The Best Equipment and Apps for Blogging and Influencing
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There’s something you need to know about me before we start this blog post: I’m a total cheapskate. I spent very little money when I first started out on Instagram. Starting a business on social media is really affordable and you can basically do it for free! I wrote a blog post all about the free podcasts and books that helped me succeed which you can find here.
But when you’re ready to take the next step in your business like I did this past year, here’s the equipment I recommend.
Camera or iPhone? What should I use to take photos?
When I first started out I used my iPhone 6 camera to take all my photos and it was perfectly acceptable. I researched getting a camera for an upgrade and decided to get a newer iPhone because the new ones have multiple cameras. Some of my favorite bloggers take all their photos exclusively on their iPhones so that’s why I ditched the expensive camera option. I researched a lot and I settled on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. I ordered it refurbished on Walmart so I didn’t have to pay full price. It’s been amazing! I take all my photos and videos for Instagram reels on my iPhone. In a few years I’ll be ready to upgrade again and I’ll buy a newer iPhone and still not bother with a camera. It doesn’t have to exclusively be an iPhone, but the point is you can just use a smartphone with a high quality camera.
Lighting
I try to use natural light for all my photos and videos. But in the winter there are lots of days with no sun and for those days I use these softbox lights. They have been great and you can adjust the warmth and intensity of the light to match how your photos normally look.
Tripod
Definitely buy yourself a tripod! I put off buying one for so long and I really shouldn’t have. I got this one and it’s very cheap and worth it. I love that it’s lightweight and can be packed away into a backpack for when I travel. It comes with a remote so you can take photos of yourself without help. I take most of the photos of myself on my Instagram with a tripod. Also I’ve had the tripod for two years and I still haven’t had to replace the remote battery. Woohoo!
White Board as a Content Calendar
I’ve recently been making a content calendar to help with batch working. I learned all about the reverse calendar method when I read The Now Habit and it’s really helped me be more efficient and avoid procrastination. I used to print a calendar every month and write everything down, but when I have to change things around it’s pretty annoying to have to print a new one each time. So I bought this white board along with colorful markers. It’s made scheduling my Instagram and blog posts a lot easier.
Apps
Photo and Video Editing Apps
-I use Lightroom to edit all my photos. After using the free version for a few years I decided to pay the $5 a month to get more editing features. It’s definitely been worth it because it makes the app work more like photoshop and you can do things like brighten small parts of your photos that are dark.
-Canva is what I use to add special effects on my photos and I use the free version. I use that to make my media kit that I submit to brands that want to work with me. I also use that to customized create Pinterest pins (You can see what one of those looks like at the bottom of this page)
-Inshot is what I use for reel editing. It’s free and works great for editing videos!
Blog Website
-Squarespace is the website I use for my blog. I pay $216 per year to have my own domain name and all the features I want to create the website. It’s very easy to use Squarespace and I appreciate that I don’t have to do any coding to put my website together.
There you have it! I hope this article helps when you decide to take that next step in your small business. If you sell on Etsy be sure to check out my blog post 10 Tips for Running a Successful Etsy Shop.
