A few weeks ago we suggested you follow 5 topics that cover the more basic aspects of the business of blogging. Today let’s focus on something equally important: the life of a blogger. After all, there’s more to the blogging life than just sitting at a keyboard tapping out endless blog posts. Let’s dive into some of the topics that can help you along your journey.

1) Inspiration

  As Ernest Hemingway once said, “In order to write about life first you must live it.” Our lives are all too often limited to the same routine repeated over and over again, follow the Inspiration topic on Flipboard and open up your world a bit by to inspiring reads about everything from design, to politics, to cooking, and even art. It’s a little something extra to make your own life a little more rich, which, in return, might make your writing a little more vibrant. And what blogger couldn’t use a little extra inspiration during the day?

2) Creativity

  The fact that your creativity doesn’t look anything like anyone else’s is part of what makes us special. But creativity doesn’t usually flourish in a vacuum, it needs to be fed. And one of the ways to do that is to let yourself be inspired by the things that inspire others or by seeing what others are creating. Dive into the Flipboard Creativity topic and see what gets people’s creative juices flowing and see if it motivates your fingers to fly across the keyboard.

3) Productivity

  Anyone who works mostly from home knows that productivity can be a challenge. Anyone who works online for a living knows that it can be insurmountable at times. There are just so many distractions and most of them can legitimately fall under the heading of “work” or “research,” making it extra hard to manage. If you follow the Productivity topic on Flipboard you’ll find some great tips and resources that will help you become more productive. (And yes, we know that we just suggested yet another way to procrastinate—make of that what you will!)

4) Work-Life-Balance

  Tell anyone that you work from home and watch them instantly start to envy you. Because working from home means working in your yoga pants, endless access to snacks, and no bosses or coworkers to interrupt you every other minute of the day, right? Well, bloggers know better. All too often, posts get written while making dinner, folding laundry, dealing with kids, or taking care of some critical-though-not-always-urgent household chore. All is to say: working from home doesn’t instantly mean that you master the oft-elusive work-life-balance trick. Check out the Work-Life-Balance Flipboard topic and discover key advice for striking a balance between work and, well, life.

5) Freelancing

  Whether you earn revenue from affiliate ads or from writing sponsored posts, if you’re making money as a blogger, you are technically a freelancer—someone self-employed who works for a number of different entities. That said, most bloggers set out to write articles online, not run their own business, so getting advice on the more technical aspects of running a freelance practice can be invaluable and keep you from making some regrettable mistakes. Follow the Freelancing topic on Flipboard to stay on top of that aspect of your blogging life. Is there a Flipboard topic you find particularly helpful? Let us know by sending us a tweet with the #FlipBlogger hashtag! ~JessicaR curates Great Blog Posts