Blog & Career Tips

HOW TO RUN A BLOG : THE BLOGGERS TOOL KIT

. MY ESSENTIAL BLOGGING TOOLS.

There’s definitely no right or wrong when it comes to running your blog, but one thing I do think is that your tool kit remains consistent whatever it is you blog about. When I talk about tool kit, I mean those essential pieces of kit that you simply couldn’t be without. Today I thought i’d share my absolute blogging essentials and I’d love to hear yours too …

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. WIFI .

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I mean it’s literally the most essential thing when it comes to blogging, running your own little www dot requires one critical ingredient. Wifi. Without it, we’re lost. Wifi and internet connection has become one of my most obsessed about things over the last couple of years, pre phoning hotels to check wifi is available, learning how to ask for wifi in every language possible, and of course ensuring a consistent 3G presence on my phone too.

The days or nights where my wifi have gone down have caused an unnecessary and unwarranted amount of stress, and resulted in Bluetooth-ing 3G from my Iphone to ensure my blog posts still go live. Hideous.

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. LAPTOP .

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My other absolute basic must have is of course my laptop, it comes with my absolutely everywhere, every holiday, every weekend away … everywhere. Without my laptop I simply wouldn’t be able to blog, I’ve tried apps on my ipad and blogging from my mobile but it’s just impossible. Having my laptop with all my software, photographs & tools at the ready is a necessity for me. I personally use a Macbook Pro, I’ve used Macs since I went to uni all those years ago and I could never go back. I find my pro super easy to use, perfect for the creative work I do on it & light enough to be an easy companion wherever I go.

Without my laptop I’d be lost, a couple of years ago my Macbook Pro literally died one night. I mean literally, it just stopped working. I cried. Again utterly unnecessary but a clear sign of how much I rely on it. I took it the Apple store immediately the next morning and on confirmation that there was no hope, bought a new one right there and then. I couldn’t even consider a day without it.

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. HARD DRIVE.

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A hard drive isn’t actually an absolute necessity, but after #Macbookdeadgate I realised how critical it was for me to have everything backed up. Not only a lifetimes worth of photos, videos, music and work, but of course all my blogging software, outfit images & documentation is all saved onto my laptop, and when my laptop died, nothing could be recovered. Thank goodness Jase had persuaded me to spend £80 on a hardrive a few weeks prior so I had everything on backup.

Given the crazy digital world we live in, and how much we rely on technology to store our lifes work and memories, it’s really worthwhile making sure you have it all backed up somewhere, just in case worst comes to worse and you lose your laptop or it breaks. Plus of course the sheer volume of photographs we all take takes up a hell of a lot of storage, and not even the best Macbook in the world can handle 100TB of images!!

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. IPHONE .

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My phone, my right hand. Without it, well I don’t know what I’d do. It’s actually amazing how my phone is really no longer even used as a phone, it’s an ‘always on’ social device which keeps my blog and social channels alive and kicking. Goodness knows how many times I check my phone a day, in fact, I actually don’t want to know. It’s on me at all times, and as bad as it is, it’s a constant process of checking emails, tweeting, Instagram-ing, checking my blog, reading blogs (as if they were the news). I mean it’s there the moment I go to bed and checked the moment I wake up – much to Jase’s dismay.

I personally like to use an Iphone, I’ve been locked into the Apple brand since my first macbook nearly 10 years ago, and I probably won’t ever use anything else.

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. CAMERA .

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One of the most important elements of my blog is my photography, I take pride and a lot of effort in taking my pictures & creating a visually appealing post for you all to read. And my camera is the biggest tool in helping me achieve this. I don’t think it matters what camera you have, but every blogger has something to help them capture their day, their look, their food, whether it’s an Iphone, a point and shoot, or a DSLR. A camera is a bloggers best friend.

As I’ve mentioned in a number of posts previously, I treated myself to the wonderful 5D Mark III in January of this year after getting pretty serious about my photography and really wanting to up my game and learn more. I use my camera every day and have not once regretted spending what I did to buy this unbelievable device. I of course went through the usual throws of blogging photography, starting with simple iphone mirror shots, then to balancing my Canon point and shoot on whatever I could possibly find to get pictures before I went to work, to then investing in my first DSLR and tripod (my 550D) to finally getting serious about things and investing in the 5D.

You don’t need an expensive DSLR to take pictures, in fact many of the blogs I love use a whole variety of tools from phones to affordable digital cameras to take their pictures, and as I wrote in my photography post here, it’s not just the kit that creates a good photo.

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. LIGHTROOM / PHOTOSHOP .

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Definitely not a ‘must have’, but a piece of software I’ve come to use every day when I blog is of course a photo editing programme. I started off using free online offerings like PicMonkey and the like, but over the course of the last few years as I’ve got more serious about my photography I upped my tools and now use Lightroom to edit my photos. I say edit, but this really is just making sure the lighting is okay and exporting my RAW files into web friendly jpegs. I do also have photoshop but I’ve never used it for my blog photos as I’m not quite as nifty on this programme, I find it a little more tricky to use. But it is the programme I used to design my blog and create my headers / logos / links over the last few years.

As I mentioned, you don’t need fancy kit to be able to take a great picture or design a beautiful logo, there are plenty of free online sites that offer fantastic editing and design tools, but personally I like to use Lightroom!

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. TRIPOD & REMOTE .

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If you read my post on ‘how to take great photos’ for your blog then you’ll know that my tripod and remote have been two of my most relied on tools over the last three years. Without them I would never have been able to maintain my daily blogging streak and feature so many outfit pictures. My first tripod was used every day for over and a year so it was no wonder it broke eventually. I now use two Manfrotto tripods which are very sturdy and more of a professional piece of kit, at £80 and £130 they’re definitely more top of the range, but absolutely not what I started out with. You can grab great value and hard wearing tripods for around the £30-£50 mark which are perfect for the job we bloggers need to do!

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. NOTE PAD & PEN .

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If you’ve read any of my blogging ‘how to’ features then you’ll be very aware of how much I love a good old note pad and pen. I carry both with me at all times as often I get my inspiration in the moments when I’m not on or near a computer, and need to jot them down before the leave my head! I also absolutely love stationary so take pleasure in picking myself a nice little notepad to have for my blogging ideas.

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. APPS .

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No blogger could live without a plethora of apps right? I have no idea how many apps I actually have on my phone, but my most used apps are of course Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Bloglovin. I use them to keep in touch with the digital world throughout the day and update them constantly with little bits from my blog or daily life.

I have a couple of other apps which I also use every now and then for blogging, these are ‘insta size’ which helps when you want to post a full length vertical picture that wouldn’t otherwise fit in the Instagram square, and also Pinterest which I browse continually for inspiration and pretty pictures.

An app which I’ve also started using more regularly, particularly when I’m on holiday or have a very busy day at work is buffer. This is amazing when you don’t have time to check your phone but still want to share things or update your social channels throughout the day. I will sometimes use this to share my daily blog throughout the day.

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. EXTRA HELPERS.

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Now there are of course a couple of other little tools I use, but in my opinion these are by no means my ‘must have’ items, simply nice to have extras which help out every now and then.

Firstly is my ipad, I actually don’t use this very regularly, but it becomes a trusty companion when I’m travelling or away on holiday. If you read my ‘how to keep your blog running whilst on holiday’ feature, you’ll remember that my ipad actually becomes a key blogging tool for me when I’m away, I use it to check my blog is live every day, read my favourite blogs and even set features live or finish them off if needed. A little extra piece of kit I’ve been using in recent months which I absolutely love is my Ipad keypad from Logitech, I was actually fortunate enough to get sent this for review but it’s actually become a really brilliant tool of mine which I always take with my ipad when I’m away. It’s super light which helps but it’s just really helpful if you need to write emails, write a blog feature and general just transforms your ipad from a big phone into a mini computer. They’re really handy and makes blogging from an ipad 10 million times easier.

WANT TO READ MORE BLOGGING TIPS LIKE THIS?

. THE 6 STEPS TO HAVING A COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL BLOG . HOW TO THINK MORE STRATEGICALLY ABOUT YOUR BLOG & BUSINESS PLAN . THE SKILLS ALL BLOGGERS HAVE THAT CAN EARN YOU MONEY . THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO TURN YOUR BLOG INTO A BUSINESS . HOW TO TAKE YOUR BLOG FULL TIME . HOW TO TURN YOUR BLOG INTO A BRAND . 6 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE TAKING YOUR BLOG FULL TIME . HOW TO EARN MONEY FROM YOUR BLOG & CONTENT . HOW I BLOG DAILY & HAVE A FULL TIME CAREER . WHY YOU DON’T NEED TO QUIT YOUR CAREER TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL BLOG BUSINESS .WHAT IT TAKES TO TURN YOUR BLOG INTO YOUR CAREER . DEMYSTIFYING THE LUCKY BREAK: HOW SUCCESSFUL BLOGGERS GET BLOG BUSINESS & OPPORTUNITIES .

So there you have it, a full insight into my blogging kit and those essential pieces of technology that I quite literally couldn’t be without. Do you have the same ‘blog kit’, are there any other things you simply couldn’t blog without?

Reader Interactions

32 Comments

  5. connieconsumes says

    This is such a helpful post- thanks! I’ve been uuming and aahing over whether or not to get an ipad because we travel a lot and I think my macbook pro is too heavy… you’ve helped me decide on the ipad/keyboard combo!

  8. María Bim says

    I find your how to posts really interesting and helpful. One of my favourites was the one about blogging when you are on holiday. Oh, and your photography tips are great too. I understand what you say about your laptop. Mine has been being fixed for a week and I felt like lost without him hahaha. Anyway, great post!

    I’ve just posted my 100th entry and in it I have written own some questions about how having a blog an telling people about it is. You know, if you’ve ever felt people don’t take you serously because you were interested in fashion, beauty, blogs, magazines… I’d love some bloggers to answer the questions so the I can write another post talking about that topic http://wp.me/p4f1eI-vV Thankss!! :)

  13. christy. says

    Thanks! What I realized I appreciate the most is when writers accompany their posts with pictures. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing about but having some type of a visual as opposed to a wall of text just seems to make the world of a difference.

    Likewise I have fallen onto the apple bandwagon, everything just flows together so well and works in sync.

    It feels like it’s quite easy to write posts and posts without any reader stumbling upon them, do you have any tips on how to dive deeper into the community?

    Thanks again,

    christycee.blogspot.ca 

  14. V Mozzer says

    I was so hesitant to go with Apple until just recently. I finally got an iPhone a few years ago and liked it so much that I bought the MacBook Air. It is brilliant! The perfect travel companion for blogging.

    The hard drive is 100% necessary. I couldn’t agree more. I even have a huge one connect to my home network for even further storage options. Great advice!

    V
    Life+1

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  19. Laura Saxby says

    Do you have any cameras you would recommend? I am looking at getting a new camera for my next year of travelling but I need something quality and small. Any advice? xx

  21. Manpreet Kaur says

    My blogging kit is almost the same.. But I usually don’t carry all of them everywhere. Though, nowadays I feel I should.
    I am not a big fan of apple products. So, laptop is HP and phone is Google Nexus. I do use I Pad sometimes but only to jot down some ideas.
    About tools.. yep I use buffer all the time and of course, social apps are always in use by me. And that instasize.. thanks for suggesting that to me. I really needed a hack to post full size photos on Instagram. An awesome post. You made my day!
    Thanks
    http://www.finixpost.com

  25. Alana Fletcher says

    I really love these ‘how-to’ posts, it’s helped so much starting up my blog. I love the way you’ve composed your pictures here, they look amazing…. I was wondering if you haven’t already posted some, if you had any tips about photographing things like make-up swatches? I’ve had a bit of difficulty getting it right haha
    Lovely post! x

    lana-sultana.blogspot.com

  26. moonlightchai.com says

    Amazing post! These tools are all so great! One thing I don’t have his a hard drive, which I really do need to invest in because my computer space is filling up quickly from all my photos. As far as photoshop goes, I have it and I use it but I really need some expertise on how to properly edit photos. I know basics but I have a hard time telling if I’m really making the photo too bright or over exposed.
    I’d love if you could check out my blog and offer any advice! http://www.moonlightchai.com

  29. Kate Flint says

    A great round up of what’s most important! I am still finding my feet in blogging (mainly planning ahead!).

    Kate | themintedbeauty.com

  32. Neens says

    This is an ace post and I’m in love with your “how to” guides◕‿◕ I know that it takes a little while to get comfortable with Photoshop, but honestly, it’s made my photos so much better. Although I do admit, if I was a better photographer, then perhaps I wouldn’t use it so much:-) Oh well, practice makes perfect and all that.

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