This post is a little summary of the tools I have been using, and planning on using, in 2010.
Please participate and tell us what are the tools and plugins you find useful to manage your blogging life.
I can’t believe it has been three years since I first started blogging!
Very fresh in my mind is the daunting and unfamiliar Blogger dashboard – the nerves releasing as I pressed publish the very very first time… 3 years on I am still blogging, even though I have found it increasingly difficult to make a space for it in my working/family balance. Posterous , the very smart on the go blogging platform, has simply been the best find for me in 2009. I will no doubt carry on using it through 2010.
It enables me to forget about the formatting aspect of blogging altogether as well as feeding other online accounts.
Some might think that it is duplicating content but I have found that many people that follow me on Facebook don’t necessarily read my blog, nor visit my Flickr account.
The fact that I can simply email my post from my computer or mobile means I can now blog in a quicker and more spontaneous manner.
The draw back is that I have to remember to manually tag my wordpress blog.
Another tool I have been impressed with is: www.linkwithin.com . This widget is discreet and shows old posts related to the latest one: it works very well, especially with visual blogs.
I also recently added the firefox extension CoLT for easier copy of hyperlinks and cannot do without Google docs.
I am intrigued by CommentLuv if anyone has used this plugin I would like to hear some feedback on it.
I am also considering using the Popularity Contest plugin…
What about you? What are your favourite tools? Tell us why and share with the rest of the fuelmyblog community!
That’s my techie bit over and done with. A word of warning – I am no boffin, just a regular girl who stumbled across blogging. I praise the boffins who are making blogging and online socializing everyday that little bit easier.
Happy Blogging!
Hi. Just finished your blog posting about…blog postings! I’ve only been blogging for about a year and have loved every minute of it. And I agree it’s getting easier to network but honestly…there are a few things you mentioned that are still somewhat like a foreign language to me. But maybe in 3 years I’ll know all the nifty lingo, too!
The main thing is to enjoy blogging which you clearly are, do update us if there are tools you have discovered along your blogging journey
There are way too many tools around. Just find the ones that are useful to you ….. and KEEP THINGS SIMPLE.
Sylvie is right [did I just say that?... must be slipping up], enjoy the blogging experience ……. and remember, content is king …… which is why I’m a poor yet contented peasant ………
CommentLuv is cool. Great plugin that can be activated or deactivated, rather than the theme being changed directly.
I deployed it at one point on a Wordpress install. On one theme it did the same thing as I’ve seen on other blogs using it.
On one theme with a very specific and different layout, it was a fail.
The best thing for a blogger to do is ‘try’ something, if they know how to reverse it if needed.
CommentLuv is a comfortable enough a plugin I’d recommend to anyone.
…I just suck at hacking themes to know how to get it to work in mine. *BONK BONK BONK*
I’m still looking for the ‘get people to massage your feet’ plugin.
Thanks for the feedback on CommentLuv John I will test it out on my personal blog and update my take on it when done
CommentLuv and Popularity Contest are very good. I like how I can produce “top 50″ page with Popularity Contest.
I also like the website and task management service “Remember the Milk.” It has totallt enabled me to do more and make more cash at my blogging work because of organization.
There are quite a few plugins I find useful If I had to list my top 5 I suppose they’d be:
1) Platinum SEO Pack (Excellent way to control the way your blog is seen by the search engines and browsers)
2) Sideblog Wordpress Plugin (Really cool way to place excerpts of your posts or shorts asides as latest news in the templates or sidebar)
3) In Series (allows you to connect posts in a series with a table of contents)
4) Automatic Tag Link (Ideal for Adsense trigger keywords)
5) Twitterlink Comments
I can’t stress the “organization” piece enough (with regards to myself). Have a great new year with your blog.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/popularity-contest/
That’ s an interesting one Damien, thank you for sharing.
will try it out thanks John.