5 Tips for Being Married to a Blogger

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to announce the first (and probably last) ever guest post by my lovely and talented wife. She tried to claim that she didn’t have anything to offer my readers, I knew better and after much begging and groveling, she finally agreed to give it a shot. Of course, I couldn’t give over complete control of the blog so I’ve added my comments in italics after each of the 5 Tips for Being Married to a Blogger.

photo credit: ToniVC

Bloggers Measure Time Differently

I’m not sure what clock bloggers use but when they say that “just finishing up a post” is going to take “a few minutes” they don’t mean the 60 second increments we all know and love. They mean the same kind of minutes that take half-an-hour each at the end of football games. Also, while the physical typing of the post might take only an hour or so, that doesn’t include the hours of “research” which seems to consist of them visiting every single one of their favorite websites multiple times.

Guilty as charged. The only thing I can say is that all time is relative. Don’t believe me? Two words… shopping & make-up.

Get a 2nd Computer

If you want to do anything that has to do with the computer or the internet, chances are you’re going to need to get a second computer. Between their “blogging time” and their “entertainment time” which often both include using the computer, bloggers tend to be pretty attached to their computer. Even when they let you use it, they’re so picky about how you use it that it’s really not even worth it. A second computer, while definitely not the cheapest option, will probably make things a bit smoother in the casa de blogger.

I couldn’t agree more on this one. We were married just two months before we discovered that we’d better get another laptop. The house was much more peaceful after that. I don’t care how they sound in your head, the words “but I make money using the computer, you don’t” should never escape your lips. EVER.

Keep it Off the Record

If you don’t want to wind up reading about the fight you just had with your spouse (or any other numerous aspects of your life that you’d rather keep private) on the world wide web (emphasis on WORLD WIDE) you might want to make those boundaries known early and often. The sentence “Don’t you dare blog about this” is my personal favorite but “Blog this and die” or anything else along those lines usually gets the point across. Having a standing set of guidelines to avoid any potential issues before they spring up would probably be best. Trust me on this one.

Geez, you exaggerate the accounts of a few fights and you hear about it for the rest of your blogging career. Seriously though, as we covered in 24: Lessons on Blogging it’s always a good idea to keep your personal life private.

Read the Blog

Whether they are writing about sports, video games, or any other incredibly boring topic, it would probably be in your best interest to read the blog. You’ll be supporting your significant other in their hobby and you’ll at least know a little bit about what the heck they’re talking about when they get all excited and start rambling on about their readers or their traffic or any other similarly trivial subject. Keeping tabs on the blog is also a great way to know exactly what they’re up to, or better yet, how much they’re earning and when to intercept the checks.

It doesn’t take much to impress us really. Use some bloggy term like RSS or blogosphere correctly in a sentence and you’ll be set for weeks. Besides, if you don’t read the blog(s), chances are we’ll just make sure to explain everything in great detail each time we want to talk about it (or them).

and last but certainly not least…

Don’t Even Offer

Never… ever… even jokingly, offer to write a post for them when they have writers block. They just might take you up on it.

Look if you offer you can’t blame me for accepting and besides, you did a great job of it. Ladies and gentlemen, my wife!