The Life of Andrew Sullivan: Blogger, Speaker, Survivor

June 30, 2015 Blogging Guide

Andrew Michael Sullivan, or simply Andrew Sullivan, was born on the 10th of August in 1963. Although he was primarily raised in England, he eventually migrated to the United States in 1984 and has since bought himself two homes in Massachusetts and in New York.

He is a study in contradictions as he is both a highly religious Roman Catholic and an openly gay writer and political commentator. He was a prolific writer during his peak years and wrote several articles for the magazine, The New Republic. Eventually, he was promoted as the editor of the magazine and helmed several revolutionary pieces of journalistic writings and books.

Though he has been residing in the United States for more than the number of years required, he was denied citizenship several times due to his HIV-positive status. Nevertheless, he continued to lobby for citizenship and other LGBT rights such as gay marriage and he was eventually granted citizenship after filing several requests.

Taking a Stand

In 2000, he chose to take a more personal stand on political issues. He took his political commentaries online and started writing his own blog under the domain name andrewsullivan.com.

It was a groundbreaking move on Sullivan’s part to create a political blog, which he named the Daily Dish, since there were very few blogs which catered to that specific interest at the time. For that reason, he is often considered as one of the pioneers of political blog writing.

His frequent and opinionated posts which often tackled subjects ranging from politics, society, and general culture soon drew the interest of an extensive audience. Soon enough, Sullivan started writing on other blogging platforms such as Time.com, TheDailyBeast.com, and TheAtlantic.com. When he transferred to The Daily Beast, Sullivan removed the word Daily from his blog name and it has thus been known as The Dish ever since.

How the Daily Dish Achieved Notoriety

At the beginning, Sullivan worked on his blog as a lone writer with very little funds. Eventually, as more and more readers stumbled upon his blog, his readership grew and so did his daily output.

Thankfully, his prodigious writing soon drew the interest of other political blogs and he was eventually offered the opportunity to work under their domain. After making the switch, he was finally able to hire enough assistants to take on his heavy writing load and his blog only grew in both scope and notoriety.

A New Blog

In 2013, Sullivan started his own publishing company which he named the Dish Publishing LLC. He chose to leave the safe haven of the established media platforms and sought to start his personal blog anew on TheDailyBeast.com. However, the difference between the first personal blog and this one was that he would now ask his many followers to provide funds to keep the blog running.

The blog was able to flourish this time due to the millions of page views that The Dish often received on a monthly basis. Also, the team which Sullivan headed was able to expand their blogging topics from politics to pop culture, from art to humor, and from philosophy to entertainment. Eventually, the blog was able to gain such a massive following that even some of the most influential politicians, notably President Barack Obama, even asked to be featured on the blog.

Going Public

In 2015, Andrew Sullivan officially announced his retirement from the blogging world and concentrated on becoming a public speaker instead. Today, he has been interviewed by several magazines, news platforms, and television shows as well as served as a speaker at several civic organizations and universities in Europe and in the United States. Although he has since retreated from controversy and politics, he nonetheless remains as one of the most influential political bloggers and political commentary writers.

Why He Quit Blogging

Based on the sheer number of posts that he wrote on a daily basis, there was no doubt that blogging was not merely a job for Andrew Sullivan. For him, blogging was a way of life.

Unfortunately, that lifestyle soon proved to be his own undoing since his blog was taking away precious time that he could have otherwise spent with his friends and family members. Although he did interact with over a thousand readers on a daily basis, Sullivan still regrets no having been able to spend more of those intimate moments with the people who were most important to him. His profession unfortunately, resulted in many lost friendships and very minimal contact even with his own husband and family.

Also, due to his hectic blogging schedule, Sullivan needed to hire a number of assistants and interns to supply constant updates on The Dish. They worked on a deadly 24/7 schedule and the fast-paced production process eventually ended up nearly killing him. The grueling pace and working hours were not only leaving him permanently glued to the screen, but they were also taking a severe toll on his already compromised health.

He is quoted as having said that he frequently had to supply 40 posts a day even with the assistance of his team of web content writers. Eventually, the stress of the profession became too much to bear and Andrew Sullivan officially retired from blogging in January of 2015.

Tips on How Bloggers Can Achieve Better Work-Life Balance

Although there are some bloggers who treat blogging as an actual profession, others still have other jobs or obligations that they need to prioritize. In order to achieve a happy medium between life and blogging it is essential that bloggers practice good time management skills. Listed below are a few tips that could help bloggers safely navigate the world of blogging without having to leave their health and social life by the wayside.

• Make to-do lists
  You are not a machine and there are only so many things that you ca accomplish on a single day. To avoid getting burned out, you should write down the five most important tasks that you have to do on that day and put them at the top of your priorities. Leave the other less important tasks for another day.
• Find and stay in the zone
  People often function on different body clocks and one’s most productive time might not be the same as yours. If you are a morning person, then it could be best to finish as much of your workload during that time when you are most alert and productive. The same goes for the night owls who thrive during the ungodly hours.
• Think ahead
  In order to avoid getting swapped with deadlines and backlogs, it is best if you preschedule your posts to a few days in advance. Also, anticipate the days when your blog traffic reaches its peak and plan to post a terrific entry on those days.
• Disconnect
  The best way to find more time to cultivate your physical relationships is by totally disconnecting from your virtual ones. Additionally, you might even find that you can get inspired to write a post since you are no longer distracted by your emails and social media.
• Set a limit
  Limit yourself to work on posts for only a few minutes or hours per day. You might be surprised that the time pressure might actually make you a faster writer thus enabling you to spend more time offline.
• Find the most ideal time
  Oftentimes, bloggers work from their homes or in internet cafes which can get quite noisy or crowded. The best way to limit the number of distractions around you and make yourself more productive is by choosing the ideal time to write. Work on your blog when your kids are asleep or your siblings are at school. Likewise, go to the cafes during off peak hours to limit the amount of detractions.
• Create a question cheat sheet
  Answering reader comments and emails is one of your responsibilities as a blogger. However, since the questions that your readers ask can get repetitive at times, it is best if you already have a pre-typed answer on hand that you can simply copy and paste on the comment box. Otherwise, create a special page on your blog that already answers the most frequently asked questions.
• Simplify large tasks
  In order to avoid getting overwhelmed by a large project, it is best if you divide it into smaller, more manageable chunks that you can handle one at a time. You will find that the job becomes easier rather than if you tackled it all at once.
• Focus
  Though you might be tempted to multitask just so that you can finish faster, it is not a recommended practice. Focusing on one task at a time actually helps you work faster and more efficiently than if you keep your attention on more than one job.
• Set a definite schedule
  Though bloggers do not work under a set number of working hours, it is recommended that you still set one for yourself. By giving yourself only a certain number of hours to devote on your work, you will find that you will actually have several break hours that you can spend resting or bonding with your friends and family.

For all those who are running behind blogging, work hard, find your niche & focus but never overdo it, give time to your family, your friends and most importantly your health!

Image Credits: Wikipedia