Photography is a tricky subject for me because I don’t have a photographer to take my pictures. For the most part, all of my pictures are taken by me on a self timer with a point-and-shoot camera I bought over five years ago. Needless to say, I am far from an expert.

I’ve recently started looking for a photographer willing to work with me for trade (I promote their business in exchange for pictures) and have already had so many great people reach out to me expressing interest. Now I just have to pick the right person!

This section of my Blogging 101 Series will be focused on do-it-yourself photography: iPhone photography, editing apps, point-and-shoot photography, tripods and self-timers, and free photo editing online. I hope you find this useful! Please ask away if you have any questions at all and I’d love to hear if you have any other tips!

iPhone Photography

If you are just starting out as a blogger, chances are that you have yet to purchase a nice camera or know of any photographers (or even have a budget for one!). Even though I’ve been blogging for almost a year, I don’t have money for a photographer and I still have a pretty crappy camera.

That being said, I rely on my iPhone for a lot of my pictures – especially when I’m on the go.

Here are some great tips for getting the perfect snap on your phone’s camera:

• Know your options – you can take photos in a normal size, square cropped (great for posting directly to Instagram!), or panorama.
• Focus, focus, focus – the lighting will completely change based off of where you tap on the screen to focus (see the pictures below for an example of this!)

• Pay attention to lighting
• Take multiple shots of the same thing – sometimes it’s very easy to get a blurry picture with a cell phone because your hand is shaky and they aren’t like professional cameras in that they auto-adjust to that
• Pay attention to your surroundings – simple backgrounds look better than those that are cluttered
• Don’t use the zoom. It dramataically decreases the quality. If you want to get closer, you need to physically get closer
• Make sure the lens is clean
• Don’t use the flash unless you absolutely HAVE to! If an image is too dark, adjust the brightness later or try to adjust the focus

Photo Editing Apps

Camera+ ($1.99)

This is by far my go-to photo editing app. There are so many great tools you can use such as a camera, fun filters, basic tools, crops, and borders. It has everything you could need – best $2 I’ve ever spent!

Facetune ($2.99)

This is my go-to photo editing app that is like Photoshop in the sense that you can whiten teeth, eliminate blemishes, etc. It’s great for on-the-go blogging when you don’t have access to a computer (or can’t afford Photoshop).

A Beautiful Mess ($0.99)

I primarily use this app when I have a photo that isn’t a square (meaning it won’t fit correctly on Instagram). You can easily zoom an image out so that it fits in a square frame and then upload to Instagram! I also love their little doodles and phrases you can slap on – super cute!

Moldiv (Free)

This is a good alternative to PicStitch – it’s basically the same thing. You can make collages really quickly with this app.

VSCOcam (Free)

This is my favorite filter app. They have ones that look very natural, which I love, and they also have the typical editing tools most apps have. Some people are die-hard loyal VSCOcam users and exclusively use it, but I find it more supplemental.

Picfx ($1.99)

This app has an abundance of filters, but what I especially like is the option to add light. You can add light spots or sun beams to your pictures which is always super fun!

FontCandy (Free)

Such a great app for adding font to your images. There’s endless options for exactly how you want to format it!

The following topics will be covered NEXT WEEK! I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. I’ve been out of town and things have been hectic, so I didn’t get around to it. But please come back next week for Photography Part 2!

• Digital Camera (Point-and-Shoot) Photography
• Tripods and Self Timers
• Best Free Photo Editing Online

Welcome to week 3 of my 10-week Blogging 101 Series! This post is all about writing the perfect blog post. I hope you find these tips helpful but I would also love to hear your own personal advice! Please feel free to ask any questions as well if something seems unclear. Thank you so much for reading and I hope this is useful!

Start an Editorial Calendar

In order to stay organized, you absolutely must have an editorial calendar of sorts. This does not need to be anything fancy or complicated – it can be as simple as a to-do list on a sheet of blank notebook paper. However, you will want to space out posts appropriately and time them so that you do not overload or bore your readers.

If you’re looking to be a little more organized than just to-do lists, I recommend investing in a Plum Paper or Erin Condren planner. These are broken into days and sometimes even hourly periods so that you can schedule your week down to the minute.

When are the best times to post? Many bloggers swear by posting around 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. This gives their readers the ability to read over new posts over their morning coffee or bookmark it to read during their lunch break.

Some bloggers simply post at midnight so if their readers get notifications such as emails when new posts are published, it will be the first thing they see in the morning. Some bloggers will post late at night or during lunch time – it’s all trial-and-error. You have to play around with it a bit to find what works for you.

The Bread and Butter of a Quality Post

Creating a blog post that combines quality writing with content to keep readers captivated is truly an art-form. Especially in our digitally-driven world, attention spans run thin – which means keeping the audience interested in what their reading is a huge challenge.

Here are some ways to craft an excellent blog post:

• Have a kick-ass title that’s informative but also catchy
• Use images and/or other multimedia such as video or audio clips
• Divide writing into sections with compelling sub-headings
• Write short paragraphs
• Use bullet points or numbering when appropriate
• Include links to other content
• Keep it short and sweet – nobody wants to try to decode what you’re saying (unless that’s your thing, then by all means, you do you)
• Include calls to action and thought-provoking questions

All of these components serve as markers on the page to draw the eyes down and encourage more reading. Having visual interests and sub-headings allow readers to skim the post more easily as well which means they can find what they’re looking for faster. You want to keep the reader invested in your post and on their toes!

Reviewing and Editing

You absolutely need to edit and review your posts. This is almost as important (if not more!) than the actual writing of the post. I have found a secret formula to reviewing your writing, so I hope that you find it useful.

Here are some key editing steps:

1. Use spell check
2. Read through everything multiple times
3. Read through everything out loud multiple times
4. Use the stop-and-repeat method. When you are reading through your post and find an error, make that correction, and then begin reading the post from the very beginning. If you do this every time you find an error, you will be able to read through your entire post without finding any flaw
5. Read it out loud to somebody else
6. Have somebody else review it
7. Use Hemingway App to copy-paste your post and check for readability
8. Fact-check – make sure every name is spelled correctly and all your facts are 100% accurate
9. Stand on your bed or chair and read your post out loud in a booming voice as though you were presenting it in front of an audience
10. Shorten and tighten any sentences you possibly can

Once you’ve completed all of these steps and have found no errors in your final read-through, your post should be ready for publication.

Giving Credit and Providing Links

Be sure that when you are using an image, media, or quote that does not belong to you that you correctly link and source it. Hyperlinks are a great way of doing this. I would encourage you to also hyperlink any brands or big names that you reference in your posts so that people can click through them and find out more information. ALWAYS GIVE CREDIT WHEN IT’S DUE!

For example, if I was talking about a dress from Charlotte Russe and a reader had never heard of that store before, they could click through the link and find out. Additionally, this notifies brands and websites that you are linking to their content. This can be great if you’re a fashion blogger who loves Kate Spade and link to their products all the time. You will suddenly be referring a lot of traffic to the Kate Spade website which could get the attention of their managers.