Modern smartphones are, when you think about it, ridiculously powerful. A device that fits in your hand or your pocket and which can do things as diverse as: listen to the radio from (almost) anywhere in the world; trade on the stock market; edit and broadcast video content; and a whole lot more besides. That shows how far technology has come, and it is no exaggeration to say that smartphones have grown so powerful that it is now possible to run an entire business from the palm of your hand.
For a blogger, this raises the question: given that it’s not always possible to take your laptop everywhere, is it possible to run a blog from your phone? And just as importantly, is it advisable? If you run a fairly successful blog, your phone may just make it possible to make a living while standing in line at the bank, or sitting on a bus, or whenever you have a few minutes. So what do you need to know about running your blog from just a few square inches of 2020s tech?
Software: All of the moving parts are there
If you want to run a blog without using a laptop or similar device, there are certainly options that allow you to do all of the things you need. All of the main blogging platforms and content management systems can be run from an app, and you can update your blog while on the move. You can also take pics and record video, obviously, and either edit them or embed them in your posts unedited. You can even design themes, headers and sidebars on your phone and install them on the blog. If you’re so minded, you can start a blog and accompanying podcast from scratch without a device any larger than your own hand.
Practicality: Precision isn’t always what it should be
People all over the world, including actual Presidents, have fallen foul of the tendency for a smartphone to be sensitive to the smallest movement, and sending tweets or texts with spelling errors, or ones that haven’t been fully typed. Tweets are 280 characters long and aren’t expected to be Pulitzer-worthy (even if some clearly are, as seen below):
nasa employee: oh hey u guys are back early
— dustin Couch (@Dustinkcouch) October 30, 2018
astronaut: moon's haunted
nasa employee: what?
astronaut: *loading a pistol and getting back on the rocket-ship* moon's haunted
Blog posts are, however, expected to be somewhat more crafted and considered, and your phone is simply not the best device for this purpose. It’s just hard to type a several-hundred word post, read it back for accuracy and spelling, and edit it for publishing on the average phone, and you probably shouldn’t try – for the sake of your thumbs and eyes if nothing else.
Timeliness: You don’t know when inspiration will strike
If you’re committed to a schedule of blogging, then there’s a lot to be said for a routine which places you in front of your laptop at the same time every day or week. However, any writer knows that sitting down to write can sometimes fail to sync up with when you feel inspired. You can, however, be out shopping or waiting for a friend, spot something interesting and immediately want to document it – and that’s where your phone comes in handy. You can write a short post with the promise to flesh it out later, or tweet an immediate reaction which you’ll then turn into a full post.
You can, however, find that your phone storage fills up fast when you’re using it on mobile data, and you’ll need to know how to free up space on iPhone devices if you’re hoping to get the most out of this “roving blogger” thing. Phones are powerful these days, but they can’t work miracles.
Stability: Your phone has its limits
Early mobile phones were famous for patchy signal strength, and even today’s models aren’t 100% infallible. If you’re undertaking specific editing tasks on your blog, the importance of stability can’t be exaggerated. Say you’re adding a plugin to make your posts pull through to your social media accounts: The use of code is essential to this kind of fine-tuned blogging work, and one misplaced letter, number or punctuation mark can take the whole blog offline.
So what you don’t want to happen is for your internet connection to fritz out just as you’re working on the backend. Sometimes, the fact that you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Updating the nuts and bolts of your blog is something that should wait for a more stable connection, something that a fixed WiFi signal and a laptop were made for.
In short, you certainly can run a blog using only your phone, and some elements of the process will benefit from doing it this way. But to run the best blog possible means using every tool at your disposal, and that should include more than your phone.
0 Comments