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Full Time Blogging – The Best Decision I Ever Made

Full Time Blogging  – The Best Decision I Ever Made

Photography by Tom Buck

What I’m Wearing

Mohair Flannel Shirt – Nens Official (click here)

Oversized Hoodie – C2H4 (click here)

Vintage Blown out Denim – Summit Home (click here)

Wedge Chelsea Boot – Represent (click here)

Whilst I was first writing this post I was quite angry, frustrated even with everything going on in the industry of blogging, the post was originally going to be about my frustration with other content creators buying followers, using auto liking apps basically trying to cheat their way into a false sense of a career. Then I realised I’m better than that and wanted to focus on the positives and just how incredible this year has been.

I’ve been blogging, Instagramming, youtubing or whatever you want to call it – full time for 1 year now and what I’ve learnt is that there is no fast-track, quick fix or jump start to becoming a full time blogger in the first place and then once you’re at that level, the work that goes into staying on top is even harder.

Everyday I’m inundated with guys (and girls) asking ‘how can I be like you?’ ‘how do you earn money?’ ‘how do I get brands to work with me?’ etc. In all honesty it’s a lot of hard work and I give a pat on the back to anyone who can do what us full timers do. The frustration comes when others do it half heartedly and then except the world to be handed to them on a silver platter. I tweeted the other day about bloggers/instagrammers using fake followers, auto liking and commenting apps, comment groups and that’s really been grinding my gears as of late.

I’ve blogged for 6 years, instagrammed for 4 and youtubed for 2, I’ve seen a lot of changes and I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. I didn’t start any of this with a goal of it being my full time job, it just happened, I love exploring my own personal style and sharing that with the world, from tumblr to blogspot, from Instagram to YouTube – everything I share is 100% me. So after 5 years when it finally came to the point of it becoming a full time career I was so happy and proud of myself. I didn’t wake up one day like ‘ I want to be a blogger’ because if you do, then it’s never going to happen – because you’re only in it for the blogger ‘lifestyle’ and the money, which will be so obvious to your audience.

This year has genuinely been the best year of my life and the most important thing about it has been you guys. The Readers, the followers, the commenters, the likers, the viewers, the subscribers, the retweeters, each and every one of you. The fact that one person is even sat here reading this means the world to me, the countless messages about guys getting inspiration on what to wear, gaining confidence in day to day life or even if I’ve just helped find a certain item of clothing. I’ve made so many new friends, online and in real life through my blog and It reminds me of why I’m doing this and why I started it in the first place.

I’ve been able to expand my horizons by travelling a lot too, Tokyo, LA, Bangkok, Paris – all of these places I never could have imagined of visiting this year. Blogging/YouTubing/Instagramming ( what do I call all of these things) has become a whole empire in itself due to the fact that the landscape of advertising has changed. No one looks at billboards anymore, hardly anyone watches TV in realtime, everyone is one their phone, talking to their friends or researching the things that they know they like. I mean it’s a great thing for bloggers like me but I also have to be extremely selective. I only work with brands that I love or present interesting ideas to me. For example my collaborations with Moss Bros this year, I would never in my life thought that I’d be wearing a proper tuxedo in 2016 but Moss presented it to me as a challenge and always give me full creative control on every project I work on with them. Things like this get me out of my comfort zone and push me to create content that is new and exciting.

I think my favourite part of full time blogging is being able to put my all into my YouTube channel, my YT channel is like my child and I’ve seen huge growth this year not only in my subs, views and content but also in myself. My own confidence, my own personal development and my own style.

To me blogging doesn’t even feel like work because I thoroughly enjoy all aspects of what I do but when I stop and think about everything I’ve achieved this year, I’ve worked pretty damn hard and never really take time off. I think if you’re looking to get into blogging then be prepared to commit, push yourself, experiment and give it 110% always.

Everything boils down to a few simple things, be passionate about the content you’re creating, know why you’re making it, put in the hard work. Not everyone can launch into a full time career straight away, I certainly couldn’t but then again for the first 4 years of blogging I was very irregular in my posting, who knows where I’d be if I put the same amount of work into it that I do now back then.

To round this off, It’s never too late to start your own business, whether it’s blogging, creating your own brand or whatever kind of job you want to do, be genuine, play fair, don’t rush into things but don’t hang about, don’t quit your day job straight away and I guarantee you after pouring your heart and soul into anything you do, it will all pay off.

Thanks for checking out this ESSAY of a post and thank you so much for your continued support, without you guys none of this would be possible, so thank you so much – don’t forget to leave a comment with your thoughts, thanks for being here it means so much to me, Have a great festive season and I’ll see you really soon.