What Blogging Tools Do You Use?
May 19, 2008
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I think that everyone has specific tools that they feel allow them to blog more effectively, and I’m interested in hearing what BloggingNotes readers use when they do their blogging.
While some of the tools that I use aren’t specifically related to blogging, they still allow me to be more productive whenever I’m writing. This will become more clear later in the post.
- Windows Live Writer - I’m sorry, Wordpress. I’ve tried for the longest time to get into using the admin interface for writing posts, but I just can’t do it. If you’ve never tried using WLW, please do yourself a favour and download it. It’s worth it, and while there a lot more plugins than *useful* plugins, there are some real jewels available, which I’ll cover in my next post. Don’t let the fact that this is a Microsoft product dissuade you, either. This is something that Microsoft has done right. Very right.
- del.icio.us - *the* bookmarking utility. I don’t even use the bookmarks feature in Firefox anymore. I can save any bookmarks that I need, and call them up from anywhere. Stuff that I think BloggingNotes readers would find interesting or helpful get tagged accordingly and appear under the <a href=”http://del.icio.us/rtdn/blogging”>Blogging Bookmarks on del.icio.us</a> heading in the sidebar. In fact, if there’s a link you think should be included, save it to your del.icio.us feed and tag it for:rtdn and then I’ll see it.
- Flickr - I don’t post a whole lot of images here on BloggingNotes, but I certainly do on my other blogs, and the Add from Flickr plugin in WLW makes it easy to select photos for inclusion and resizing in my posts. I’ll be covering this one in a bit.
- A blogging notebook - while this one isn’t always specifically a notebook, all bloggers should have a place to record ideas for current or future posts. I’ve used Moleskine notebooks, Google Docs, and my current choice is my Palm Zire. Whenever I get an idea for a post it gets written down and reviewed at least a couple of times per week. I might not have the details of a post worked out when I write it down, but getting rough ideas down will at least allow you to come back to them at some point when they might be more relevant.
And that’s about it for what I use. Nothing earth shattering for sure, but I’ve found that these tools allow me to be most effective in getting my blogging done.
But I’d really like to hear what BloggingNotes users are using to get their writing done. I’m almost certain that there’ll be something in there that I wind up trying and maybe even using for the long run.
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May 19th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I don’t even use WordPress - I use Majestic, which is my own CMS. Does the job nicely!
May 20th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Ben - Thanks for the comment. I just checked out Majestic and it looks quite interesting with all the features that are included.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:05 am
There are a few programs similar to WLW and I will be checking them all out.
As for post ideas and so forth, I always put them right into WP under draft mode…that way they are right there in font of me at all times.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..You Have Spoken - I Have Listened. We Will Have Us An All-In-One Blog Again.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Dennis - I’d love to see a review of apps that are similar to WLW.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Absolutely. I don’t know when, but I surely will
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..You Have Spoken - I Have Listened. We Will Have Us An All-In-One Blog Again.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 am
I use google’s Adword Keyword Tool to help me optimize the keywords in my blog posts. Does anyone else use that?
Craig’s last blog post..Air Travel Gadgets
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I hadn’t heard of WLW before, so I downloaded it and gave it a try. While I agree that the WP admin write screen is a little cumbersome, I still really like having all my blog control features in one dashboard. I always seem to be fiddling with things. I’m just not sure I could get used to having to flip back and forth between WLW and firefox. Unless I’m missing something.
Top Rated’s last blog post..My Six Word Memoir