It’s holiday gift guide season! That means finding the perfect thing to show your loved ones how much you care. Whether that be an experience or a relaxing candle, there are so many options. Read on to find some great gift ideas for the blogger in your life!
Being we are bloggers, we are very aware of the rise of the blogging industry. More and more people are able to turn this passion project into a livable, income producing, job. However, being it is so new and mostly unfamiliar to people, it can be hard to understand what exactly we do. So if you have a blogger friend or family members, do you get them earrings or a candle this holiday season?
Well, I’ll let you in on a secret, bloggers start blogs because they are their passion. And while it can be hard to understand what they do and how it can be an “actual job”, by getting them something related to their blogging efforts you are showing them just how much you care about this company they have built.
I have broken this guide of the best gifts into three categories at any price point - experiences, acts of love, and practical things. So, let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
Experiences
Experiences make some of the best holiday gifts! They don't take up space in your home but keep space in your heart. These ideas are just a few ideas of things we have done and are sure your blogger friend or family would love just as much as we do.
1. Tour
Depending on the type of blogger you are buying for, this could be a food tour or cooking class, a tour of a beauty bar or trip to the lip lab to make their own lipstick, a Segway tour, or other. I think these are some of the best holiday gift ideas because they are interactive, you can do them together, and they are just plain fun!
- Food Tours
- Lip Lab
- Segway Tour
2. Subscriptions
This is intended to be a subscription to something they would love but wouldn’t necessarily get for themselves. This could be for candles, a wine box, coffee or tea, flowers, etc. Here are a few of our favorites!
- Wick Box candle subscription
- Winc wine subscription
- Grounds And Hounds coffee subscription (this one is super fun and customizable, plus they donate tons of meals to shelter pups!)
- Sips By tea subscription
- Bouqs flower subscription
- ButcherBox meat subscription
- Bark Box dog gear subscription
3. Gift Card
We all have our favorite coffee shop to work at or could benefit from some place to focus better. That’s where the coffee shops, libraries, and coworking spaces come in! A gift card to a local coffee shop (with good wifi and a great atmosphere) or to a coworking space such as WeWork is a super creative way to show you care! $25-unlimited
4. Pampering
Since we showcase our information via photography, we often have to be in the photos. For food bloggers this means hands and pans photos and videos, for others this means posing in cool cities or on sweet hikes. So, we always need to look semi-presentable - I didn’t say look our best, we are all human after all, but presentable is always good. Here are some ideas I would love (wink wink). $30-$150
- Manicure
- Facial
- Massage
5. Masterclass Subscription
This is a new to me service, but basically it offers virtual classes on ALL sorts of topics. From physics to dog training to horticulture. A subscription to this would be a great option for a blogger. Especially considering we are always trying to learn and absorb as much information as possible. $15/month
6. Furthering Education
In the spirit of always learning more, bloggers have to be sponges - absorbing everything.There are conferences, courses, mastermind programs, summits, and so much more to help continue learning. These can range from a couple hour event to a full week of learning and networking. If there is anything your blogger friend has mentioned in passing or that you can gather information about, do that! You could buy them a ticket to the conference or summit or get them into a mastermind course. This could also be any blogger related favorite books. Below are some popular options for bloggers.
- Tastemaker Conference: this one is for food bloggers specifically and is 3 days of learning and practicing skills $450
- Alt Summit: this is for any blogger and is considered one of the top conferences for social media influencers $495
- Traffic and Conversion Summit: this is more of a numbers based event that focuses on getting people on your blog - great for any type of blogger $500-$800
- Eat Blog Talk Mastermind: is another food blog specific one but mastermind groups are immensely helpful for bloggers and something that they don’t often want to spend money on themselves $250-$800
Acts of Love
These are some of our favorite gifts for bloggers! There is nothing as wonderful as someone showing enough interest in your blog to offer to help plus they are great for last-minute shoppers and require no extra money. Plus you don't even need a special occasion like the holiday season to do these things.
1. Offering Help
This could be in the form of driving to pick up their Target run for recipe testing or a try on or it could be offering to help with a photo shoot or video day. There is so much that goes into prepping for a photo or video shoot and the actual act of keeping things organized during it is so much easier with another set of hands.
2. Reviewing Posts
Reviews on a blog post are what carry a site and help Google to trust it. Everything that we do for the website is strategic with the goal of getting more people to our site and to gain a better trust worthy score in the eyes of Google. Anytime you see a tasty look recipe on their site or a great guide to a town or make up tutorial, leave a review! Don’t just text them that it was great, actually leave a review on their physical website. It is SO helpful! Even if you didn’t fully read it or make the recipe, even a comment like “this looks great!” or “what a great resource, saving this for later!” means the world to us and is one of the most important things to help our business.
3. Scroll
Scrolling their website is another key way to help bloggers. For every person on our site, we make money. All you have to do is scroll the site and click around, between pages. If you really want to be awesome, you can close out of the website tab each time and open a new tab on their site each day for a couple of days. This is the ultimate way to have the perfect present last minute.
4. Share!
Any help sharing their website on your social media, with friends via text or word of mouth, or any other way you can share (podcast, newsletter, etc) is SO helpful and a great way to show your interest! This is sharing their actual website URL, not their social media.
5. Engage
Whether it be their newsletter, social media, or their website directly - engage! Any engagement we get is used to show brands that we are in fact legit and can produce content that our audience will be receptive too. This can be clicking through newsletter links, responding to the newsletter, responding or commenting on social media posts and stories, or leaving those reviews on their website.
6. Use Their Site
This might be obvious, but just the act of making use of our site means more than words can express to us. When we hear “I made this” or “I used your travel guide for”, our hearts skip a beat because a. We are terrified you didn’t like it and b. We are thrilled we created useful content. And then, almost more important - provide feedback! We NEED feedback to grow and succeed so providing constructive feedback is critical to our success. And be sure to share good feedback with friends and family!
Practical Things
No one likes to get just "stuff", so practical gifts are always a good call. These are all our favorite products we have in our home or in our office and use daily so they are sure to be useful!
1. Fuzzy Blanket
We do a lot of working on the computer either at a desk, at the dinning room table, or on the couch. No matter where, we usually either have blanket or wish we had one so a cozy blanket is always a safe bet. This basic one from Amazon is the perfect gift in our eyes, but you could always do something a little more plush like Barefoot Dreams. $12-$75
2. Candle
Again with the working from home thing, having a fun candle to light can really help change the mood when we’ve been staring at a computer screen for hours. Sometimes I like to pretend I’m at my favorite coffee shop where I got the candle from to help motivate me to knock out my to do list. I love the idea of these Homesick Candles to personalize it for anyone or go with any other local small businesses making candles! $30
3. Gift Cards For Working From Home Clothes
At this point, we all understand what WFH (Working From Home) attire is. Joggers or nice sweatpants, a cozy tee, and a cozy sweater or flannel. For bloggers, it’s nice when the clothes are nice enough to be worn out to coffee shops, still mobile enough for the random running around we do during shoots, and comfy enough for sitting on a computer for hours. Some favorite places of ours are:
- Lululemon
- Athleta
- Dicks
- Nike
- North Face
- Target
$25-$100
4. Ember Mug
If you have ever poured yourself a cup of coffee only for it to go cold because you got side tracked with a million other things, then the Ember Mug is a top pick for you and every blogger and parent out there. It is a temperature regulating coffee mug. Walk away for a bit? No worries! Your drink will still be warm when you get back with the help of this quality gift! $100-$200
5. Subscription For Their Business
Bloggers have a variety of subscriptions that help run the back end of the website. This includes subscriptions for photography and editing, video creation, newsletter processing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) software, task management software, graphic creation tools, and so much more. Any blogger would appreciate a gift card to any of these services or money specifically for that use. Just be sure to check which specific things your friend or family uses. Here are links to our most used services.
- Canva: the best of the best for making eye catching and informative graphics $13/month
- Inshot: for editing videos for the website and social media, only available as an app $15/year
- Lightroom or CaptureOne: the go to for editing photos $10/month or $24/month
- Keysearch: the best bang for your buck for keyword research $17/month
- Notion: my absolute favorite task management software - available as an app and on desktop $0-$8/month depending on the size of the team
6. Desk Gear
Who doesn’t love some good organization? Desk gear like a file cabinet, standing desk topper, cork board, calendar, pen and pencil tray, even pens and pencils (the good ones) etc is always a good idea! Just be sure it’s their style. I hate to say it, but is blogger typically have a very curated style so if you are not sure what their current desk set up looks like, an Office Max gift card may be a better option. Some of most used desk items are:
- Standing Desk Topper - a must for being able to stretch your legs while being in front a computer all day!
- Lap Desk - is perfect for taking your laptop from the bed to the couch and back!
- The Best Mechanical Pencils - these are seriously the best pencils. I don’t care how expensive they are, they are worth it (and that’s coming from an Engineer).
- InkJoy Colored Pens - another writing utensil I am very passionate about. These colored pens bring fun and joy through their smooth writing.
- Leather Desk Pad - this is like a coaster combined with a mouse pad. It covers the whole desk area to protect it from spills or water marks while acting as the perfect, smooth mouse pad.
$15-$75
7. Tech Gear
By nature, bloggers use a lot of tech. This could be extra long cables, tripods, tethers, portable desk, or blue light glasses. We’ve linked our favorites. Of course, you’re always better off asking if there’s something particular they keep finding themselves missing because these are more unique gift ideas (camera strap, way to cool their laptop, etc) before buying. Our most used gear is:
- Logitech Fox Mouse - can you tell I like to bring a little funk to my work? This mouse is fantastic quality and makes me smile everytime I see it.
- Bluelight Glasses - while there is no real scientific evidence that these do anything, I do mentally feel smarter when I wear them and swear I have less eye straining!
- Extension Cord - I can’t even count how many times we need an extension cord…
- Phone Tripod - a must for filming all of our short form videos. This one can be very tall and extends horizontally too!
$15-$50
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