Blogging on a Budget!

There seems to be a misconception about blogging and needing to have all the latest cameras and lens, in order to have a successful blog. You don't NEED them, if you want them, go ahead, but they are absolutely not necessary. I might sound a bit hypocritical because I do use a DSLR and have purchased artificial lighting. To be fair I mainly bought these so that I could make YouTube videos, but I don't see any harm in investing in hobbies or things that interest you. However there is no point in invest a ton of money at the beginning because you mightn't even stick to blogging. My point is it is NOT essential to spend a lot of money in order to have a successful blog, if you choose to invest in something you're passionate about, there's no shame in that either.

The Basics
Most of you will already have a laptop or computer so you can quite literally start your blog for free. You can start on either blogger or wordpress and it won't cost a dime! After that, you'll need something you can take photos with. I use a DSLR camera, the nikon j1 but before I bought the camera I was just using my phone camera. I know lots of bloggers that use their iphones to take blog pictures and they look just as good as a proper camera. A lot of the time, it's more about the lighting than anything. I use artificial lights , the Glamcore elite. But I will always opt for natural lighting, even though I have invested in artificial, nothing beats it. SO when the sun shines, take photos in bulk, enough to last you the next few posts anyway. And that's really all you need, a laptop, some sort of camera and lighting.

The Products
Depending on what type of blog you have, you'll need a subject for example, I talk about beauty a lot, therefore I need beauty products to blog about. But constantly buying new products when I'm working with a students budget, doesn't always work. This forces me to be a bit more creative. Instead of doing reviews all the time, I do things like round up posts or favourites, or posts where I can use the same products for more than one post. I also think my readers appreciate the more creative posts too.

Extras
If you are going to invest a little bit of money into your blog, I'd recommend buying a domain, you can get very cheap ones on Go Daddy. If you are using wordpress, consider being self hosted. If you have a beauty blog, try and find some cool backgrounds, usually I'll just use a big white sheet of paper or maybe my white blanket, but TK Maxx always have really cool designs that you can use as a background for your photos. And lastly, social media is free unless you pay for advertising. I'm blogging a year and half and still haven't given Facebook a penny so don't feel like you have to either.

See, blogging can be very cheap and essentially free if you want it to be, there's no need to go splashing the cash, unless you want to and that's perfectly fine too! Have you any tips for blogging on a budget? Share them in the comments below!

Erin X

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