Winter can be the worse time for blogging sometimes, but it also has its advantages. The days are short, the weather is usually bad, and that often means bad circumstances for taking photos, but good circumstances for writing. A lot of bloggers are still students, who spend their time of faculty during the day, or many of them are already working, and that sometimes means that you go from home in the morning and when you come home in the afternoon, it’s starting to get dark and a chance to take a good photo (for us who use natural light) is close to zero. I know I had the same problem last year when I was working from 7 a. m. to 3 p. m., and when I got home and ate my lunch, I couldn’t take photos anymore, because it was too dark already, so today I’m going to mention few tips that helped me with my blogging last year. Since I’m a beauty blogger, my tips are more focused on photographing beauty products.
1. Plan ahead
The best way to stay organized as a blogger is to plan your posts ahead. I’m currently doing Blogmas and if I wouldn’t write down the ideas for posts and reviews I want to post during December, I’d probably already get lost and stop blogging every day. A lot of bloggers set the days when they post the content on their blog (for example: Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday or Wednesday, Sunday etc.). You can write down post ideas for a week ahead, or even for a whole month if that helps you better.
2. Taking photos for more posts at once
Taking photos for a post on the day you want to publish it works if and when you have a lot of time. Otherwise the best solution is to take all products you want/need to photograph out at once, prepare a place where you usually take photos (even if you take them at once, you can make different background) and take an hour to two to take photos of these products for your future posts. I already mentioned once before, that the best way to taking nice photos in natural light is on a sunny day, inside in the shadow in front of a big window. Some girls make great photos on a cloudy or rainy day as well, but not everyone owns a 500 € worth camera, and some of us have to work with small compact cameras or even with phones. If you don’t have time during week to take photos for blog, take your time during weekend, when you can take the advantage of light, also for photographing swatches of products.
3. Writing drafts of your posts
There are days when you have zero time for your hobbies and there are days when you have some spare time. If you feel inspired, the best way to make as much as you can out of your free time is to write few blogposts you’re planning to post in the future. They can be only drafts, so that on a day when you’re planning to post something, you’ll have most of the text already prepared. I never wear a computer with me, but I always take a notebook and when I get the idea for a post or something I want to post in a review, I wrote down in my notebook and when I'm preparing a review I just add what I wrote before.
4. Make yourself a lightbox
If you're struggling with catching light for photos in winter and even your weekends are busy, a good solution for you is a lightbox. You can buy a lightbox if you want, but you can also make your own. All you need is a bigger cardboard box, white paper and a lamp. That way you can make photos even if it’s dark and you don’t have to worry about catching a day light.
5. Tag/personal post/guest post
Sometimes, when you really don't have any content prepared, but you want to post something, a tag or a personal post is a solution. That way you share something about you with your readers, and you don’t need to take photos, because you can put your old photos into the post. A really nice way to variegate your blog is to invited some of your favourite bloggers to write a guest post for you, especially when you won’t have time to post something for a longer period of time. That way you can promote other bloggers on your blog and in addition you don’t have to worry about preparing a content yourself.
Do you have any tips, how to make blogging easier in winter? If yes, share them with my readers. If you like this post, you’re welcome to share it on social media. Thank you for reading!