My blogging kit {Blogging}

Every blogger out there knows there are a few ‘essentials’ they need in their blogging kit. No, not necessarily the latest DSLR or a kitchen full of marble surfaces. But a few handy little tools and tricks that make some of the day to day elements of running a blog a little more speedy or easy. So I wanted to share a few of my essential pieces of blogging kit.

• Laptop (or some form of computer like device) ~ For me my macbook Air is one of the best gadget things I’ve ever bought. Not just for blogging but for lots of my freelance work as it means I can be really mobile without breaking my back. For blogging, almost any computer will do – you basically just need something that connects to the internet.

• An external hard drive ~ Blogging and taking photos go hand in hand. So if you blog, you’re likely to accumulate a TONNE of photos. Sure, most of them will be subtle variations on the same theme. But if you’re anything like me and the idea of deleting photos fills you with fear (what if I delete an important memory photo and that’s it gone FOREVER) then investing in a large sized external hard drive is well worth your money. One, it backs up your photos and two it saves your precious internal hard drive from being fried by ‘close up of nude lipstick photo one million and 57 thousand’.

• iPhone (or some sort of on the go mobile data device) ~ I’m an iPhone person so I would say iPhone, but whatever your phone of choice it’s so handy to have one close to hand at almost all times. I say almost all times because it is indeed nice to switch off from the internet from time to time, so maybe do treat yourself to the odd meal without pulling your phone out. Trust me, your blogging will be better for it if you live in the non-internet world from time to time too.

• Blue-tac ~ Oh yes, it’s all glamour in blogging. But seriously, if you have ever tried to position a round object on a flat surface in a specific position then you will thank me for including this one. Technically I use white-tac but any colour sort of ‘tac’ will do the job.

• Notebook ~ Sure, the notes section of your phone is fine. But sometimes a good old fashioned ideas session/brainstorm just works better with a few doodles and scribbles on real paper. For me at least. I also find it just feels a bit nicer and more creative to write ideas down as they pop up. So I always have a notebook close to hand for ideas and possible post topics. Or even just for things I want to try out or places to go.

• Camera ~ I have accumulated a couple of cameras over the years and I’m still a little on the fence over which is my favourite. I chop and change all the time but I do personally like having my larger Canon 600D DSLR for photos (or the occasional video) that I take at home and then have a couple of smaller compact system cameras that I use for travel or when I’m out and about (I have the Canon EOS-M and the Olympus Pen E-PL7) plus an adaptor and different lenses etc. No, this doesn’t mean every blogger needs a wardrobe of cameras – I’ve accumulated these over the six plus years I’ve been blogging. But if you do plan to invest in a camera, make a serious list of what you will use it for then do your research and find the best one for you. A camera for quality product shots will be different to a camera for daily vlogging for example – so you just need to know your priorities and find the best option that ticks as many boxes for your budget as you can. But if in doubt, the cameras on phones are pretty darn special right now so these are always worth trying whilst you get up and running too!

• Spare memory cards ~ Along with the camera situation, it’s really handy to have a few memory cards. So you can either take a load of photos or video and not worry about running out or space OR just to protect yourself from one becoming broken/damaged/corrupted and having no way to take photos.

• Spare battery (always on charge) ~ I basically always have one battery on charge if the other is in my camera. After one too many photo-taking sessions where a few snaps in and the red light of doom started flashing I invested in a spare and haven’t looked back. In fact, once I make a decision on which is my favourite of my on the go cameras (the spare shown here is for my 600D) I plan to get a back-up battery pack for that too as it’s even handier when travelling around.

• Wifi ~ A precious wifi, you know what they say ‘home is where the wifi connect automatically’. Well, wifi is kinda-obviously one of the essentials for a blogger. So much so that when I was moving house I invested in a little mobile wifi dongle thingy (the technical name I’m sure) from 3 to ensure I wasn’t wifi-less whilst we waited for our new service to be installed. I signed up to the version where I pay monthly and whilst I can cancel at a months notice, it’s so handy to have I think I’m going to keep the service going. It means when I’m out and about if I stop for a coffee or lunch I already know I can connect quickly and easily to a wifi network to check emails or do a bit of work without spending ages faffing with logging in or trying to get on to un-secure networks etc.