Escaping the 9-5: My Road to ProBlogging

[Image via PhotoDune.]

My road to become a professional blogger wasn’t one that showcased exemplary courage or that necessarily required a colossal leap of faith – it was rather a fairly slow and methodical pace where I carefully calculated the risks and rewards, all of the financial considerations possible, and the work-life balance that would seriously change.

Sure, the story is a bit less dramatic and not as exciting as you perhaps would like to hear but I would hope that it’s much more realistic and manageable, especially for many of you who have hopes of one day taking a step down this path!

In any case I want to start sharing more of my thoughts, experiences, and tips on how I ultimately made the decision to jump out of corporate america and the life of a cube-dweller and pass those onto you so you can better apply them in your own context and situation.

In other words, I want to share with you how I escaped the 9-5 to start my journey down the road to ProBlogging.

Like any of the other series this post will be act as the Table of Contents as I build the blog posts out. I’ve posted a few already that I’ve published in the past that will give some more context for where I want to head with the series and I have already six or seven of them already drafted but they still need a round of editing (or two) to be ready.

I’m quite excited about this particular series as I think it’ll bring a realistic perspective of what it might take to join me in the land of probloggers!

1. Never Forget Your First
2. One Reason I Knew that I Could Be a Full Time Blogger
3. Example Rate Card for Getting Paid per Post, per Word
4. How to Get Health Benefits and Insurance for Your Blog
5. How a Blogger Can Get Legal Protection from Libel and Slander
6. How to Calculate Your Yearly Salary as a Blogger
7. When to Turn Your Blog into a Formal Business (S/C Corp, LLC)
8. 3 Key Ingredients that Help You Build a Business Around Your Blog
9. 5 Lies That Keep Bloggers from Growing Their Blogs and Going Pro
10. Will You Quit Blogging This Year?
11. The First Six Months as a ProBlogger were Hard but Exciting!
12. Will Blogging Become Your Real Profession this Year? Thoughts on How It Happened to Me!
13. What is Your Dream Job? How Does Blogging Fit In the Picture?
14. 3 Ways to Choose the Right ProBlogging Models & Mentors
15. ProBlogger Resume: 10 Qualifications in a Job Requisite
16. 10 of the Best Job Boards for Freelance Blogging & Writing Jobs
17. 3 Things I Genuinely Miss About the Corporate Culture & Cublicle
18. Bloggers are Freelancers: Learn to Say ‘Yes’ Wisely!
19. The Secret to Finding My Problogging Tipping Point
20. 5 Harsh Realities of Problogging
21. Being Peacefully-Unsatisfied with Your Blog
22. A Positive Attitude is Your Most Important Blogging Strategy
23. Before You’re a ProBlogger You’re a TentBlogger
24. Success Looks Like…
25. Making Money Online is So Glamorous!
26. How Much Money do you Really Need?
27. Diversify Channels
28. Backup Plan
29. Risk and Reward
30. The Money Game
31. Work-Life balance
32. Family
33. Hobbies and Free Time
34. Office Environment
35. Tools
36. And More…!