Elle pitched us this always-relevant guest post and we’re thrilled to host it on our blog. If you would like to guest post for us, send a pitch to blogs@20sb.net! More info can be found here.
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I am sure there are heaps of people out there who have fantastically witty repartee with their friends. And I am sure there are loads of friends who think that they are funny enough to share their wit with the whole world in the form of a blog and not just any old blog, but a successful one that will have a million followers and a possible book deal. We choose our friends because they make us laugh but are our friends the best people to choose to work with on a blog?
If a co-worker works on something really hard and you don’t like what they have done; maybe it is aesthetically displeasing, perhaps you don’t think it will gain the attention you need, what do you do? Calmly and professionally explain to the co-worker that you think their work doesn’t fit with the ethos of the company? Snitch on them to your boss? Well what if that person is your very best friend? What if you don’t want to hurt their feelings? And there you have yourself a little conundrum.
I have been on both ends of this dilemma and it is not easy (unless your partner in crime is a super serious successful business bitch who can separate business/friends/blog. No offence P x) and you know I don’t even have to say no offence because she gets it. And here I start my first point:
If you are going to start a blog with your friend then you need to establish a professional working relationship and very quickly. A relationship were you can say what you need to say for the good of the blog, artistic license, whatever. Because I guarantee there will come a day when you think her ‘day in the life’ post is totally boring and you will have to tell her. Or you might be the bad blogger and BOOM you get a whole truck load of taking it personally. So strap on your business boots and even though blogging is personal, you have to remove yourself from some stuff. And come on… if your life is really that dull who would you like to hear that from? Your best friend or the rest of the blogosphere?
There will always be one of you who does more work than the other. That is just the way it is. You can’t hold that against her and she can’t hold it against you and there will be a time when one of you is carrying the blog and why resent each other for it? You’re both working towards the same thing right? So again get the business boots back out of the closet or just keep your mouth shut because you might need her to take on the enormous task of keeping both your heads above blog water when you simply can’t be bothered or your cat’s having kittens or you lost your wit (because sometimes that can just disappear like Austin Powers’ mojo – you only have to read this post for evidence)
Writing a blog, as I’m sure you either know or are starting to know, no matter how whimsical and fun you hope it might be; if you want it to be remotely successful it takes over your life and you have to treat it like a business. So why not treat your friend like a business partner. There are times when I need to take my own advice and I come here only learning from experience. The mistakes and trails and errors have been a great learning curve. I don’t have it all sewn up and sometimes I make huge mistakes:
I didn’t give my friend the consideration she deserved when I wanted to go in a different direction. I was a big fat wuss and ran away and started up my own blog and hid it away for a while. I don’t know why I didn’t realise that she would be totally ok with it, it felt so bad, hiding away in the blog world, worried that I would offend her. Now she is one of my biggest readers and I should have realised, being the super business bitch she is, that she wouldn’t have taken it personally. I am still involved in both blogs and even though it gets a little crazy the biggest thing I have learned is to make a schedule. Ask your friend what they expect from you and come up with a schedule and if you’re a douche hound like me you will forget the schedule and then that’s why it is better to be able to play the friend card, because she won’t take it personally that you forgot what day was your day to post but being your friend she has to do it for you.
And now for the big reveal: My name is Emma, I blog as ‘Nanny Elle’ over on Skylarking. It was a blog I started to document my life looking after the sweetest kids (for the worst parents, hence the pen name) and I blog as Jemily (the name my friends call me) over at Riding Giraffes in Stilettos with my very understanding and totally funny, wonderful friend who we like to call Precious, well because she is.
Find Emma on 20sb here!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post, Elle! My best friend and I both have different blogs (she runs a nail polish blog while I just run my personal blog), but we both love reading blogs and send links to each other everyday. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to blog professionally with someone like her. It’s reassuring to know that it can be done!
@annedreshfield Thanks… yeah it is fun and sometimes stressful, mostly because I’m the pain in the ass who never gets my stuff in on time :/ but it is a great way for us to always be in each others lives especially because we don’t live in the same country! Love Elle xo
@Nanny_Elle oh stop it, you are NOT a pain in the ass! x P