THE BEST TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT FOR BLOGGING

With the start of a new year comes plenty of new years resolutions, and maybe next year you’re thinking of starting a blog of your own (We can’t recommend it enough! We think everyone should have a blog!). But where exactly do you start I hear you ask? And do you need a bunch of new equipment? Well that depends entirely on what type of blog you’re going to be running right? For example, if you’re starting a food blog you may want to invest in a great camera and some new sauce pans and cooking equipment to photograph all those delicious recipes! Or maybe you want to become a beauty blogger? If that’s the case you’ll want to get yourself a professional ring light, a tripod for your camera so you can film those tutorials and maybe some new makeup pallets! You get the gist right? Or maybe you already have a blog and just want to upgrade the tech you have?! Either way, I wanted to share with you the equipment that we just couldn’t live without to run Bespoke Bride!

1. Let’s start with the obvious items. Laptops. I (Jess) do not know where I would be without my apple Macbook Pro, I bought it over 8 years ago and it’s still working incredibly well without any problems! I really swear by the apple laptops, yes they are expensive at first, but they’re an investment and one that I would see lasting 10 years, I couldn’t be happier with it!

2. On the other hand, Emily absolutely loves her Microsoft Surface Laptop. It has touch screen, is super lightweight so perfect for on the go and is equally very easy to use! You just have to decide what you want out of your laptop, and which will work best for you!

3. If you’re going to be photographing products, tutorials, recipes or anything else on your blog, then Me and Emily both have and recommend DSLR camera’s! We use these to create original content here on Bespoke Bride, and wouldn’t have it any other way! We both use a Canon EOS 7D.

4. As for lenses, my absolute favourite that I use for pretty much 99% of all shooting here for the blog is my 35mm, it is so PERFECT for everything I need and I just love love love it! Emily uses a 50mm and loves hers too, that lens is perfect for those close up, blurry background shots!

5. OK let’s talk storage. it may seem boring but you will need an external hard drive if you’re going to be creating original content, ESPECIALLY if you’re filming video tutorials! Those videos take up a lot of space very quickly, so I like to edit them on my laptop, then move all of those files onto a hard drive afterwards for safe keeping! There are plenty of great hard drive choices out there, you can get a really nice looking one , but personally I use this Seagate one. We recommend getting a 1TB or 2TB size hard drive since they’ll last much longer with those big files.

6. I don’t know about you but I love to listen to audio books and podcasts when I’m working, especially if I’m in a coffee shop! There are a ton of helpful books for bloggers which I wrote about here! I use apple airpodsto listen to mine just because that’s what my mum got me for Christmas last year and I totally love them! But alternatively the actual headphones that sit on your head are awesome!

7. As I mentioned briefly up there, you’re going to want to get a tripod if you plan on filming YouTube videos, not only does it make your content more professional, but it makes things so much easier! I always remember the days when we didn’t have a tripod and would end up trying to balance the camera on cat stands with books piled on top! Ha! Nowadays, we always use our tripod for filming video tutorials or Q&As!

8. And last, but not least, we both use iphones for photography, editing photos and videos and of course managing the social media accounts! Obviously you don’t NEED an iphone to run a blog, but personally that’s what we both use and LOVE! Especially those new iphone 11 pro’s that have the best cameras on a phone that I’ve ever seen!

So there you have it! That’s our essential equipment for blogging! And if you’re looking to buy a blogger a gift then be sure to check out our post 50+ Gift Ideas for bloggers! xx