How To Explain That You Are A Blogger To Your Spouse�s Family

The internet scene in India is growing at an exponential rate.

However, there are many online jobs that traidtional Indian parents find hard to understand.

Especially if you live in a rural part of India, it becomes fairly tough to explain your job as a blogger or a freelancer to your parents or the parents of your (current/soon-to-be) spouse.

The other day I received an email question from Mahesh, a blogger from Andra Pradesh.

He asked a question which seemed like an issue faced by almost all bloggers (be it men or women).

Here is what Mahesh�s question was:

Hi Harsh Agrawal,

My name is Mahesh; I am also a blogger and earn about $7000 to $8000 per month.

My family is looking for brides in our community, but they are unable to understand my job & also they do not believe me when I say I make money on the internet.

I live in a municipality in Andhra Pradesh.

How do you explain that you are a blogger to a bride�s family?

People do not believe me or my earnings� ??

I have touched upon this issue in a couple other places:

• Blogging in Indian society & how you can bring change
• Why is the career as a blogger tough in India??

How can you explain your blogging career to your future spouse�s family?

I believe there is no right or wrong answer here, as long as you keep the focus on your future life partner.

However, I did my best to give an answer to Mahesh for his query.

I also asked the same question on my Facebook wall & got some interesting answers from bloggers around the country.

I have shared my answer & other great answers below with the hopes that they might help others win the heart of a bride�s or groom�s family.

My suggestion for explaining blogging to your future family:

Mahesh,
I see your problem.

It is really hard to explain this to relatives, and especially your future wife�s family.

IMHO, the best way to tackle this is:

Tell them you are a Solopreneur who is a proud owner of a business. Explain to them that having a website online is the same as having an office offline. The only difference is, people don�t have to physically visit your store/office.

And if you have a team who works for you, that team consists of your employees. 

They might ask how you make money�

Instead of getting in the depths of ads & affiliate marketing, you can relate this to commonly used business terms. If you are making money using AdSense, tell them you are a partner with Google (you actually are). If you are an affiliate with other companies, like Amazon, tell them you are a partner with that company.

Speak in a manner that they understand. They need to understand what you do because they also need to explain this to others. Give them words that define you & are easy for them to explain your work.

However, there will be a few members who are tech savvy or understand the internet; in these cases, you can explain to them in detail what you do. This is important as these family members will make you feel good, as they will be the only ones who understand what you are actually doing.

Before explaining all of this to them, you need to stop seeing yourself as �just a blogger�. You are actually an entrepreneur, a creative person, and someone who has already cracked the code of making money online.

Speak in a way that they understand, and remember that at the end of the day, it�s all about your partner. If you can explain this to her, and if she understands what you are doing & your future ambitions, you will also end up finding the right wife in that girl.

Wish you luck!

Well, that was my answer to Mahesh�s query.

Here are some more answers from bloggers around the country:

Digamber Sharma:

Interesting questions by Mahesh and Harsh is also explained perfectly. I think an entrepreneur is the write words with revenue details. Most of the bride�s parents willing to know about earning things as a priority.

Madan Gehlot:

It�s simple. No one would believe in this income figure. Your personality, living standard, house etc. speak itself. Not saying to show off completely but if someone has attained that income level and is constant, one should raise working environment. May be coworking space, the small office on rent, etc. or very simple things show the latest ITR personally.

Bigesh Chandra:

Making a person understand in the way he understands is a great skill. I will tell a short incident from last week when my aunt asked me where I got this money from, I simply said I made it from my website, she didn�t understand, after a couple of minutes she finally made a decision and said me *so you are a computer operator !*, I have to agree with her, because she was totally unable to get my words.

Mankali Koushil:

I would just say � am working in Google � because many people don�t know what it is actually even educated people can also not understand (my experience) so I would say just �am working in Google� that�s it.

What do you think of these answers? Do you have any more suggestions or ideas for Mahesh or someone in his position? Would love to hear your opinion in the comments section below�

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