Have you ever wonder what blogger must haves are? Even if you are someone who has been blogging for years or maybe you are someone who is considering starting a blog everyone will have a different idea of what blogger must have items are. I wanted to share my blogger must haves with you today!
The Basics:
1. A Computer: This goes without saying because you need a place to write your posts. I have two that use interchangeably. I have a macbook pro and a mac desktop computer. I am a mac person but any computer will work. My husband has a chrome book and something like that would be perfect for blogging.
2. A domain and hosting: I have had my domain nearly the entire time I have been blogging and personally I think having your own domain makes brands and other bloggers take you a lot more seriously! I also love the company I use for hosting. I use liquid web and by far out of all the hosting companies I have used they are my favorite. They are great to work with you really fast if your blog goes down or you have issues.
3. A great blog designer: I have used a few blog designers and I am happy to give recs if you ever need one but I personally think it is worth the money to have a blog designer set up your blog and give it a personal flair. Premade templates are fine but you wouldn’t want your blog to look like other peoples blogs so get a designer and set yourself a blog.
The Extras:
1. Camera, lighting equipment, editing software: You do not need a crazy $1000 plus camera to have good photos. I know lots of bloggers with simple point and shoot cameras. The key is your lighting equipment. I purchased some inexpensive lights from amazon and it made all the difference. That and a basic understanding of photoshop will get you far.
2. Picmonkey: You can use picmonkey for free however I upgraded and pay yearly for the extras. It’s a great place to make fun images(the one I have today I overlaid the letters in picmonkey).
3. Blog Planner: Not necessary but helpful. I use a blog planner(Emily Ley) for my planner as well as usually a notebook I carry with me(current favorite) to jot down ideas of blog posts I have.
I plan to do a part two for this about other blogger must haves that go more into details so please let me know any questions you have so I can answer them in my next post!
What are your blogger must haves?
I JUST finally got a domain name! Eek! It only took me three years…
Yes. That will certainly get you off and running.
I’ve found that keeping a planner is really helping me also! I tend to do things very last minute and spur of the moment… so this has helped me prepare much better!
Really good coffee is always a must-have. That, and really supportive friends/family in your life for the ups and downs!
Coming Up Roses
I have yet to buy my domain name out of fear! If I had the money I’d pay someone to do it for me!
I love my Toshiba laptop. I also use content planning. I have a simple spreadsheet in Google Drive that I use and I use Google Keep to make notes on possible blog topics.
I really need to get myself a good lighting setup! The windows in my apartment are in awkward places and we don’t have a patio. At least I’ll blame my poor photography on that 😉