Blogging Vs. Working

I was in Orlando, Florida two days ago. We drove. The heavy traffic encountered in Jacksonville on our way there and back was a nuisance. I hate it. It makes my blood boil whenever I get caught in it. Yet thinking of it at a bloggers' perspective, this is the kind of traffic I need. The congested it is, the better. Let's face it, traffic is the soul of our blogs. And to sustain a living, breathing blog, we need to feed it with regular blog posts just like how the yellow cabs congests the busy roads of New York City! But, what if this can't be done? You work and just don't have the time to spare. Would you sacrifice a day of work just so you can blog?

Chris Brogan during his talk at this years' Disney Social Media Moms Conference reiterated a crucial action to "...post twice a day to double your traffic." Sounds doable right? Not! Not if you work like me. A dilemma that I live with each day. Though I agree it works, posting twice a day, to me, is like beating on a half-dead horse. It just won't work. Unless of course there's 48 hours in a day then I'm set.

Finding the balance between blogging and working depends on which you prioritize. And it is a hard choice especially for those who are trying to turn their blogs into businesses - like me. I wish it would happen overnight but it doesn't. So what do you do? Does securing a paycheck comes first or your blog? For most bloggers who work, paycheck takes top priority. It did for me.

My paycheck comes first. Period.

I went to work right the next day I came back from the conference. My luggages are still all over the living room. Unpacked. Lacking Sleep. My blog literally neglected. It bothers me. It is a letdown. But my priorities are set.

It's Friday now. My work week is done. So now I CAN blog. If you're in the same situation, don't beat yourself too much. Identify your priority and work with it. If you have to be away, make sure to either schedule a blog post or a short update why you'll be absent. Otherwise, have enough useful content for all the bots to crawl. Enough to maintain your feed base. I left with 600+ subscriber and came back with 554. Not bad for being away for a week. Balance is finding what works. If not, we can always use some lessons from the guys at Cirque du Soleil.

What is your priority? And how do you find balance?