Essentials I Need As A Blogger

1000 Hours of Writing: Hours 500 - 520

When people hear the word "blogging" they think of a little diary style blog that uploads a picture once a week. This is rubbish and what they don't realize is how much organisation is needed for a blog. Then the amount of tools that are involved in creating a blog post that is worth reading.

Spurred on by this thought and taking inspiration from "What's in my bag?" I decided to share what is in my "blogging bag." 

Laptop 

I believe that comes as no surprise. A blogger needs a laptop, or a very good tablet. My trusty laptop is from ASUS and it has been with me since the strange year of 2013. I write almost all my blog posts with it, sometimes directly into blogger, other times I wirte them in Microsoft Word. 

Since I prefer to have everything in one place, it also dubs as a hive-mind. On it I am going to have everything from: old posts, photos, editing tools and drafts. This sounds a bit dangerous should something catastrophic happen to my hard-drive - which has happened earlier this year, and trust me, my pants had not been the same colour afterwards. It really is the one essential I'd be lost without. 

Camera

Nowadays, you can't run a blog without decent images. If they're not appealing then people won't click on the link. In fact, the eyes automatically scans the image first before they turn towards the words. However, is no need to buy the most expensive camera just yet!

Up until this week I used my phone's camera - a OnePlus 2 with 13MP. It had always been good enough. Now I bought a real camera. Mostly for my private enjoyment and documenting road trips, but it would be silly to not use it for the blog as well. 

Calendar 

I've mentioned before that when it comes blogging organisation is everything. You need to have a decent overview of what you need, when you need it, and more importantly the size of the workload you can take on. This is why a calendar is vital!

I use a Filofax calendar in which I write everything - from when I go jogging to when each blog post goes public. This helps me to have a decent bearing.

Notepad and EverNote

Both fulfill the same function: They store the children of my brain.

I can't write down ideas in the calendar, or save links from helpful blog posts. Anything that is a digital resource is saved in EverNote. Anything else on the notepad. After all, can you imagine writing an URL down by hand?

When it comes to such things like planning a project for the blog, I write it down on a notepad. This helps me to find references and new ideas quickly!

What are your blogging essentials? Let me know in the comments below.