How to Start a Gardening Blog |
| Start your own gardening blog. The problem with gardening and blogging is that if you are a serious gardener you don’t have time to blog! Well, do what you can. This blog started out very small and there were a couple of years when nothing was added. |
| But take those photos and put them aside. Soon enough autumn will come and you can finally share your garden and blog away. Or find a rainy day and share your gardening experience. |
 How to Start a WordPress Gardening Blog |
The Four Easy Steps |
Choose the “Starter Plan” |
| Paying annually will be the least costly plan but if you are unsure, go by the month and see how it goes. |
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| BlueHost – Website Hosting Affordable and Super Easy! |
 How to start a gardening blog |
| The least expensive approach with the greatest control will be to take the lowest cost plan and customize it with your own theme choice. You can install WordPress with one click.
Not feeling quite that adventurous? BlueHost will do all the work for you for a small fee. |
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| Chosing the name of your domain is extremely personal … not to mention dependent upon availability. Dot com names are considered to be best for getting ‘found’. |
 How to start a gardening blog: Choose your domain |
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| WordPress is free and technical knowledge required is very limited. Combine this with a user friendly WordPress theme and you can spend your time being a gardener, blogger, photographer and not a webmaster. |
| Web hosting providers offer a simple, one-click installation of WordPress. There is no downloading an uploading. Click, “Install WordPress” and its done. WordPress reports in May of 2017 over 60 million downloads. They’ve been around, their responsible, reliable and their success proves that. |
| One of the many features I like about WordPress is that it automatically shares your posts to any social media you chose. |
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| WordPress come filled with beautiful themes. Some are free and some have a cost associated Chose one a start blogging from the “Theme” section of WordPress. |
| Each year WordPress creates their “Annual Theme” which incorporates the latest trending features. It is named for the year. The “2017 Theme” can be found under the “Theme” tab with literally thousands of other themes both free and at a cost. |
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| If you decide to purchase a theme I recommend Avada which is purchased through Theme Forest.
Why? |
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| Buying WordPress themes is like going to a Bazaar. You can purchase themes from college students earning additional cash or from a stable business that has a large and experienced staff working to keep your site safe and up to date. Avada gives me the security I need. |
| 300,000 Avada Themes Sold |
| I began making websites over 15 years ago from scratch with Adobe Dreamweaver. After discovering WordPress that seemed like a lot of work without the benefits of plugins.
After discovering Avada, I have never used anything else. Avada and WordPress are a winning combination.  How to start a gardening blog |
Photography Matters |
| I am a Nikon person. If I had it to do over would I still be a Nikon person? Not sure. Nikon has known issues with the color purple. That being said, I love my Nikon! Plus, I have so many Nikon lenses at this point it makes no sense to switch.
Lots of people begin with the Canon Rebel and move up. I have never used a Canon but every one I have ever known that began serious photography with the Canon Rebel has nothing but good things to say about them. |
 Check out the Canon Rebel at Target. The prices are good. This the smallest and lightest digital Slr camera. Canon Rebel has a 18.0 Megapixel Cmos (Aps-C) sensor and Canon Digic 5 Image Processor. This camera is fast-focusing creating sharp images in nearly any light. The sensor is 8X larger than smartphone so your images are detailed and stay sharp when resized. HD video is sharp, too, even in low light. Canon has a good selection of interchangeable lenses for diffused backgrounds. |
Nikon |
 Target has a good selection of Nikon Digital SLR Camera Bodies and kits with lenses. I never go to Target that I don’t swing by the camera department! |
| When making a camera choice look down the road to moving up and which camera has the lenses you will want. With that criteria I would still make Nikon my choice. But this is a super personal decision. |
Mirrorless Cameras |
 The Sony Mirrorless camera is a DSLR with compact interchangeable lenses. It has Wi-Fi connectivity to smartphones. The 16-50mm kit lens is great for gardening photography. It’s small to slip into your purse and creates a creamy background. I have one and love it. Target has good prices here, too. |
| About four years ago a camera salesman tried to sell me a mirrorless camera. I was attentive to all the good things he had to say but thought, early technology, I will wait and see.
As I work hard to simplify my life the mirrorless camera concept seemed like an easy option and I finally bought one. I like it. The images are great but all those years of F stops and control kicked in and I use the mirrorless camera less and less. That being said if you are new to photography this is a GREAT GREAT option. Consider a mirrorless camera. It is universally agreed Sony is the leader in the mirrorless field and that was my choice. I love this camera and recommend it. |
Photo Editing Software |
| I use and love Lightroom. The social media images are made after Lightroom has edited the image with Photoshop. These can be expensive.
There is a free program that is very good and easy to use: GIMP. |
 How to start a gardening blog: photo editing software GIMP |
| Lightroom is not excessively expensive and just as importantly it is easy to learn and use. |
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| I am an affiliate and will receive a fee if you chose these products. However, these are the products that I use and recommend. (Just like Osmocote!) |
