Sunday

Blogging when you have chronic illness conditions

Claire shares 6 tips she has learned from blogging, over the last few years, when living with multiple chronic conditions.

Blogging when you have chronic illness conditions - 6 tips
As many of us with health issues will know, working a traditional job can be a challenge with long hours, commuting and the difficult aspects of a work environment. Now I didn’t ever imagine I would be blogging with chronic illness (and about chronic illness!) back in the day when I was still at my previous job, but I almost can’t imagine not doing it now.

Blogging has flexibility as one of its main benefits. It can be done from your sofa or your bed, at whatever time of the day works for you and in your pyjamas if you wish! All of which can make it a great choice for those with chronic illness for whom a 9-5 job would be impossible, or really problematic. Aside from the financial aspect, it also helps us become part of the chronic illness community and personally I find it motivating to have my own little project. I hope this post on blogging with chronic illness is interesting, and has a few helpful tips too!

Some things I have learned recently about blogging when you have chronic illness conditions:

1. Have a rough schedule, but a flexible one – I try and do one chronic illness post a week and one new recipe. This is the ideal, but if it doesn’t happen due to symptoms, then I give myself grace over it. Staying up until midnight to finish a post is rarely a good idea and may have you feeling even worse the next day.

One way to help prevent fatigue and still be consistent with social media is to schedule your posts. There are lots of ways to do this such as the scheduler within Pinterest, or Tailwind. 

2. Pace yourself – I work blogging around other necessary tasks. Doctor’s appointments, medical admin, life admin, and catching up with friends and family come first, blogging comes second. Make sure you take breaks, take your meds at the right times(!), and have time away from your computer screen.

3. Find your niche and one that you are passionate about – if you don’t love what you are writing about then you simply won’t write! Or at least find it tedious to do so.

4. Make some chronic illness blogger friends! I am very fortunate to have quite a few such friends now and it is so lovely to be able to bounce around ideas, ask for advice or simply gossip about anything but blogging! To my two favourite blogging friends (both beginning with S!) – I love our group chats, and you both make me smile so much 🙂

5. Consider monetising your blog – if blogging is a passion of yours and you have a degree of readership, then it can also help your finances. And we all know that the chronic illness life is an expensive one! Working with an ad company is one way to earn money, you can use affiliate links or work with brands on paid posts. I can’t promise you it will earn you millions, but it should at least cover the costs of hosting, domain, photo editing etc.etc.

6. Promote your posts! While you may get lucky and get good SEO without ever promoting your post, it is fairly unlikely. Sharing your posts will get it out there, and social media is key in my opinion. Pinterest is my best referral platform by a long shot, but I also share on Twitter and Facebook and I have a weekly round-up of new posts and a few older ones on my Instagram stories each Sunday.

READ THE FULL POST AT Claire's Blog 'Through the Fibro Fog'. It's titled 

Blogging with chronic illness

Claire from Through the Fibro Fog

Claire has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, dysautonomia, hEDS, MCAS, and interstitial cystitis. Her blog 'Through the Fibro Fog' offers tips and tricks for living with chronic illness, as well as simple but delicious low histamine recipes. Please visit her blog

Blogging when you have chronic illness conditions by Claire

1 comment:

  1. Fab tips, Claire! I signed up for Pinterest the other year but I've not looked into what to actually do on it. So far I've only pinned a couple of my blog post covers and have no idea what you're really supposed to do on there... at all! I need to find a dummy guide to Pinterest. I can't believe I'm saying that. I used to be good with tech stuff and now I feel so out of the loop! It's interesting that it has been your best place for sharing your stuff though.

    I think that rough but flexible plan and schedule is a really good point. Number 4 is, I think, the best thing about blogging and connecting with others because the chronic illness community is fantastic.

    Caz xx

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