A Blogging Experiment 

This week, I conducted a little Blogging Experiment. When I blog, I’m usually sitting at my desk with my laptop. This week I thought I would do something I have never done before. I wanted to see if I could publish a blog post, from beginning to end, using nothing but my iPad while laying lazily on my couch, or my bed. Can you figure out which post was done entirely on my iPad? If you guessed this one, your are right, but this is my second post written on the iPad. On Friday night, I posted a short and sweet post entitled “What’s On My Running Playlist“.

I didn’t think I would get very far, but I’m happy to prove myself wrong and I did learn many great lessons on graphics, html and plugins in the processes.

How many of you blog exclusively from you iPad? I prove that it can be done, and it can be fun!… Click To Tweet

Here are he results of my iPad Blogging Experiment

You can easily add graphics

I thought adding graphics would be challenging, but in fact, I think it was actually easier and quicker. Apps like Moca Deco make creating blog graphics super fun, quick and easy. The main graphic in this blog post was made using Moca Deco and the image was downloaded from Pixabay. Why was it quicker? I wasn’t bogged down with a plethora  of choices. Sometimes it takes me an hour to get the graphic I want using Photoshop or Canva. Using Moca Deco it took me 5 min. Now, I’m quite familiar with this app. If you were using it for the first time, it might take a bit longer to familiarize yourself with it.

I usually use the Raleway and Lobster fonts for my title graphic, but Moca Deco only has the Raleway font so I had to be creative and use something else.  I find that the graphic actually looks better in its simplicity.

You can add a feature image

At first, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to add my feature graphic, something I use all the time to control which graphics appear on social media and on my blog’s home page. When I originally published my post, I didn’t see this feature on my iPad WordPress app, but I went back, dug around and I was quite happy to find it.

You can still add categories and tags to your post

While I discovered the settings where setting the feature image, I noticed that you can also select your categories and your tags as well.

You can still access your html editor

I was also thrilled to see that I could use the html text editor. I didn’t see it at first, but you’ll see the <> symbols (as seen in the graphic above). You can then toggle between regular text editor and the html editor, just like you can on your desk top. This comes in handy because, unlike the desktop version, if I want to add some headings, I need to do it the old fashion way… with code. GASP! . T, save a step, I would bold my text from the text editor, and then when switched to the html editor,  and replace the b with H2, or H3 tags. That would save me a bit of coding.

Alas, there are limitations

Unfortunately, on the WordPress app on the iPad you don’t have access to all those fun plugins that come with the desktop version of WordPress. Since I’m still struggling with understanding SEO, I really missed my SEO plugin by Yoast. I missed many other great plugins as well.

Another disadvantage is that you can’t add headings you need from the text editor, as I mentioned above. You can add it through code the old fashion way (see my notes above about the html editor).

Although I enjoyed my experience, and if I’m out traveling, I’m happy to know I can blog on the go. I think my preferred method will be the good ol’desktop. However, I’m seriously considering doing my graphics on my iPad since it was super simple and quick.

Join the conversation;

• Do you blog on an iPad or tablet?
• Do you know anything about SEO? Cause I seriously need help in this department.
• Any tips on blogging via iPad to share?

 

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