Facebook Pixel
Join our Facebook Community

Couples that Blog Together…

This guest post is by Jefferson and Michelle of See Debt Run.

Blogging with your significant other can be a very rewarding experience, as long as you communicate openly.

My wife and I started personal finance site See Debt Run in January of this year to document our journey out of debt, and to share the experiences that we had along the way.

When we decided to start See Debt Run, we agreed that our site should feature both of our voices equally, and we both pledged to work together to improve our financial situation and to work towards making the site a success. We never expected that this adventure would bring us even closer together.

Divide and conquer

Most people aren’t aware of how much work bloggers really have to do behind the scenes. Networking with peers, managing inquiries, researching keywords, and learning and implementing SEO best practices can all be just as time consuming as creating content. Having two people to tackle these tasks gives you the ability to divide and conquer, which can go a long way towards preventing blogger burnout (which happens to everyone).

Since I work full time, I am often unavailable during the day to respond to comments or handle any other blog issues that come up.  Because my wife stays at home with our one-year-old daughter, she can respond to comments or inquiries during the baby’s naptime, which is a major advantage. 

In the evenings, after the kids are in bed, we buckle down and take care of writing for the site, editing, and other blogging tasks.

During this time, we actually enjoy working side by side. While many married couple are probably spending their evenings watching television, my wife and I are instead collaborating together to build something, which is a reward in and of itself.

Lend a hand

The very best part about blogging with your spouse is the fact you have an editor who is available 100% of the time.

We agreed from the start that we would provide honest feedback to each other, and as such, we always read each other’s posts before they go up on the site. It isn’t unusual for my wife to suggest that I remake a section of one of my articles, or for me to suggest that she add a better transition between paragraphs in one of hers.

To keep the site running smoothly, we use a variety of tools to keep things straight. We maintain a shared text file that we call the “idea well.”  Whenever we think of something that might make a good post, it gets added to the file, where either one of us are welcome to run with it.  As these ideas turn into real posts, we maintain a shared calendar to keep track of which articles will be running and when.

The hour or two that we have before bed is not always enough time to get our articles completed and ready for publishing.  If one of us needs some time to write, the other is always willing to take the kids out to the playground, to clear the house of the normal distractions.  

There have also been a few occasions since starting the blog that each of us has suffered a bit of writers’ block, and when that has happened, the other was more than willing to step up and write up a few extra posts.

Use your voices, since you have more than one

From a writing perspective, I like to think that having two voices instead of one helps us appeal to a broader audience.

Logic might tell you that your readers want to connect with a single author, finding their perspective appealing, but with both of us posting regularly, we have the ability to make even more connections. My wife and I have very different writing styles, and as such, we appeal to different groups of people.

My wife is a dynamic storyteller who has a talent for using conversations in her writing. When she tells a story, she uses small details and raw emotions to help readers feel like they were right there with our family when the situation was going down.

I tend to write in a more traditional style, often backing up my articles with detailed examples and statistics. I have found the most success in writing articles that give career advice or offer specific tips about methods that we are using to improve our financial situation.

No two people have the exact same writing style.  If you and your partner can each find your own unique voice, together you can find harmony.

Communication is key

To other couples out there that may be considering starting a blog together, I would wholeheartedly recommend it! Sustaining a successful a blog involves many long hours working on your computer, and having someone there with you goes a long way towards alleviating the monotony.

The most important advice that I can offer would be to make sure that you communicate openly. If you are considering making a change with the blog or discussing a new promotional opportunity, be sure to discuss it before moving forward.

Remember that you are full partners in this game, and you both have an equal stake in the site’s success. As long as you respect your partner and communicate openly, couple blogging can be a very rewarding experience.

Do you blog with your life partner—or another type of blogging partner? Tell your story in the comments.

Jefferson and his wife Michelle write at the personal finance blog See Debt Run, where they document their family’s journey to financial sanity. They write about frugal parenting, money making opportunities, career advice, and more.

About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.
Comments
  1. My girlfriend likes to read and proofread my posts but has no desire to write. She has helped catch quite a few mistakes even after I proofread my article!

    • This is similar to my position, no interest in the actual writing, however great at correcting my mistakes. Sounds just like married life!!

      • That’s funny, Morgan! Hey, maybe you could ask your wife to write a “guest post” for you some time? You could pitch to her a subject of which she’s very knowledgeable, and that you’re not! She might just enjoy herself and want to contribute occasionally.

    • uhm, writing require much more skills than proofreading. It is better to send the post to a friend or colleague for feedback to receive a honest insights which ultimately improves the article significantly.

  2. I have a friend who help me in editing the text.. I write on paper and samething he write on notepad and give it to me..

  3. I would also like to say that a lot of my technical stuff is handled by my other half as well, although none of us are technical in it and often we have to get help from others. I do mostly the writing part and there would be certain things that we would do together such as research etc. It does makes sense to work together. 2 minds are better than one.

  4. Since i am a tech blogger, my GF has got no idea about what i am writing.
    But she too wants to blog, So i will be gifting her a new blog very soon. All she can do is write articles about beauty and health tips. :)

  5. Yes i respect your experience good mate :)

  6. Getting someone with knowledge on your niche is difficult…And believing someone too. Good article Jefferson and Michelle.

  7. Couple blogging is a wonderful idea; in China people believe in family venture where all the family members jointly do a business and distribue their roles according to epertise and energies.
    In bloggin too family venturing is getting popular a friend of mine in Pakistan is running a wonderful blog on sports the hubby writes the posts and wife surfs the latest sports news. However, both husband and wife writing is unique but must be a huge welcome becuase people wants variety in thoughts and writing styles. How much varied are the thoughts of a husband and wife is everybody’s guess. lol!

  8. We are a married couple blogging about our simple homesteading life in Hungary, all the while taking care of our lively two year old. At times it can be trying, figuring out who should do what…or more of…it really does take great communication to make it all come together.

  9. So far I’ve been doing most of the writing on our site, but Mr. PoP’s actually got a few posts coming up soon and I hope people like his writing, too!

  10. I do all of the writing on my blog, but I haven’t posted anything in years without reading it to my husband first. I want his perspective, plus he gives me valuable input on what sounds good, doesn’t flow right, needs better transition, is straying too far from my original point, etc. He’s an excellent writer, and we talk from time to time about sharing the blog. Maybe one day we’ll go that route, but for now I’m very grateful for such a good editor to bounce ideas and stories off of.

  11. I have never thought of couple blogging and this sounds more perfect and beautiful idea to me! In fact sharing opinions under the one experience is a best idea ever to improve and make your blog look remarkable! You can’t see all mistakes and rectify them alone, somebody must be there to see some you didn’t see and with that, no doubt of you being very successful in your blogging. Thanks a lot for inspiring me that far. I look forward for that!

  12. That sounds like a wonderful idea… Never thought of trying that… just having him read them and that’s all.

  13. I agree that having a partner for your blog is great thing which will help in all ways. I’ve been working with my elder brother on one of my blog from quite some time and it is helping us both.

    Thanks for this article Jefferson.

  14. Our blog is also a “couples blog”…and we love it that way. Like you said, there is just so much stuff to do behind the scenes that we would never be able to get it all done successfully and stay sane on our own. There have been a few times when one of us was experiencing burn out, and the other picked up the slack. If we weren’t doing this together, I’m not sure that we could do it at all.

  15. Great article! Me and my wife actually do the same exact thing on our blog. It does make it easier to have someone there when you have writer’s block and to bounce ideas off each other. If I had to write a blog everyday by myself I would NOT know what to do. Having a social media presence is also so much easier when you share the duties.

  16. Very great article! My wife and I do exactly the same thing and I agree with all the points. It’s always good to have someone to bounce ideas off of when you get writers block and it makes it so much easier to attack social media strategies with two people.

  17. I am the face of our blog, but it wouldn’t exist without the input of my partner Andy, who supplies the perfect complement of technical and SEO skills to my writing and research abilities.
    Fortunately he is also a trainer and coach, and good at giving and receiving feedback, and teaching me to do the same, so we are able to work in harmony although we often have different ideas!

  18. Hi Jefferson, thanks for the article.

    I technically manage my blog as a partnership with my long time girlfriend and travel partner. We run into a lot of obstacles though as we’re both extremely opinionated about design, photographic style, and the type of content we should be putting on there for our limited (but committed) readership.

    What we found is that is really came down to the divide and conquer method you talk about above, though perhaps our approach to that is a bit more extreme. I write, she edits the photos (we only publish original photography on our blog and social media), and though we act as editor for each other we try really hard not to step on the other person’s toes.

    Traveling together as we do can be even more intense than sharing a house and/or a business. As journalists who often travel for months in a 6 square meter van, there isn’t really much opportunity for escape or distance, so the “rules” have always had to be very clear between us from the beginning on who takes care of what aspects in each project.

    In the end it works well, though I’d love any commentary or input on the type of work we post, the quality of writing and in general our method of blogging. We’ve gone the personal and social route much more than the targeted spread as we don’t make money from the blog (and have no intention to), instead we make money from the written and photographic projects we are commissioned to do on the road.

    Thanks again for your thoughts in the article above, and look forward to reading more of your work on See Debt Run.

    Warm regards,
    Emil Lamprecht

A Practical Podcast… to Help You Build a Better Blog

The ProBlogger Podcast

A Practical Podcast…

Close
Open