How to Get Your Partner on board with your Blogging

Update - I don't want to change this post as it's one of the most popular on the site, but I just wanted to update you to let you know that contrary to what it says in the first sentence, I no longer work another job whilst blogging. I was able to stop doing that a few months after I started this blog. I do, however, work just as hard now!

In common with most start up bloggers, I also work a full time job at the moment. And that means I spend evenings and some weekends working on my blogs. I'm very aware that I'm eating into what used to be family time, so I recognized early on that I needed my wife to be on board with what I'm doing. Don't make the mistake of setting off on a new blogging career without first discussing it with your partner. Here are some tips for the approach I took, and so far it seems to be working, as I have all the support in the world from mine.

Discuss and agree some kind of schedule

When you're motivated and excited about a new project, it's easy to fall into the trap of doing it every spare moment - that's a quick route to family support falling away. Instead agree on times you can devote to blogging, leaving plenty of time to do family things, help around the house, walk the dog or whatever else needs doing.

Share your objectives in detail

You have written objectives or goals for your blog, right? If not read this! Assuming you do, share them with your partner. Explain your objectives for this week, this month and this year. Describe to him or her how success will benefit the whole family. Draw a word picture describing what life will be like for you in a year or two year's time.

Share your performance in detail

Let your partner know how you're doing - good and bad. He or she will be able to input with ideas and suggestions, often bringing a more rational view to a situation that you're inevitably very close to. When you have to revise objectives (and you will) share the change with your partner.

Get your partner to write guest posts

I asked my wife to write a guest post on my diving blog - Diving, A Wife's Perspective - it's one of the most read posts on the site! She really enjoyed writing it, is proud of the number of reads it gets, and really identifies with that site now. As I type this, she is working on another post, for another blog.

Ask your partner to get involved in some administration

My wife is an accountant - so it's logical that she does the book keeping for the blogs, and she's also taken on some of the other administrative jobs that she felt she could do better than me. It not only frees up my time to focus on writing and marketing, but it also means she has a real sense of ownership of our new business.

Finally - Don't let it take your life over!

It's a serious point - it's easy to allow blogging, all the social media activity, researching and reading other blogs to completely take your life over. You have to resist this, you have to make sure you leave enough time for real life to continue. If you don't, at best you'll end up burned out, and at worst you'll end up having relationship problems and giving up blogging because of them.

How have you involved your partner in your blogging? Let me know in comments.

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Another update: What's going on with this post? Over 14,000 reads and not a single comment. I can't work that out at all, can you?

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