feeling of how materialistic the beauty world is will disappear. I'd love to know if anyone else has felt this way about beauty blogging!
Another pretty miserable one here that I actually wasn't sure if I should include because I'm not really sure if other bloggers felt like this. You see most of the time writing about beauty products is fun and having more lipsticks than you will ever need is a strangely good thing. But then sometimes (thankfully rarely) life happens - a death in the family, illness, a stressful event etc, and it will all feel so pointless and trivial. These are the times that you will question why you are writing about such materialistic things and why you need so many nail polishes. I've certainly had moments like that and though I don't have any advise if you do end up feeling that way I promise once life gets back to normal the doubt and feeling of how materialistic the beauty world is will disappear. I'd love to know if anyone else has felt this way about beauty blogging!
You will take blog photos in your pyjamas (and have to edit out your reflection from metallic packaging - oops)
On a less serious note...please tell me this doesn't just happen to me?! Damn you, pretty reflective packaging!
Hope you've enjoyed this rant/ramble about being a full-time beauty blogger!
I feel I need to follow this up with a positive post about blogging very soon - because I do love it really!
Fee xo.
Hope you've enjoyed this rant/ramble about being a full-time beauty blogger!
I feel I need to follow this up with a positive post about blogging very soon - because I do love it really!
Fee xo.
