When I first started out blogging I barely even knew what a blog was yet I stepped up to the podium and successfully installed my first WordPress blog and started creating a blog. Of course in the beginning I had no idea what I was doing and that blog is long gone into the blog graveyard.
That was around late 2008 and since then I’ve spent a lot of time improving my blogging skills and knowledge which has now eventually given me the knowledge to help others have successful blogs too. With being a geek and a techie it has meant that along the way I’ve searched high and low for tech and gadgets to help make blogging easier and now I’m here to share some tools and resources that are extremely powerful for each and every blogger.
1. An RSS Reader
Any advanced bloggers will already know that an RSS reader is a must for your every day needs to ensure you can stay on top of the latest trends in your niche so you can then easily blog about them. There are online versions such as Google reader and desktop versions such Snarfer. Personally I prefer a desktop reader however you may find a different taste.
2. Scribefire for Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome
Scribefire is what I’m currently using to create this post for Famous Bloggers. It’s a browser addon that’s available for either Firefox or Chrome that enables you to create a post wihtout logging into your blog. What this means for bloggers is that realying information from another source is made extremely easy as you don’t have to switch between tabs from your writing pane to your browser Window. Though I do believe the Chrome & Safari version still haven’t got split pane writing mode so you’re probably best off using Firefox and its version.
3. Zemanta
This is a really handy addon for Firefox and other browsers or can be found as a plugin for your blog depending on what blogging software you use. What you can do with this is easily add relevant links, images or tags to your post at the click of a button. I don’t think any blogger should be without Zemanta or a similar featured product.
4. Clippings or similar browser addon
When blogging you’ll probably have snippets of text or code that you regularly add to certain blog posts and instead of having to remember them all you can use a browser addon such as Clippings which enables you to save your snippets of text for easy insertion when you need them.
5. Screen Capture / Image Grabber / Video Downloader
There’s nothing more tedious than having to take a standard screenshot then use some software to cut the screenshot to to the desired size. it’s the same for when you need to download a web video for use later so having some browser addons for these tasks are important. There are many of these to choose from and in my case I use Screen Capture Elite and Video DownloadHelper.
6 Password Manager
As a blogger or even just a user of the Internet you’re going to need a lot of login deatils. To save time with managing and logging into your accounts you can use a password manager such as Roboform or a variety of free alternatives.
Out of all the software I use to improve my blogging experience these are the most worth mentioning and if you also have some nifty tools that are useful to bloggers you can always pop down to the comment section and discuss.