As a blogger I simply cannot live without certain applications, tools, and plug-ins that not only help me blog better but also streamline many of the tasks I perform routinely. So I’ve decided to make a top ten list of my favorite blogging tools and share it with you.
I’m going to leave out some free tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, which quite probably are used more or less by every blogger out there.
Also note that I’m not sorting the tools in the order of their importance, as that would be impossible – they are all vital for me.
I’m going to start with what I think is the best browser out there. I make this claim based on Firefox’s speed, accessibility, and most importantly, on its thousands of free extensions, which no other browser can rival with. I use a lot of blogging add-ons with Firefox, such as the SeoBook toolbar to check and analyze other blogs, Firebug to improve my site’s speed, Today’s Reminders to make sure I do the important things, Google Toolbar and so many more.
2. CoffeeCup
I don’t know how many of you have heard of this great tool for editing a blog theme or viewing the source code of a certain Web page, but I recommend it to all bloggers who are not HTML or CSS experts. It helps me find what I’m looking for and it’s easy to use. I find the offerings of the free version more than enough for my needs.
3. Scribefire
This little Firefox tool gets its own entry here because it’s simply great. As a blogging add-on, it allows me to write for my blog directly from the browser. Because it made posting a lot easier for me, I warmly recommend it to any blogger who uses Firefox.
I don’t think many will disagree if I say that Google Analytics is the best free analytics tool you can get at the moment. I find it accessible and comprehensive and I cannot imagine how I could keep my diet blog without it. I think this is one of Google’s top achievements when it comes to free tools. It allows me to see how many visitors landed on i.e my Medifast coupon or Nutrisystem discount pages on a certain day, what keywords my site is ranking for, and an incredible amount of other important information for which other analytics companies charge an arm and a leg.
5. PollDaddy
Bloggers paying attention to free poll tools have a couple of websites they can pick from. During the last couple of years I’ve checked multiple, but I found none that was as accessible as PollDaddy. With it you can find exactly what you are looking for in just a couple minutes and also easily discover interesting new things to include in your future posts.
6. Skype
While I haven’t been a fan of Skype when it first came out, I’ve changed my opinion since then. Sure, it’s still far from being perfect, but it’s a lot better than many of the alternatives available out there. I use it often to chat with other bloggers and to carry phone conversations. I also find it great for interviews.
I’ve been trying out various RSS tools in the last few months but I could never really settle for one in particular. Even though some were great, there was always something missing. I loved Google Reader from the first moment I’ve tried it and since then I’m more aware of what’s happening in the blogosphere. I know some people who can’t stand it but I really can’t understand why.
8. Stock.xchng
I use a lot of photos for my blogs, which I often get from websites that offer free stock photos. This gives me the assurance that I don’t violate any copyrights. Of all these sites I use Stock.xchng the most because it features a diverse selection of quality photos, for free!
Far from being perfect, Google Alerts is a tool that allows me to view alerts in my email inbox. Even though I’m still looking for a better alternative I’ve decided to include it in this list because it has helped me on many occasions to find useful posts I would have otherwise missed.
10. WordPress
I wavered whether to list my favorite blogging platform or not but in the end I decided to do it because I’m not sure I would be an enthusiast blogger without it. It’s so flexible and it has such a terrific development community that I find it the ideal blogging platform. I especially consider it great because it’s gorgeous and it works perfectly for a personal blog. I also like the many plug-ins available and the integrated comments tools.
These are my ten favorite blogging tools -I would have a hard time running a blog without them. What about you? What are some of your favorite tools?
Matthew, I’m with you on about half of these suggestions, and the other half I haven’t tried yet, like PollDaddy.
I use Snarfer as a feed reader and have been quite happy with it. I know I initially tried Google Reader and wound up going with Snarfer, but I’m not saying that’s Google Reader’s fault. I was brand new to using RSS, and it could be I figured out how to use Snarfer a little quicker.
Hi John,
I did not know about Snarfer. I just checked it out. Looks cool!
Snarfer definitely does what I need it to do. It does freeze up occasionally, though.
I like what you wrote here. My browser of choice is Google chrome. It seems to be a little faster and more stable. I love the automatic translation feature when I visit websites written in other languages. The user interface seems cute, even Opera has imitated it.
Hi Tamiran,
Google Chrome is great. I have used it, too. And yes, it is stabler. Firefox crashes occasionally. My only problem with G. Chrome is that it does not support some of the plug ins that I use very often on Firefox. Thank you for your nice comment.
Hi Matthew,
I hear you on Skype, Google Reader and WordPress.
I could live without them but I would have to make significant changes to my internet marketing campaign if all 3 tools were taken away.
Skype is one of my key relationship building tools. It’s a wonderful platform to make connections with.
Google Reader is my newspaper. Since commenting plays a chief role in my marketing campaign good ole’ GR is one of my first stops each day.
WordPress is my blog platform of choice. Easy to navigate dashboard, functional plug-ins, and an overall positive user experience here.
Thanks for sharing your insight Matthew.
RB
Top notch. They are all great tools indeed and with the exception of ScribeFire (which I have used a lot in the past), the only one that I never used is CoffeCup. Maybe I’ll give a test run and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing, you reminded of ScribeFire which for some reason I abandoned a long time ago. Using Livewriter instead.
Haven’t used Livewriter yet. Will have to check it out. Maybe I will add it to my bag of tricks.
Hi DiTesco,
Livewriter is similar in some ways to ScribeFire. Thank you for your nice comment.
Excellent list of weapons for blogging, the only one I haven’t heard of is Coffee Cup.
Hi Matthew,
First, let me say thank you for bringing this great post to my attention. I’m all about quality content and this definitely is it!
Eager to check out Coffee Cup. Have not heard about it until now and I’m all about new toys to play with!
Hi Michele,
I learned about Coffee Cup recently. If you head over to http://www.coffeecup.com/software/ you will notice they have a bunch of free trial software downloads.
Your site and audience is great and thank you for allowing me to guest post!
Love the post
Let me go one by one:
1. complete FF addict
2. CoffeeCup addict, this tool actually makes it possible for me to make money, tried Dreamweaver, was too complicated
3. Have it installed, not using, cause still didn’t learn how, lol
4. Yeah, love it, a must use!
5. haven’t tried, definitely will after finishing the comment
6. yeah, love it…gonna be so bad to post my username brankica.u (hope you don’t mind)
7. ummmm, what?
8. my first photos on my first website came from there, hence – loving it
9. yes, using and loving it
10. started few months back, addicted
Well, as you can see I am an addict to many of these… You listed like the awesomest tools out there
Great job!!!
Hahaha … Brankica, your comment is very sweet. I love how you got to them one by one leaving a comment for each tool! I checked your site again, and you deserve congratulations. Some time ago your Alexa rank was 300K and now it is 117K, and you have only recently started blogging! How many visitors a day does this number correspond to, if I may ask? You must be very socially active. Nice clean site using Thesis Theme, one of my favorites.
Hi Matthew,
I like the way Brankica responded, so here’s my take:
1. Chrome is my browser of choice, never tried FF, probably never will
2. Thanks for the heads up on Coffee Cup, but how much is it?
3. I use this all the time. I’m a novice when it comes to code, so I use Scribefire to create widgets or short bio’s with clickable links. I did a video tutorial for it last year too.
4. GA is a must. I’ve been using it for about 7 years
5. I like the idea of giving my readers a poll, thanks for the reminder
6. I chatted on Skype this weekend with Gail from @GrowMap – it’s pretty sweet
7. I love everything Google
8. I’ve used stock.xchng in the past, but most of the time I use iStock
9. Check out YoLink – they can augment your Google Alerts with their YoLink Labs
10. WordPress is tops for self-hosted blogs. When it comes to free blogging platforms, Amplify is my choice. I like it over Blogger, Tumblr and Posterous. The only downside it that Amplify doesn’t seem to work with Scribefire. Maybe I should take DiTesco’s advice and try Amplify with Windows LiveWriter. hmmm…
Thanks for the post Matthew, very inspiring!
Hi Illeane,
Thanks for letting us know about YoLink! Going to check it out. Always love hearing about new “toys” to play with.
Michele,
I found out about PostPost for Facebook and how to use the YoLink search, I checked out YoLink Labs and found a bunch of goodies like job searches with InDeed, enhanced searches for Yahoo and Scribd too. Here’s the link http://www.yolink.com/yolink/labs/
Sweet! Girl you are good!! Thanks for the link… love it.
Ileane, thank you for your recomendation!
Michele, glad to hear you’re digging yolink and PostPost. If you’re interested, yolink technology can also be layered over blog search to give your readers expanded, keyword-rich results.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Thank you!
Hi Bobby,
Great to know. Will definitely be looking into this more thoroughly over the weekend.
Hi Ileane,
I use istockphoto to buy photos, too. But unlike stock.xchng, it does not offer any free photos. Thank you for you comment!
Matthew, don’t tell anyone, because it’s my little secret. (iStock gives you about 6 free images every month).
Heck! I have spent more than $200 on istock photo and never took notice of this. Ileane, how do you get the freebies? Can you select the free images you want or are they pre-determined?
Sign up for the email updates – check the footer of the emails for links to the predetermined free images.
I see me and you use many of the same tools for blogging. However, there are a few here that haven’t heard of yet, and I’m going to try them all out. Out of your list I think WordPress is my favorite blogging tool. Thanks for sharing Matthew I learned a lot.
Thanks for stopping by John. Indeed, WordPress rocks!
Well Hello there Michele,
Need I say what a helpful list you’ve made for us here? Thank you
!
Okay, so I’ve decided to copy what Brankica and Ileane did and go through these one by one.
1. Love FireFox – although lately I’ve also been using Chrome a lot.
2. Never used it – but it’s now open in my tabs
3. Scribefire – I have it – but I should use it more often.
4. Amazing tool – but I feel the numbers are usually lower than other analytic tools – plus the real time issue. Other than that – by far the best free analytical tool out there.
5. Oddly enough – I just installed the plugin yesterday and had some fun trying it out – loved it!
6. It’s starting to grow on me – from almost never using it – to using almost everyday recently for conferences with international clients – although because of my lame-ass connection – the delay time is sometimes a killer – but not their fault lol.
7. Everyday I say that I’m gonna’ use this more often – I’m saying it again now cause I really don’t why I don’t
.
8. I go through it often – but used any of the images yet – I will most though!
9. Much like it’s sister Reader – I should really pay some more attention to this.
10. Ummm. would saying “I love you WP” be inappropriate here? LOL
Nice little roundup Michele. And thanks for the few reminders!
Have a great week.
Cheers
Hey Ingrid,
Well I wish I could take credit for this lovely post, but it was my guest poster Matthew. He did a great job, didn’t he?
Anyway, thank you for the awesome response. I love how the ladies have taken the time to comment about each tool… so awesome!!
Have a wonderful week my dear and as always, great hearing from ya.
Oh My Michele,
My apologies to Matthew for missing that
. My bad.
Matthew – that comment up above – yeah, that was me – and it was for you (and Michele of course lol).
Thanks for sharing those helpful tools – and once again – so sorry about not addressing my comment to you the first time round.
Cheers
Hi Ingrid,
hahaha, no need to apologize my dear. Thank you for your great comment!
If you’re a fan of Firefox AND social networking, yopu need to test the Flock browser…best of both worlds.
Lovely! Thanks for the recommendation Dennis. DiTesco turned me on to Rockmelt not too long ago; sounds like this is similar. Will definitely check it out!
Talk soon.
Indeed, Rockmelt is trying to overtake Flock.
I always love getting the inside scoop.
Installed Flock yesterday… really like it! Crazy, now I have FF, Flock, TweetDeck, & FeedDemon all opened at the same time. Think my brain might pop…LOL
The reason I like Flock: It IS Firefox, the same people, they just added all sorts of social media stuff.
Thats one great list you got there my friend. Ive been meaning to try scribefire…thnx for the reminder
Hello Matthew and Michele!
Great list of toys. Like several others, I’ve used them all except CoffeeCup. Where’s that thing been hiding.
Maybe it’s because I don’t drink coffee.
Firefox remains an awesome browser, but it’s my secondary now. I’ve been Chroming it up for sometime, seems much faster. But FF remains a great tool. I agree about the add-on, I use the SEO toolbar and Firebug as well. However, I’ve found that it would slow considerably and become unstable with too many add-ons. Still a winner though.
Google Alerts is my 24/7 detective and researcher. Always on duty, what a great tool.
Good stuff, all. I’ll have to check out that coffee.
Hey Jimmi,
that’s a problem with Firefox, indeed. It is a little unstable and crashes from time to time. Thank you for stopping by!
My essentials are:
Growmap Anti-Spam Plugin, Filezilla, Mozilla Firefox, Dragon Naturally Speaking, My blog and my email.
I have most of what you’ve listed and like you, I rely on these programs. I don’t have PollDaddy, Skype, or Google Alerts. Instead, I have a survey plugin for my WP blog and Thunderbird (Mozilla) which also included an effective calendar.
Good list post.
Great post Michelle! I personally use Google Chrome as a browser but to each there own Firefox is great too. But what you say about Google Analytics is so true. Why do other companies bother charging for the same types of services and why are bloggers willing to actually pay for them?
Great post Michelle! I personally use Google Chrome as a browser but to each there own Firefox is great too. But what you say about Google Analytics is so true. Why do other companies bother charging for the same types of services and why are bloggers willing to actually pay for them?
Hi Kalen,
Great to see you’ve stopped by! Wish I can take credit for this post, but it was my lovely guest poster, Matthew. Anyway, it’s amazing what services you can get for free if you are really willing to do a bit of research.
Hope to see you again soon!
I feel very weak during the day…due to which cant concentrate in college lass..leads to frustration and lack of confidence. i am physical ok..but mentally unprepared..what should i do?? sometimes i feel like throwing books away and kick my works in the dustbin….please help
Ha ha.. I swear by Google Chrome when it comes to browsers. The new Rockmelt broswer that’s making waves right now is also pretty good, helps me keep up with all my social media profiles!
SEOQuake is a good option that goes along with Chrome, and it helps in analyzing every blog intricately. Google Analytics is something that I can’t live without, though, it’s helped me a lot in locating my target audience and where all my traffic is coming from.
I’m with you on Google Analytics…. love it! And the fact that it’s a free service, it’s just icing on the cake.
I am using quite a few tools from your list
Maybe that means I am on the right track. Something I am still trying to wrap my head around in StumbleUpon. I have another blog and recently started using it there. I use Statcounter and it shows that quite a few visitors have started coming from there. Most people add the little Tweet/FB buttons, so adding one more surly can’t hurt I think.
Some great suggestions. I use Coffeecup’s Pixconverter. Although not free, it’s a great tool for bulk changes on images.
sxc.hu is seriously fantastic. Wow, what a service.
I wanna throw a spanner in the works though. I’m about to throw WordPress in the bin. It frustrates me a lot. Yes, it’s easy to use. Yes, the templates are great. Yes, plugins abound. The thing is, (I think) what makes it strong, is also what makes it weak.
I think I’ll be scaling down to sNews CMS. It’s not nearly as powerful as WordPress (at this stage), but it’s simple. It forces you to focus on content.
Great post. Thanks.
Hi John,
Never heard of sNews. Will be sure to check it out. Thanks for sharing a suggestion. All the best.
Don’t expect it to be as powerful as WordPress. It doesn’t come close. However, I can get a design to look exactly like I want it to with Snews; that’s something I can’t do with WordPress. Snews performs good in SEO too. Very good.
Hi John,
I don’t personally plan on changing… I’m a WordPress groupie.
However, I love being knowledgeable about other platforms so I can keep clients well informed on their options.
Thanks again!
I had found a great services to improve Alexa rank for your site, you should check out http://www.alexage.com
They brought my site to Alexa’s top 50K in less than 90 days
Hey Michele
Great list of top tools for any blogger to have and some great ideas from people commenting.
My little black book of essentail tools is filling up.
I use the GIMP app for my graphics etc and use Filezilla for my FTP app.
Thanks again
Zahid
I agree with the top 10, but I don’t use Coffecup, I use Dreamweaver.
The designers have added a safety bar that locks the machine into an “open” or “closed” position. This feature paired with the nylon strap ensures that the bike stays in the position it was intended to for proper use. I like the added confidence these points offer. When in the locked “closed” position the machine can be moved and stored easily thanks to the addition of wheels on the base support.
All in all, this is a great idea that really has been improved. And you will get a workout. I always work up a sweat and raise my heart rate. And now, with the timer/calorie counter/speed/distance monitor, I have a better idea of just how much physical activity I am doing. In fact, I find it easier to work out on my Fitdesk bike than jogging, because I can distract myself into working out longer by using my laptop. I can easily work out for an hour on the Fitdesk bike, while I find myself counting down the minutes of my jogs.