I Quit My Job to Blog Full-Time

Top – Garage // Denim – ReDone

About 5.5 months ago, I quietly left my job to blog full-time. While I wasn’t necesarily trying to hide the fact that I had quit my job (I was fairly open about my decision to anyone that asked about it), I didn’t intend to make a big show of it at the risk of potentially failing and running back to a 9-5 with my tail between my legs. But almost half a year later, I now feel ready to speak about my experience and what led me to make the decision that I made.

To make this as concise as possible, and to help answer all of the questions that I get on a regular basis in relation to blogging and how I’ve been able to succesfully transition towards it as a full time job, I have decided to organize this post into a question/answer format. Feel free to read the entirety of this post, or to pick the parts that most intrigue you. If you have any burning questions that I didn’t cover, feel free to leave it in the comments below, or to shoot me an email! I’ll most likely write a follow up post upon my 1 year anniversary of blogging full-time to provide any key learnings or insights into the process.

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How long have you been blogging for?

Every time someone asks me this question, I have to prep them for a sit down as this is a long story. But I’ll jump right into it here. I always grew up exposed to the internet as my father worked in high-tech. While many of my friends didn’t even really understand what internet was, I was busy plugging away online coding my own blog themes when I was 12. The Lust Listt as you know today, didn’t exist yet back then, but I spent my early days of “blogging” on platforms such as Xanga, Live Journal, Blogpost, Piczo, and Freewebs, just to name a few. I salute any of you that recognize those platforms and were part of them back then when I was!

From these sites, I taught myself how to create blog templates and layouts, how to code in HTML and a little bit of CSS, and played around with graphic design. At that time, I didn’t have a specific site or blog that I would document all of my thoughts on, but various sites that I got to really play around and experiment with. It wasn’t until I was in 9th grade (14 years old) that I finally settled on a single blog and thus The Lust Listt was born (but on Blogspot). It wasn’t until about 3-4 years ago before I committed to purchasing my own domain and making my blog my very own, owned and operated entity. So to sum it up, I’ve been blogging officially as a business for 3-4 years, have had an actual blog for 13 years, and have been online for about 15 years.

Why did you name your blog The Lust Listt?

It’s simple really. When I was younger, I was extremely into fashion (not that I’ve changed since) and loved to read magazines. Everytime I opened one up, there would always be a section near the front that depicted an editors’ favourite products for the month—what they were “lusting” after. And because of my love for both fashion and shopping, The Lust Listt was born.

Now the reason why I have 2 T’s at the end of my blog name is really easy to explain. Someone else had already taken “The Lust Listt“, so to still be able to claim the name (I was obsessed with it and thought that I was ridiculously witty for coming up with it, I simply added 1 extra T to the name and claimed it as my own. Looking back now, I probably shouldn’t have done that as people often get the spelling mixed up, but I never thought that my blog would become anything serious so I didn’t really care. Plus by the time that I had realized that the blog was turning into a legitimate business, I had already branded myself with 2 T’s so it was way too late to change it up.

Why did you start blogging, what was your inspiration?

One of the main reasons that I began blogging was simply because it served as a creative outlet for me to express myself without anyone regulating how I operated. There was no one to tell me what to write about or what to take pictures of. No one really cared about blogs back then, so I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. I mainly utilized my blog to escape from the world of academia, whenever I needed a break, and definitely served it’s purpose.

Since blogging back then wasn’t a “thing“, I can’t say that any particular person inspired me to begin my blog. I just happened to stumble onto that side of the internet and it interested me enough to stay. My first year of posting consisted mainly of nail art (I was very much into it at the time), and nail polish reviews. Gradually as I became more comfortable with being in front of the camera, I began to post my outfits. My blog then fully blossomed into a fashion blog before I started introducing other topics such as beauty, travel, lifestyle, and even resources (which was a recent addition within the past year).

Did you always plan on becoming a full-time blogger?

Absolutely not. When I first began blogging, if anyone ever found out about it, or if I ever told anyone what I did, they would always give me a confused facial expression and follow it up with questions such as “why would you willingly introduce yourself onto the internet” and comments such as “that’s really weird of you“. Because of the largely negative reactions that I would get, I never thought that my blog would lead to anything. I simply saw it as my creative outlet and continued with it because it was fun for me. I still very much try to instill that premise onto myself as a reminder that I got into blogging to have fun, and this helps to keep me grounded and prevents me from stressing out too much over it.

How did you balance working a full-time job and blogging full-time?

Back when I was both working full-time and blogging full-time, I would joke that I had a 9-5 and a 5-9. To be successful at blogging, you have to be as committed to it as you are to any full-time job. Without hard work, time, and effort, it’s difficult to grow your blog into something successful. But working that many hours a day is extremely tiring and takes a toll on you. As I sit here writing this at 6 AM, I’m reminded of the many weeks and months where I wouldn’t get more than 4 hours of sleep a night, while trying to get my posts done on time to turn into clients, or to keep on my own schedule.

Truth be told, I didn’t have a healthy balance between my full-time job and my blog. But before my blog became successful, I was heavily reliant on my jobs to keep me financially afloat so I wasn’t able to give up my job. Nor did I want to give up my creative outlet either, and it was on the cusp of getting to the point of success, so I never wanted to give it up. Because of that, I would over commit myself to both and spent many days exhausted and tired due to lack of sleep and rest.

At what point did you decide to blog full-time?

There are 2 very important factors that contributed to me quitting my job deciding to blog full-time. It has always been very important to me to one day find a job that didn’t feel like I was working, so when my blog appeared to do that for me, I knew that I would have to eventually leave my full-time job.

Finances

The first indicator that my blog was becoming successful was when the income that I was bringing in through it surpassed my annual salary at my full-time job. But that didn’t mean that I could instantly quit on the spot and switch over to blogging. The funny thing with running a blog is that you’re essentially a freelancer and work comes in ups and downs. Some months you’ll do extremely well, while others will completely bomb. I had to make sure that my finances would continue to either increase or stabilize to determine that it would be successful in the long run. After a year of monitoring my finances, I knew that I would be able to consistently bring in an income that suited my lifestyle regardless of the ups and downs. The next step was to ensure that if things did go south, I would have enough saved up to last at least one year. It took me a few more months to reach that point, but once I did, I felt financially secure enough to make the decision to step away from my full-time job.

Opportunities and Responsibilities

At the time that my blog was picking up financially, the opportunities that came along with it also picked up as well. While I was excited to say yes to many, I was just as disappointed to say no to others. Many of the exciting opportunities included travel that would take me away from work and away from my team. And while I felt bad for not being able to be readily available for my team as I would like to be, I really didn’t want to miss out on all of the fun opportunities that my blog was bringing me. Who actually wants to say no to a trip to Europe?

And on the flip side, my responsibilities at work were beginning to pick up as my team grew. I began new projects and pioneered new initiatives, and had opportunities to grow with the company. I wanted to be there for it and began to turn down some of the blog opportunities that came my way.

I hated myself for turning down opportunities that I worked so far for, but I also hated myself for not being there for my team. So coupled together with being in a place of financial security, I decided that it was time to walk away from my job and to begin blogging full-time. I figured that I would give myself 1 year to see where the business would go, and if things headed south, at least I had a resume to back me up and I would be able to get back into an office position somewhere. You can always go back to a 9-5, but you don’t often get the chance to be your own boss.

How much can you make from your blog?

I won’t necessarily reveal how much I make exactly each year, but I recently surpassed 6 figures this past year. Keep in mind that this is an extremely lucrative industry and there are thousands of other bloggers who command larger platforms than mine, so you can make your guess there as to how much there is to be made in the world of blogging. But it’s also important to remember that none of this comes without years and years of work. Years and years of sleep deprivation, and thousands of dollars invested into equipment and tools to further myself.

You can definitely make enough to live a happy and comfortable life, but your income is reflective of how hard you work. A common reference that I allude to when explaining how long it can take before you begin to see success in your blog is the idea of completing an undergrad degree. In order to become a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, or any other prestigious job you can fathom, you have to at least complete your 4 years of undergrad before you can apply to a graduate degree of some sort. You have to pay in the time, and do the work on your blog before you’ll begin to make money. For some it can be 1-2 years, others can be 4-5 years, and many can go longer than that before seeing any sort of return. The point that I want to make is that you don’t wake up overnight after blogging for a few days and have brands tripping over you both left and right offering you money.

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And there you go! The backstory of how my blog came to be, when I deemed my blog to be succesful, and how I was able to make up my mind to quit my job in order to blog full-time. Hopefully this answered many of the questions that you may have in regards to my journey of blogging full-time and helped you to determining when is the right time to quit your job to blog full-time as well. For anyone that may not necessarily be there yet, but is thinking of starting a blog, a few words of advice that I want you to leave with: it’s never too late to start, and you’ll never be successful tomorrow if you didn’t start yesterday.

Photography Credits: The Dunk Listt