Blogging is one of those things that is both brilliant and difficult all at the same time. Working from home, balancing all of the household chores and the child chaos. It’s fun but can be tiring too. Making sure that you have space somewhere in the house isn’t always easy. We don’t all have an extra room just doing nothing ready for an office makeover. Often, we are at the kitchen table or tucked up in the corner of another room. And, let’s face it – we are still on mum duty whether we have deadlines or not. Most of us started out on a laptop, writing our thoughts and not entirely sure what would become of it. Then within years, or months for the lucky ones, we are making an income from our blogs, with healthy social media followings and have these glorious online diaries of some of our lives.
And once upon a time, all you needed was the arm of the sofa and a cup of tea. Now it’s more like a business; you have contracts, you go to events, you have deadlines. There are some things that as you grow, you should treat yourself too, some are small, some are big, but all of them make an impact.
If you work at a kitchen table or you work at a desk, you should be considering getting something a bit more ergonomic and natural. Research proves that having plenty of natural material in your vicinity while working ups your productivity. As a busy blogger, you would be lettings yourself down by not making the most of that little fact. When it comes to wood there are a few retailers in the UK but only one stands out, for being outstanding in both quality and service check out www.oakfurnitureuk.co for some dreamy desk options.
Invest in your tech. If your current desktop or laptop is limping along, running slow or barely alive, then you need to consider what you’d do if it died. Hopefully, you have backed up your blog and your freelance work on something like a hard disk drive. There are some very budget-friendly options out there, and in some cases, some people write perfectly well on a tablet with a keyboard, while they save up for the MacBook of their dreams.
Take a look at your camera. Are you reliant on Unsplash for your beautiful images? Although great stock photos are a great stopgap for most, being able to take your own photos on a reasonable camera is an excellent idea. While your phone camera might be able to make things look fabulous, when it comes to really showing products off, it might be something worth putting on your list. Bridge cameras are the perfect balance of quality, usability and a massive improvement on your phone cam.
Social media scheduling. Many bloggers are starting to use social media schedulers to make sure they are getting maximum use from that following they have grown over the years. While you do have to stick to Twitter’s new rules, you would be remiss not to consider spending one day a month sharing older content mixed in with curated and relevant content. You can still interact as you would usually, but if you decided to take a few days off, everything would keep ticking over – no problems.
Invest in yourself. You can do this in a few ways; you can find free online training, you can join some of the many fabulous Facebook, head to networking events, blog meetups and check out some paid blogging courses. This might not seem like a big thing but basically, the money and time you are investing into these items will come back concerning engaging content, new brands to work with, better pitching emails and more money. Instagram courses would also be an investment here, and the ever so tricky algorithms will often push you to the bottom of the pile unless you have a huge following.
Some flat lay backgrounds. Have you ever taken a peek through some of the really big Instagrammers? Their beautiful grid, with the same tones and contrasts, you would know their photos anywhere, and you’re not ashamed to say, you’re a little bit in love? Well, they tend to invest in a few great looking flat lay backgrounds, and all of the product shots will be taken using those. If you don’t want to spend out on expensive vinyl squares, head to a craft shop and pick up some the paper squares with a design on – cheap and easier to store!
*This is a collaborative post*
