People often ask me how much time I put into blogging each week, and honestly, I can’t give them a good answer. Sometimes I feel like I am working on this blog always and forever because, um, food is what I’m thinking about 99% of the time. In the June income report from a few weeks ago, one thing Bjork talked about was how much time actually goes into all the different aspects of Pinch of Yum, but we didn’t have any hard numbers to put around that in terms of hours, so I thought it would be interesting (okay fine, very mildly interesting) to take a week and document how much time I actually put into creating posts and working on other blog-related projects.
Of course, the week that I chose to do this documentation just happens to be the week that I’m “on vacation” at the cabin.
I almost decided to throw in the towel and wait to do this until a regular week. But then I realized that maybe vacation blogging hours are even more interesting than my hours in a regular week. Last time we came up to the cabin, I did a much better job of scheduling my posts out in advance so I could disconnect a little bit more, like Bjork talked about in the May income report. It’s one of those awesome bonus perks of blogging – you can do it from anywhere and you can work ahead in order to unplug later. Howwwwever. This time I wasn’t that good at being organized in advance, so between picking blueberries with my grandparents, having leisurely coffee and lemon coffee cake under the pine trees, and baking perfect chocolate chip cookies just because, I was working little bits of blogging into my day.
Here’s what this week has looked like, part cabin and family photos, part blogging hours.
Saturday: a Regular Non-Cabin Day.
Total Time: 3 Hours
8:30am-10:30am: breakfast meeting with Bjork to plan and organize for Food Blogger Pro and Pinch of Yum
3:00-4:00: grocery store trip
Sunday: a Preparing-For-The-Cabin Work Day.
Total Time: 10 Hours
6am-9am: testing the bread recipe, recording new editing tutorial videos for Tasty Food Photography
2pm-6:30pm: testing the bread recipe again, baking dessert pizza, grocery store trip, photographing dessert pizza
9:30-9:45: another grocery store trip (wahh)
10:45pm-1am: responding to emails, sending book downloads, uploading and sorting photos
Monday: Leaving For The Cabin!
Total Time: 2 Hours
5:00am-7:00am: making and photographing salmon, writing recipe, uploading photos
Tuesday: At The Cabin.
Total Time: 3.5 Hours
12pm-1:30pm: responding to email, editing photos
4pm-5pm: editing photos, writing post
11pm-12am: editing photos, writing post
Wednesday: At The Cabin.
Total Time: 3 Hours
6:30am-8:30am: responding to comments, responding to emails, publishing Wednesday’s post
9:00pm-10:00pm: organizing and editing pictures
Thursday: At The Cabin.
Total Time: 3.5 Hours
11:30am-1:00pm: editing pictures for a blog-related project
3:00-5:00: responding to email, responding to comments, writing and uploading photos for post
Friday: At The Cabin.
Total Time: 1.5 Hours
5:30am-7:00am: publishing post, responding to emails and comments
Total Time: 26.5 Hours
I added that up really fast so you might want to double check me. Or not. One thing to realize with these hours is that many of them have nothing to do with actual blog posts. I have several other Pinch of Yum projects that I’m working on in between recipes and posts, so you can take that total time with a grain of salt. Or a pinch of yum. Bad, bad, bad.
I’d love to hear from you on this one! If you have a blog, how many hours do you think you spend working on your blog each week? Do you blog on vacation, or take time off, or schedule posts in advance?
PS. Lemon coffee cake. It’s a good idea.
I have been searching to find a comfort or effective procedure to complete this process and I think this is the most suitable way to do it effectively.
For me, I usually spend 10 hours or less a week coming up with content and actually blogging, while the majority of my time goes toward promoting and engaging with my audience on social media. If I spent more than 30 hours a week on blogging and social media engagement, I feel as though I would burn myself out.
Enjoyed reading this post. Interesting to read the details on what goes on behind one of my fav food blogs (PinchofYum..duh).
I love leisurely time spent in cabins. But it’s been a while since I had a chance to go up to the cabins. I miss it. It’s so relaxing and fun. Looks like you had a great time with the grandparents!
Thank you for sharing this (and many other aspects of blogging) with us! Your page with resources for those who want to start a food blog was so helpful to me. So much indeed, that I started my own food blog this week! Right now I mostly spend my time looking at posts like this one to get more of an idea of what blogging will actually mean in the future, and of course browsing the long list of food blogs I read for inspiration on recipes and photography.
For me, the biggest challenge right now is photography. I don’t have a fancy camera, just a point-and-shoot, and I don’t even understand all the options I have with that camera hahaha. I would imagine that if my blog were to become more popular, the biggest time-suck (though that sounds too negative) would be answering e-mails and comments. I am always very impressed when I see a blogger who responds to all questions that come by in the comments! So kudos to you!!!
On another note, very nice non food-related photos in this post! Looks like you had a great time!
Thanks for the nice comment Sonja! We did have a great time. 🙂
Your family members are all so darling. Either that or you are genius at capturing the best moments. Or both!!
Aw, thanks Amelia. 🙂
I found this really interesting too! Recently I’ve been spending a lot more time on the blog doing things other than just posting. It’s the little stuff that can suck up a lot of time–sharing photos to food sharing sites, posting on Tasty Kitchen, etc. Right now I have a backlog of those things so I’m trying to slowly work my way through it. My love/hate relationship with blogging is partially due to the fact that it’s never ending. There’s always something more you could be doing. It’s great because I enjoy it and feel like I could do it forever and never get bored, but it’s not so great because it makes it difficult to unplug and relax when needed. One of my goals is to get better about scheduling posts in advance so I can have days off on the weekend and on vacation. But with working full time right now, I feel like I’m just flying by the seat of my pants. (sigh.) Thanks for sharing!
That’s very true – there’s always something more you could be doing. I was just thinking about that the other day, actually, and how to teach myself to be okay stepping away for a while knowing that there IS something more I could be doing for my blog, because it’s okay not to do it sometimes. 🙂
Love this post! I get asked this question, too, and I find it so difficult to quantify. From recipe research, to social media engagement, to grocery shopping, to foraging for berries, to snapping iPhone photos… how much is actually blogging? 🙂 This post tells me that I’m not alone.
Hugs!
It’s kind of like a black hole sometimes, right?? Thanks Maya!
Your photos are absolutely gorgeous! I spend about 12 hours per week working on my blog during the summer in addition to time spent reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. I don’t blog on vacation because I like to disconnect 🙂
Great post! My husband asks me every now and then how much time I spend on blogging and I can never really give him a good number. It really depends on what I’m doing, too. Like you said, not all of it is writing a post. I find that I spend a lot of time reading other people’s blogs and commenting on their posts in order to start conversations and build my network. I try super-duper hard to draft posts on the weekend to post during the week, but this doesn’t always happen. As for when I’m on vacation (and depending if I have internet access), I usually do very quick checking-in posts with a picture or two a day until I get back and can do a sort of recap post of my vacation. I don’t know if it is the best system, but it works for now.
I love this post! As a fairly new blogger, I’m amazed by just how much time I devote each and every day to my blog! Mostly, I cherish that time because I’m doing what I’ve waited my whole life to do…something I love and feel passionate about. Every so often, when things are not going as I’d like, or when I feel pulled in too many directions…that time feels overwhelming, but still…I’d never give it up! Love your blog so much. So happy to have found you!
For me, working on my websites comes in spurts. When I have a new idea, I’ll be so excited to make it happen that I’ll spend a ton of time on it over a few days. And then I might not do much for a week.
That sounds about right as far as time invested for the amount of posting you do. It’s nice to see the “behind the scenes” for someone else. I think sometimes people think food blogging is just taking pictures of what you had for dinner. Which I guess it may be for some people. For most people, though, there is a serious amount of prep work, and it has to be something you love to make you want to stick with it.
So true, Nicole! Definitely more to it than snapping a photo of dinner. 🙂
I’ve asked myself this question a few times lately. I post 3 to 4 times a week and I average about 15-20 hours a week and sometimes this varies up or down a few hours. This is based on not just the blogging part but posting to other websites, doing the recipe research, taking the photos, cooking the food, cleaning up, set up, looking for props, redoing a not so good photo shoot or recipe, writing the posts usually while I should be relaxing at the end of the day, and the list seems so long but I love it. Sometimes I find myself dreaming about a recipe idea. Or when that great idea for a post comes up when you’re doing other things and you hope to remember what you wanted to say. Does that count in the work week?
It’s hard to really estimate because there are some things in blogging that spill over into our regular days. Do I count the meal I ate right after I took the photo? I would have had to make a meal to eat anyway. I feel lucky to have this creative outlet and although I’m not making any money yet it feels good to share recipes and learn something new everyday.
I don’t really “get” what google circles are all about, but every time I look at POY, you ate on more of them… 345 to date and that’s gotta be a good thing. Congratulations! 🙂
*are
Or ate. I usually ate more of things.
I love this breakdown. And cute photos! I’m honestly not sure how many hours I put into blogging. I feel like it’s 24/7!
I really don’t think I’d like to add up all the hours I spend blogging. I think I probably spend way too much time for the return but you can’t put a price on doing something you love right? Right?
This is so interesting, and once again–You guys amaze me at how willing you are to share and help the rest of us! 🙂 Thank you, really.
I am now curious about how much time I spend. Since I do it while homeschooling three boys and chasing a toddler as well, I think my days are so totally fragmented, and it would be hard to even keep track. But I want to now. 🙂
Aloha!
Love the pictures Lindsay! I missed being there!
Thanks Stephie! We missed you!!
I love that you wrote a post about this! Remember when I told you if I had things to do over again I would do several things differently? Well, as much as I want to write about a variety of things, I’m quickly realizing it would have been a very wise idea to focus on one thing because EVERYTHING takes such a long time! My ideas, goals, and vision for my blog do not feel reachable sometimes because I feel like I’m a mile wide and an inch deep. I wish I would have chosen one or two things to blog about and do them well. My reality is that I’m a mom with 4 young children. Blogging could easily be a full-time job, but my time and attention needs to be on caring for my family first and foremost. I don’t have the time to dedicate to my blog that I wish I did.
That being said, I love the food blogging. I need to cook for my family everyday anyway, so it’s not that much more work to document the recipes I’m making and photograph them. Food posts, in my opinion, are easier and faster to write than the other posts I’ve been writing because time is already set aside in my day for that part of the blogging job.
I often wonder how many hours other bloggers are putting into their blogs each week. I’m always curious to know how they are able to balance family life and blogging. Thanks for being so transparent with all of us!
Hi Lindsay! I have been wondering how much time the really successful bloggers put in, so this was great to read. Right now most of my time is going toward building content and experimenting with recipes since I’m just getting started (no responding to emails or comments… sad face!). If I’m doing 2 posts per week, I probably put in 15-20 hours. But now that I’m putting in a lot of work on the design and making my blog more accessible, the time skyrockets like crazy! Thanks for the post. Talk to you soon!
Obviously some posts take longer to write than others, but in general, I find that taking the pictures, sorting through them, editing them, adding a watermark to them, takes the most time. And answering emails, which I enjoy doing, but I definitely have to set aside time for it. I have no clue how many hours a day I spend, but I’m sure it’s way more than I’d like to know. 🙂
We went to my sister’s house for dinner last night and I purposely left my camera at home. Sometimes I feel like, if I don’t post it, it didn’t happen. It’s nice to walk away and just enjoy a good meal with family, without thinking about where I’m gonna put the salad for the best lighting. It was a beautiful salad though. 🙂
Email is a time suck. NOT good! But also important, so it’s hard to know how to balance that sometimes.
Lindsay, thanks for satisfying my curiosity as to how much time you and Bjork invest in your blog. Blogging is clearly not for wimps! I am inspired by your dedication and particularly by your willingness to work into the wee hours of the morning. BTW, the pics of your family at the cabin are delightful!!!
Thanks Janie. 🙂
Another great and very interesting post. Fisrt, cabin and family…beautiful! Second, since my blog is new I have never taken the time to figure out how much time I spend on it. My issue is that I have to define my brand (who am I and what is my blog about) I have so many interests that I am easily distracted. One day I give 100% to an art project then the next day its all about food.
The one thing I learned from this post is that I should make a work schedule. Being a stay at home mom, you are distracted by everyday home “stuff”. So this weekend I am going to work on a schedule for next week. Yay! Fisrt, step towards treating the blog like a business.
Another interesting thought, that was your time spent on the blog. I wonder how many additional hours if you factor in Bjork’s time as well. Bottom line, the 2 of you are committed and it shows! It is greatly appreciated by all who follow you 2 love birds ~ 🙂
I am always thinking about food and coming up with recipes. I don’t have to put that much effort into it, it just happens naturally. I work from home with my regular job so it is easier for me to put in a bit more effort into my blog that way. I often look at blogging as a second full time job. I do give myself the weekends off as much as possible. When I have a scheduled vacation, I completely unplug. I don’t take my laptop and will try to schedule a few posts to go out while I’m away. But I think it is important to unplug from things, even things we love, to just “be”. There was a certain period where I was burnt out on blogging and that is because I wasn’t giving myself a break. I had to take some time off, which was hard to do, to get re-inspired and to create a balance of everything.
Very cool, thanks for sharing! I just have to chime in and say I’m a Minnesota girl too and love to read about your Minnesota life! I’m in AZ now but one day I will be back 🙂 Hope you had fun at the cabin!!
AZ is my second favorite state after MN. My gparents live there in the winter!