There is no denying that blogging is one of the hottest online trends right now. An idea pops up in your head and you want to express it? You write up a blog and post it on your website for the world to see. Blogging helps you grow your audience by creating professional looking posts that vouch for your knowledge in one way or the other, and increases your exposure to potential customers.
While there is some essential equipment that you’re going to be needing if you decide to trek along this way, a set of realistic goals along with a productive blogging routine and considerable knowledge in the field you’re going to be writing about is of unmatched importance.
However, there is one problem: managing your blog is not as easy as you imagined. It is time-consuming enough writing a blog post. That is where blogging tools and equipment are worth their weight in gold. They not only make your work significantly easier, but allow you more time to focus on things like promoting your blog on social media, researching proper keywords to boost visibility, and finding content ideas.
We have curated a list of 8 basic items you should consider getting your hands on if you’re thinking about taking up blogging seriously in 2022.
1. A laptop or a desktop
As anyone skimming through this roundup knows, high-performing bloggers spend 90% of their time creating content – in other words, on the work that moves the needle – writing posts, retouching photos, or editing footage. It requires you to stare at a screen for a good amount of time, and churn out thousands of words that you later plan to host on your website. So that laptop or computer should be able to endure long stretches of operation without any dents in its processing power.
You would need enough power to use not only a good text editor but also to edit photos on GPU-intensive applications like Adobe Photoshop and in case you are shooting videos to publish on YouTube and embed in your articles, you’re also looking forward to editing footages on equally intensive platforms (Adobe Premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, etc.)
Apart from being decently capable, a long battery life is essential for the efficient working of the device if you’re opting for a laptop over a desktop.
The blogger standard is a Macbook Pro, which offers fast startup speed, great connectivity and is lightweight too. Yes, they’re not the cheapest laptops on the market, but they are the best, whatever your take on Windows might be.
For the love of God, DO NOT get a Chromebook if you’re planning on being a professional content producer.
2. Microphone
Whether you want high-quality audio for your YouTube videos, Twitch stream, or podcast or you are simply recording audio versions of your posts so that readers can also listen to them, you need a good microphone for the job.
No longer constrained by the static images and text of the humble blog, vloggers of all kinds are changing the face of internet marketing and in order to get along with the market, you’d be better off incorporating a hybrid system of both text and audio-visual content.
A good microphone not only reduces your work significantly by not picking up unnecessary background noise, but also hikes up your content quality to make it look and sound more professional.
If you’re planning on making video for Linkedin or TikTok, this will be a great investment.
3. Camera and tripod
There are thousands of free stock photos on sites like Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash, and you can always subscribe to a premium marketplace like Depositphotos if you want to have less generic photos in your posts, but if you want to make your blog and its content stand out, there is no substitute for unique, professionally taken photos with a good camera.
The Internet is overflowing with copycat content. To keep making a living as a blogger and sleep with a sense of job security at night, you have no choice but to go the extra mile to win over the trust and create better content than everyone else.
Similarly, a tripod can help you shoot stable and professional-looking videos and pictures. No one likes watching a jittery video that makes them motion sick, so play it safe and get a tripod if your blog consists of a good amount of visual content.
4. Mobile phone
Blogging via mobile devices is now more accessible and viable than ever. Mobile blogging is much more than using your web browser to access your account. It is about sending texts or photos through SMS, MMS, or email and having them automatically posted to your blog.
Users can create a new mobile blog and make posts on it fairly easily with the introduction of applications like WordPress and Wix.com.
These days you can even edit video, produce music and of course do professional photography with your phone too. Not got the budget for top of the range? Consider picking up a reconditioned phone instead…
5. Mouse and Keyboard
If you choose a desktop computer or a monitor with your laptop, having a mouse and keyboard is essential. As a blogger aiming to become successful, you will spend most of your time typing.
So, your keyboard and mouse needs to be something you enjoy using and are comfortable working long hours with. This post by Gamesradar.com has amazing information on the different types of keyboards you can choose from to advance in your blogging journey.
6. Computer Monitor
There are hundreds of features to consider before making a decision on choosing a monitor. A monitor can make or break the whole blogging experience, at least on your side of things. And it isn’t just about the size of the screen. There are more choices than ever and a wide range of features to consider. A computer monitor also expands the abilities of your laptop when connected, enhancing the efficiency of your blogging tools.
Is there a lot of graphics work that goes into your blog besides the text? You’d be better off with a monitor that offers more colour correction. Similarly, you’d want to pick a monitor with a higher resolution if your strength lies in video editing. So on and so forth.
7. Ring Light
A ring light is an easy-to-use multipurpose lighting tool that enables users to obtain a source of uniform light that comes directly from the point of view of their cameras. Due to their design and structure, ring lights emphasise details in photographs and videos that normally would be washed over. Blogs that might require close-up pictures use it to create a bright, even light.
8. External Hard Drive
If you are a blogger (or want to become one), you must protect your business which basically boils down to your computer and the blog content you have created. Most computer hard drives will eventually fail, and more often than not, it’s not a matter of if but when. Because of this reason, having a backup from your computer to an external hard drive adds an additional layer of safety that you wouldn’t normally have.
You can also opt to purchase a Cloud storage service if you prefer to keep things remotely accessible at all times. Applications like Google Drive even have free plans that provide you with a significant amount of free storage.
9. Keyword research tools
If you’re writing without keyword research tools, you’re pretty much writing blind. And if you have a blog with a goal, such as selling a product, or building your organic traffic, you WILL need to do some form of keyword research.
There are a number of great keyword tools on the market – some of which are cheap (Ubersuggest). But if you want to get ahead of the competition, you NEED to invest in keyword research. This is a piece of blogging equipment that really should be top of the list.
SEMrush is one of the best known and most effective search engine research tools. It allows you to find those low competition keywords, see what your competitors are ranking for, and track their ranking. It also has a nifty ‘keyword magic tool’ where you pop in your seed search term and it pops out a number of attainable search terms. Very cool.
It also comes with a free trial so you can see if it’s right for you.
10. AI Writing Tools
The world has gone AI mad, and many content writers might be fearing the rise of Chat GPT or other AI writing tools. But actually, knowing how to use AI content generators is fast becoming an essential for bloggers and content marketers.
The reason for this is that AI content tools go beyond simply writing your blog. They can act as researchers, idea generators, social media content creators and tons more.
One of the best tools on the market, apart from Chat GPT, is Copy AI. There are a number of handy features such as storing your own prompts, creating workflows, team sharing and much more than make Copy AI one of the best content generating software tools for bloggers.
Read our full review of Copy AI here.
Conclusion
Whatever you want, there is always a blogging tool that meets your needs, but you don’t really need much to just get started. A laptop or a mobile phone is more than enough if you’re passionate about the content topic.
However, if you want to take things to the next level and stand a chance in the market to commercialise your blog, you can always find a tool for any specific purpose that’ll help you get ahead of the curve.
Check out this post if you’re looking for the best places to hire a content writer.
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