Written on March 13th, 2007 at 08:03 am by Darren Rowse
What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools?
If you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why?
I’m asking this because I want to put together a short list of recommendations on blog tools for a presentation I’m doing in a couple of weeks time.
By Blog Tools I am speaking pretty broadly and include:
- Blog Platforms
- Desktop Publishers
- Metrics Packages
- Promotional Tools
- Content Sourcing Services
- Design Tools
Basically anything that might help you to blog better (but not advertising networks).
Looking forward to your suggestions.
139 Responses to “What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools?” - Add Yours
45n5
March 13th, 2007 8:28 am
1. dual monitors
2. firefox spellcheck
3. html kit (for coding blogs/ template manipulation) ;-)
4. macromedia fireworks (for graphic and photo editing)
5. my feedreader (sharpreader) for keeping up with conversations
Ian McKenzie
March 13th, 2007 8:42 am
Darren, I’ve got all my blogs running Wordpress, I use BlogJet for Windows as my desktop blogging client. I’ve been tied to Sitemeter for years now, though I have recently added 103Bees to my metric mix along with Google Analytics. As for promotional tools, Problogger.net is my resource for self-promotion and I really haven’t tried other methods.
Simone
March 13th, 2007 8:44 am
Subtext to manage my blog
Window Live Writer to write posts
Feedburnes, RSS stats and now site stats
Google analytics to collect stats (more detailed view and better analysis)
DotNetKicks to promote what I think are my best post
Marcin
March 13th, 2007 8:45 am
Here’s my list of essentials:
a) Drupal for its flexiblity – it can be used as a blog, a fully-fledged CMS; one installation can drive multiple sites; there are dozens of fabulous modules which add functionality.
b) Firefox for the number of extremely useful extensions, but specifically the Performancing blog editor.
c) Nichebot for any keyword reserach tasks – I like the ability to quickly compare results from different sources and it’s pricing model is just right for me
d) Google Analytics – it’s free and you can’t beat that. It offers a lot of data, including the overlay view. It integrates easily with Drupal
e) GreatNews as the RSS reader. Yes, a desktop reader :-) I recently switched from Google Reader to GreatNews. You can’t beat its speed. Besides, I like having a local copy of all posts from all feeds for research purposes. I have close to 1000 feeds now and GreatNews immediately returns results for any of my searches. So, for sourcing content, this has been my best productivity boosters recently.
f) In terms of design, I really enjoy the new kuler color application by Adobe – finally, even I am able to come up with some decent color schemes.
g) Evernote – my trusted database for all reference materials. Somehow, it really inspires my creativity when I can scroll a tape of all snippets that I collect while browsing the web.
h) This is my latest hack – I really rediscovered mind-mapping (there are many options). I somehow tend to get content ideas in the least expected moments and then I quickly forget about them if I don’t jot them down immediately. Now I have my mind-mapping software always running in the background. I have several maps – one for each blog. When I have an idea, I immediately place in the map. Then, whenever I have the time to write a post, I just open this map and I lose no time pondering what to write about. I would say it has increased my productivity by a factor of three. BTW, mind-maps can be easily done on paper, no software tools required.
Marcin
March 13th, 2007 8:48 am
One final note – I somehow missed that you mentioned just 5 tools :-) Well, just drop points g and h from the list :-)
Adam
March 13th, 2007 8:52 am
1: Wordpress, since I am most familiar with it.
2) Firefox 2.0+, because of the auto-spell check (I can’t spell some words to save my life) and the Web Developer extension for editing themes and tracking down CSS problems.
C. A Wordpress extension that allows me to put PHP directly into the body of a post.
IV: XAMPP, or, more precisely, Apache, MySQL, and PHP separately, since I prefer to set them up and deploy them myself… Since I can only have one tool on each line, I’ll take the combined tool, so that I can play with things on a development server, rather than making changes to the live server.
Five) An RSS reader, to troubleshoot my own feed, and to keep track of the sites (like this one) that give out such great information.
Everything else, while desirable, is also optional.
Ryan McDonnell
March 13th, 2007 8:53 am
I introduce small companies and individuals to the world of blogging and try to get them up and running with the goal of them handling everything once they get on their feet. My clients have responded best to following:
- Wordpress
- Windows Live Writer
- Feedburner
- Google Analytics and 103bees
All in all, those tools seem to have the shortest learning curve and can help blogging newbies get going as quickly as possible.
Andrew Ferguson
March 13th, 2007 8:55 am
Wordpress – Couldn’t live without it! It is the giant sea turtle that the magical city that is my blog rides on.
Flickr – I use creative commons search regularly to find interesting photos.
Google Reader – I get a lot of ideas and content for linkdumps through my feedreader.
iTunes – I can’t write without music
Feedburner – RSS feeds are important!
I’d be annoyed without them, but I have no real *need* for any metrics package. I’m not at a state where I’m monetizing my blog yet, so I don’t feel they’re too relevant beyond ‘whee look at how interweb popular i am’
Timen
March 13th, 2007 8:58 am
Hey Darren,
I’ll list five plugins for my WordPress installation that I can’t do without.
The first is Akismet. in my All Stars is still a small blog, but Akismet has already proven to be one of the best additions, and I can only see it become better as my blog grows (along with the spam). It comes with WordPress, so there is no need to worry about installations and upgrades.
Next there’s Exec-PHP. This nifty guy lets me run PHP in my posts. This is really handy for when I want to run an include or something along those lines. More at: http://bluesome.net/
Then there’s Full Text Feed. Darren, I agree with you on the whole full-text feed thing. Full-texts are great for readers, and we’re blogging for our readers (I hope). But I also like having the “keeping reading…” on most of my articles. This one lets me do that. More at: http://cavemonkey50.com/
Related Posts is next. This guy is really a handy plugin which, as the names says, provides readers with related entries on your blog. I don’t have so much content yet, so sometimes the entries aren’t really related. But I can see this plugin become more accurate and useful as my blog grows. More at: http://wasabi.pbwiki.com/Related%20Entries
Finally there’s Sideblog Wordpress Plugin. This nice little plugin lets me run the asides section of my blog. I love it because every aside is a real post, and posts (no matter how short) always attracts more traffic. That said, I’ll naturally only post things in my asides that I find truly relevant/useful, but it definitely is something every blog could try out. More at: http://katesgasis.com/
Robin Wauters
March 13th, 2007 9:02 am
Wordpress and Typepad (I use and appreciate both)
Flock
FeedBurner + Sitemeter
MyBlogLog
Twango for audio, video & photo inserts
Dragos Roua
March 13th, 2007 9:04 am
Blogging platform: wordpress
Blogging measurement and promotion: feedburner
pluses for feed burner:
+feedflare is a unified platform for pomoting and also opened,
+recently they started their own networking process by gathering together blogs on different thematics
103bees.com to analyse visitors statistics (much simpler than analytics)
Vienna (on Mac) as feed reader (I consider the part of being informed very important in the blogging process, you must know what’s going on in your field, at least for not repeating someone, if not for being creative)
I don’t know if this fits your requirement, but I also follow pretty closely some of the memes on the net that I find interesting (like the last 2kbloggers.com stuff). Not all are ok, most of them are really crap, but some of them are just interesting ways of enlarging your network and vision.
hth…
engtech
March 13th, 2007 9:07 am
writing:
microsoft word, wordpress
images:
adobe photoshop, adobe illustrator, infranview, mspaint, photobucket
sources:
google reader, popurls, google search
music:
last.fm, itunes, winamp
Daniel Scocco
March 13th, 2007 9:12 am
1. wordpress
2. feedburner
3. microsoft word
4. photoshop
5. bloglines
fcodc
March 13th, 2007 9:12 am
Only five? Then I’d have to say…
WordPress: the core of everything, of course.
TextMate: everything I write (code, text, etc) comes out of here one way or the other.
YummyFTP: for accessing my server stuff.
ImageWell: for editing the images.
FeedBurner: for the feeds, ’nuff said.
I have the full list of what apps I use over at the guides section of my blog.
Rory
March 13th, 2007 9:13 am
1. Wordpress.
2. Notepad – Virtual and real world. I’d be lost without a notepad to carry around. I think it is an essential blogging tool. I have my best ideas nowhere near a computer.
3. Paint.NET for photo manipulation.
4. FileZilla, surely. I’m not sure whether it counts. Maybe an FTP client was a given…
5. Audacity. Now that I’ve started to try my hand at audioposts, I’d say this was a top five essential blogging tool for me.
Andrew Flusche
March 13th, 2007 9:17 am
WordPress
FeedBurner (RSS and stats)
GIMP (free image editor)
Yotophoto.com (finding images for posts)
AutoHotkey (hotstrings make markup easy!)
Ralph Dagza
March 13th, 2007 9:17 am
Wordpress and Mint
Bill
March 13th, 2007 9:22 am
I don’t use a Desktop Publisher mostly because I do all my blogging directly through WordPress.
I used SiteMeter almost exclusively until last week. What happened? One of SiteMeter’s servers started experiencing difficulties. Five days later I’m still recording 0 hits and not a single visitor since the problem started. Three days ago they said my data was being recorded but not displayed… that’s all the communication they offered. I’m now 100% about Analytics.
I don’t use anything really for Content Sourcing or Promotional Tools but I’d be helpless without GIMP (the open source image editor) and NotePad++. I use NotePad++ for all my programming and GIMP for image editing.
I also find Technorati and Feedburner to be priceless. I mean … who doesn’t use Feedburner?
I also recommend TechCrunch, Lifehacker, the default WordPress Feeds (available in the WordPress Dashboard) and -surprise- Problogger for must have reads. If you’ve ever got Blogger’s Block there will be something in there that will get you writing again.
Mike Panic
March 13th, 2007 9:24 am
1. WordPress
2. MS Word
3. FeedBurner
4. FireFTP (Firefox FTP extension)
5. iStockphoto.com / sxc.hu (stock photo sites) & Photoshop CS2 for manipulations
Sean
March 13th, 2007 9:29 am
1. Wordpress
2. Ecto
3. Vienna RSS
4. Dreamweaver
5. AWStats
Cory OBrien
March 13th, 2007 9:33 am
1. Wordpress
2. Mint
3. FeedBurner
4. Apple’s print screen feature
5. Transmit
Cory OBrien
March 13th, 2007 9:34 am
Forgot this one (and it’s very important):
6. NetNewsWire
Andy Merrett
March 13th, 2007 9:36 am
Tough call
1. Wordpress
2. Google Reader
3. Sourcewire.com
4. GraphicConverter X
5. Typinator
Could probably do a decent enough job with that, presuming that general OS stuff is a given.
Rhea
March 13th, 2007 9:37 am
Wordpress
Bloglines RSS reader
Google Analytics
Feedburner subscription thingy
Technorati
Peter Andersen
March 13th, 2007 9:43 am
As a budding multimedia-designer student freshly started in the world of blogging, I would have to say that the following have high priority for me
1. Wordpress – Not much to say about that. My preferred at the moment.
2. Bloglines – Excellent and invaluable for keeping all those feeds in order.
3. Photoshop – What can I say, I’m a graphics geek.
4. Php Designer personal edition – For editing anything really.
5. Moleskine pocket book. – For all those ideas that I get in the strangest of places.
jhay
March 13th, 2007 10:01 am
Here’s the tools I use:
WordPress of course for the blogging software.
DarkRoom for writing posts
Flickr/Photobucket for photo resources
Google Reader for RSS needs and content sourcing
Imagecave and zooomr to host images
there’s a lot more. But I guess I’ll just write a post about them instead. :D
Licorne
March 13th, 2007 10:03 am
1. wordpress – I like running it to the ground to do what I want, which it does. Usually.
2. Editpad – I find it easy to edit my codes and programming stuff with it.
3. adobe photoshop – can’t live without it.
4. google search – a veritable source of (sometimes unusual) information
5. RSS – couldn’t even be her without it
Michael
March 13th, 2007 10:12 am
Here we go . . .
1. Wordpress (although I do use TypePad for one of my sites)
2. Ecto
3. Vienna RSS
4. Photoshop
5. And of course, my Mac itself
I use a few different things on and off, like iPhoto for image storage and iTunes to keep me going. But those are the main ones.
TheBizofKnowledge
March 13th, 2007 10:18 am
The 100 Most Prolific Bloggers…
There is a time and a place to argue about what prolific means and what should be the criteria for being on this list. That place is here. The link will also tell you how to get on the……
Shawn
March 13th, 2007 10:22 am
* Wordpress for life (and my platform)
* Windows Live Writer for publishing
* Slimstat for metric (for now)
* OnlyWire for promotion
* Google Reader for content sourcing
* Photoshop CS for design (mostly graphics; no need for HTML/CSS/PHP coding yet)
Dave Starr
March 13th, 2007 10:29 am
1. Wordpress
2. Microsoft Live Writer (_not_ just for My Spaces)
3. Bloglines
4. FileZilla (absolutely great for overseas, “iffy” Internet connections
5. AWStats (free from the webhost). All “plug the code into Wordpress” statistics packages, and MyBlogLog, mebo, etc., etc. add delay. use them is you like but remeber they have acost to your readers.
Sebbi
March 13th, 2007 10:37 am
My favorite tools are:
- Wordpress (obviously)
- Blogdesk (handles posting just fine and supports some basic image manipulation)
- Photoshop (for the images)
- UltraEdit (editing templates, everything)
- Google Reader (primary source of everything interesting)
Kat Jacobs
March 13th, 2007 10:46 am
1. Expression Engine – a crazy powerful and versatile blogging platform.
2. OmniOutliner – this is where my post ideas form
3. StatCounter/Mint/Google Analytics
4. Transmit FTP
5. Vienna RSS Reader
The Bargain Queen
March 13th, 2007 10:50 am
My five:
* Wordpress
* Akismet
* AWStats
* Google AdWords keyword tool
* iStockPhoto (+ Fireworks + FTP, but I have those anyway)
I could keep the site running effectively with just those, but it would hurt to lose some of the other plugins!
Cat Laine
March 13th, 2007 10:58 am
Wordpress
Mybloglog
Google Reader
Technorati
Akismet
Scott
March 13th, 2007 11:00 am
* Blog Platforms
Wordpress
* Desktop Publishers
Notepad
* Metrics Packages
BA Stats, Google Analytics, MyBlogLog stats, HitTail
* Promotional Tools
Adwords, Ultimate Tag Warrior, Related Posts, Bookmark Me
* Content Sourcing Services
Bloglines
* Design Tools
Firefox Web Dev. plugin, Inkspot, The Gimp
Other: FileZilla
Scott
March 13th, 2007 11:03 am
Ok I screwed that up. Here’s my list of 5 apps I couldn’t live without..
1. Wordpress
2. BA Stats
3. Google Analytics
4. JetAudio (for music)
5. Notepad
Armen
March 13th, 2007 11:52 am
In no particular order, but all necessary -
Wordpress
Photoshop
Statcounter
Windows Live Writer
Filezilla
And I’ll just throw in the fact that my laptop of course is the most necessary of all.
Teej
March 13th, 2007 11:57 am
platform: WordPress
blogging client: Ecto
rss: NewsFire
browser: Safari
content automation: AppleScript/Automator
*If the Flock browser added just one or two more features i’d be able to work 100% from within Flock.
Hollywood Headache
March 13th, 2007 12:12 pm
1.Wordpress
2.photoshop
3.firefox
4.””
5.my fiance!
Dave
March 13th, 2007 12:22 pm
- Wordpress
- Don’t use desktop publishers
- Google Analytics all the way, except with all this 103bees talk, I may have to look into that
- Google Reader
- Photoshop
- Win32Pad: a beefed up notepad
darrenh
March 13th, 2007 12:29 pm
1.) Quite obviously this marks me as different in this group, but my only current blog uses Blogger. (I want to start more and figure I’ll go with Wordpress then).
2.) Google News
3.) morgueFIle.com — for images. SInce discovering this site, almost every post I make has an image of some sort.
4.) Google analytics.
5) Vizu — for polls.
Aaron Bailey
March 13th, 2007 12:42 pm
1. MovableType (allows me to quickly deploy new blogs without installing another copy of WordPress)
2. Newsgator/NetNewsWire (feed reading)
3. Fireworks (image creation)
4. Google Apps (email)
5. Mint (metrics)
Mike Schinkel
March 13th, 2007 12:46 pm
Without sitting down to think through a top five list, one tool shines as being overwhelmingly useful: Windows Live Writer. Clearly it’s not perfect, but it’s way ahead of any other solution I’ve found. BTW, I use it with WordPress, not Live Spaces or whatever Microsoft blogs are called.
Randy Bryan
March 13th, 2007 12:55 pm
Serendipity Blogging Software – easy easy easy
Feedburner for RSS, tons of great tools
Feedblitz for Subscriber Email List, integrates well with feedburner
Jeff
March 13th, 2007 1:11 pm
1. Wordpress. I’ve tried blogger and typepad, and I like WP the best
2. AddThis.com. Simple, one-click buttons for bookmarking and feed subscription
3. Feedburner. Easy to publish, measure, add social functions, etc. to my feeds.
4. Bunny’s Technorati Tags. Lets me add technorati tags by typing them in, not by copying and pasting code
5. Google Reader. Lets me organize all my feeds that supply me with info and topics to blog about.
http://averageidea.com
Binny V A
March 13th, 2007 1:22 pm
Platforms – I use both Blogger and Wordpress platforms.
Clients – I prefer to create the content in my HTML Editor(Quanta Plus) and paste it into the Web interface of blogger. For shorter stuff, I use Scribe Fire(Performancing)
Metrics Packages – Google Analytics and FeedBurner.
Ramen Junkie
March 13th, 2007 1:22 pm
Flickr. I love flickr for hosting original images for my blog. I can get some good ross linking going too between reviews and flickr images. I stick with Photobucket for non-original photos but I make an effor to provide my own photos for my blog.
On a somewhat related note, my camera. I don’t photoblog nessesarily, nor do I push the photos as the main content but I like to use original photos at the top of all my posts. Mostly because original photos are well, original. It’s not something you’re going to have seen before.
ilker
March 13th, 2007 1:55 pm
I will make a post about this on my blog.. a lot of people have ask me the tools and hacks I use on my blog =D
ClarkeW
March 13th, 2007 1:58 pm
Here are my five favorite tools.
1. – Wordpress
2. – Macromedia Fireworks
3. – Itunes
4. – Feedburner
5. – Google Analytics
Tom Hanna
March 13th, 2007 2:11 pm
5. Google News
4. Talk Radio (That’s sort of like a one-way internet that comes into your car while you’re driving.)
3. Books
2. WordPress
1. Wine or coffee, depending on mood.
George
March 13th, 2007 2:14 pm
Hard to keep it down to five (and it’s always changing), but here goes:
1. Wordpress
2. Technorati
3. Bloglines
4. MyBlogLog
5. Wordtracker’s Search Tool (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/)
Rodney Olsen
March 13th, 2007 2:32 pm
Blogger
Haloscan
Sitemeter
Feedburner
Technorati
The Enigma
March 13th, 2007 2:59 pm
This is a very hard list to put together. I find that my most invaluable tools are often the opinions offered by other bloggers/writers that get me thinking, on tangents or otherwise. Anyway, the list in no particular order:
1. Blogger (yes, I’m still on it and don’t really mind it at all)
2. Feedburner
3. Yahoo Groups and various other forums
4. Statscounter.com
5. The many other bloggers who get me thinking.
Jay Wilson
March 13th, 2007 3:08 pm
1. Life – Simply an outing with a friend, or a trip can spark enough content to last for days. I went to WonderCon in San Fran last week and it produced tons of blog content, of which, only a portion I used so as not to make my readers think I now run a comics blog.
2. Firefox – The new spellcheck feature is GOLD.
3. EV-DO connection – For hopping on the web from anywhere there’s cell service – no hotspot hunting!
4. Netvibes – My RSS reader.
5. Business cards – Keeps folks in touch.
Thejesh GN
March 13th, 2007 3:19 pm
1. Wordpress and drupal
2. Performancing blog editor
3. Google Analytics
4. GoogleReader
5. Firefox
6. del.icio.us
Heiner
March 13th, 2007 3:22 pm
It’s hard to reduce it to just five ;-)
* Wordpress / Blogger
* Firefox spellcheck
* Blogscout (German statistics tool)
* the whole internet as source of information
* digital camera
bdeseattle
March 13th, 2007 3:55 pm
1. feedburner
2. technorati
3. mybloglog
4. ff2.0
5. del.icio.us
AL
March 13th, 2007 4:41 pm
I’ve written a post about the publishing tools only check it out if you want.
Wictor
March 13th, 2007 5:19 pm
Here are my shortlist:
* Windows Live Writer – to write the posts
* FeedBurner – for statistics of both site and feed
* Microsoft OneNote – to make notes of what to write and to make partial screenshots
calvin
March 13th, 2007 6:05 pm
my blogging tools include:
1. wordpress
2. Coffecup FTP – file transfer and editing
3. Browser – firefox it’s just better than IE7
4. Notepad ++ – for editing
5. Microsoft word – writing
6. Photoshop 7 – image editing
8. Online payment – paypal
Rhys
March 13th, 2007 6:10 pm
Mine are:
1. Wordpress (obviously)
2. W.bloggar (though admittedly not as much now, thanks to wordpress always saving and if having a firefox spellchecker
3. Macromedia Fireworks, because it’s so easy to cut/crop graphics from it.
4. Google Reader, I’ve only recently started using a feed reader, can’t believed I survived so long!
5, Technorati Tag Generator – Okay, it’s a cheap plug, but I made it when I was on blogger, and still use it to this day. I just find it so easy and useful to make tags.
carl
March 13th, 2007 6:48 pm
here’s my list:
my blog platform (wordpress
notepad (because wordpress don’t allow rich text editor)
spell checker
keyword research (to build the right post title)
feedburner
avi
March 13th, 2007 6:55 pm
Most of my blogs are published on Israblog, a Hebrew blogging website. Hence:
1. IsraBlog
2. Google Docs
3. None – I’d gather audience virally
Philip May
March 13th, 2007 7:11 pm
1) Wordpress
2) Google Reader
3) Google Notebook
4) Gimp
5) Firefox
6) Firebug (Firefox Plugin)
Blogger Whale
March 13th, 2007 7:18 pm
Let’s see
>Blogging Platform:Blogger[out of beta]
>Desktop publisher:W.bloggar
>Metrics packages:Google Analytics and Feedburner stats/
>Promotional tools:Pingomatic,Kping and Feedshark for pinging.
>Content Sourcing Services:I use Feedburner feeds for my blog and personally
use Greatnews rss reader[a free reader] for feed aggregation.
>Design Tools:Gimp and Picasa.
Blogger Whale
http://bloggerwhale.blogspot.com
blair
March 13th, 2007 7:56 pm
Why do people keep saying wordpress (obviously)! I have used Blogger, Wordpress and Drupal and IMHO Drupal is far superior to Wordpress. Each to there own, but just a little confused as to why people think Wordpress is the obvious and only choice.
Anyway, my five:
1. Drupal (obviously!!)
2. Firefox’s many extensions
3. Fireworks for graphics.
4. A whiteboard – for brain storming and listing things to do
5. Someone to talk ideas over with. Usually my wife, who gets a little bored with it all!
Razeen
March 13th, 2007 8:18 pm
The list of free tools that i used
1. Wordpress for blogging platform
2. Sitemeter for stats
3. Firefox for Browser
4. Filezilla for to upload my files
5. Notepad++ for web authoring tool
taoski
March 13th, 2007 8:26 pm
1. wordpress
2. transmit (OS X ftp client)
3. SubEthaEdit (OS X text editor)
4. Photoshop CS3
5. Firefox web developer toolbar
And most importantly…
6. Coffee
Logler
March 13th, 2007 8:39 pm
I’d scratch with:
1) Drupal as a blogging platform
2) BlogJet as a client
3) Macromedia Dreamweaver as a html editor
4) Google Analytics for stats
5) Google reader for effective RSS aggregation
c.urdaneta
March 13th, 2007 8:53 pm
1. Wordpress
2. Firefox
3. NetNewsWire
4. ecto
5. Firefox
and iTunes… for me it’s impossible write without music
Jonathan Danylko
March 13th, 2007 9:23 pm
1. Firefox (with various extensions)
3. 103 Bees (analytics)
2. Google Analytics (analytics)
4. Google Reader for my daily updated news
5. Google Notebook for writing drafts of my posts, current thoughts, and future post topics.
Google, Google, Google. :-)
Terinea Tech Tips
March 13th, 2007 9:40 pm
Windows Live Write
Wordpress
Flickr Uploader
Foxmarks – For organising my finds/sources between my 3 machines
Google Reader
Ellen
March 13th, 2007 9:52 pm
Mine are
1. Wordpress
2. Windows Live Writer
3. Clicky for site stats
4. Winsnap for taking screenshots
5. Feedburner
Chris Baskind
March 13th, 2007 10:04 pm
1. Joomla CMS. Awesome power and flexibility. I will be using WordPress more in the future on smaller sites.
2. FeedBurner. Great feeds and analytics.
3. Google Analytics. The Arbitron and Nielson of the Internet.
4. Copywrite. It’s a minimalist writing tool on the Mac platform. Minimal distractions, writing-oriented organizational tools, clean text output. I never compose online.
5. Photoshop (Elements, in my case). GIMP would work as well, but it’s not really Mac-native at this point. Lighter Footstep is graphics-heavy, so I spend a lot of time in this program.
Pity it’s only five. I could easily add Firefox’s Web Developer plugin; WYSIWYG Pro, an excellent 3rd-party editor with integral file management that mates with Joomla and WordPress; Google News Alerts; and my trusty Newsfire RSS reader. I’ve also begun saving story outlines, links, notes, graphics, and audio files in Journaler, a kick-ass shareware organizer for Mac.
Sharon
March 13th, 2007 10:05 pm
Hard to limit it to five but here goes:
Wordpress
Feedburner
Performancing for Firefox (and Firefox itself)
Clicky for site stats
Google Reader
Badger Gravling
March 13th, 2007 10:06 pm
1. Feedburner.
2. Firefox Live Bookmarks
3. Social news site mini-links
4. Problogger.
5. Blogger for now…
thp
March 13th, 2007 10:09 pm
- Wordpress
- Firefox
- Google Analytics
- Mint
- Flickr
- Itunes
- Fireworks
- flickr
Alex
March 13th, 2007 10:53 pm
1. Wordpress
2. Microsoft Live Writer
3. Google Analytics / Feedburner
4. Pageflakes.com
5. Digg / Sphere
Adinel
March 13th, 2007 11:10 pm
* WordPress
* Firefox 2
* My own thougts
* Adobe Creative Suite
StormVideographer
March 13th, 2007 11:14 pm
Wordpress-
Microsoft Word-
Adobe Photoshop CS-
Adobe Premiere Pro-
and the all that mother nature can dish out at me.
Chris M
March 13th, 2007 11:26 pm
1) ImageWell – instantly resize/crop images and quickly dump into my image directory via FTP. How did I blog without this?
2) MovableType – I’m a web developer by trade, so it’s essential that I be able to write new pieces of functionality and have my own hosted webspace with active server pages — MovableType gives me plenty to tinker with, without giving up my platform of choice
3) PhotoShop – It’s obscenely complicated, but I guess once you’re this deep there’s no turning back. I use Photoshop for my graphics creation — logos, banners, etc. I’ve been using it for years, and never really got into the swing of things with Gimp.
4) Google Reader – Gotta stay on top of what’s happening in the world… where else can I get entertainment news sites right next to Perez?
5) Macromedia Dreamweaver / Microsoft SQL Server – I have a bunch of home grown systems to run a “Top 10 Posts” feature as well as “Top Referring Links” and such — I develop my custom platform with Dreamweaver and do all of my data wrangling in SQL Server. While this is an essential tool for me, for the casual blogger it’s completely unneccessary. =)
Jeremiah
March 13th, 2007 11:31 pm
1. Wordpress – Life saving blogging platform in that it is easy to use and to theme.
2. Firefox – Can’t surf the web or check out the latest news without my trusty web browser.
3. Dictionary.com – Great website to define all those “hard-to-say” words I want to master
4. TheGimp – Great for editing photos and screenshots.
5. Your blog – great tips on progressing my blog. I read daily, thanks.
David Poindexter
March 13th, 2007 11:35 pm
1. Dual Monitors
2. Wordpress as the platform
3. Ecto for publishing
4. NewsFire for RSS subscriptions
5. Quicksilver
R2K
March 13th, 2007 11:43 pm
Large, dual monitors.
Digital spy camera
Firefox (tabs)
Blogger
Other blogs!
http://r2000.blogspot.com
Jason Bartholme
March 14th, 2007 12:17 am
1. Wordpress – I was a skeptic, but now I can’t get enough of it.
2. Akismet – Phenomenal spam trapper, a must-have for WordPress.
3. Fireworks – Great for quick and dirty image crops and resizes.
4. MyBlogLog Stats – About the only thing they are good for anymore.
5. Firefox’s spell checker – Fixes the spelling, now I need a grammar checker.
Koki
March 14th, 2007 12:20 am
a) Wordpress
b) Firefox
c) Bluefish for editing the php and css files.
d) Reinvigorate for the statics (better that Google Analitics because they have live statics)
e) Google Reader
All of them (well, Wordpress, Firefox and Bluefish) on my Kubuntu Linux :)
SEO Blog Pro
March 14th, 2007 12:38 am
What Blogging Tools Do You Use?…
Darren over at Pro Blogger asks a great question. It’ll be interesting to follow up on this in a few days and see what sort of answers he’s gotten. It’s always fun to see what tool everyone else is using……
Greg O'Byrne
March 14th, 2007 12:40 am
I am the odd man out here hmmm….
Platform – dasBlog (what can I say I’m a .Net kinda guy and besides it’s a great platform)
Writing – mostly windows live writer, but you can find me in notepad or even word on some occasions.
RSS Reader – Sharpreader.
Graphics work – Corel (JASC) Paint Shop Pro or Paint.Net. But hey what’s the diff they’re all the same.
Promotional – Digg, technorati, mybloglog, blogtopsites, etc.
James
March 14th, 2007 12:50 am
I think I may be the only person in this list not using Wordpress. Dammit I wanted to switch but those stupid themes gave me nightmares, I couldn’t figure them out. CSS was a breeze for me on the other hand.
I also think I may have taken this question too literally.
1. Movable Type
2. Dreamweaver
3. Sitemeter, Google Analytics and Feedburner
4. nothing really
5. Google Reader
6. Photoshop
Trust me, it all makes more sense in context: http://www.seoblogpro.com/archives/blogging-tools/what-blogging-tools-do-you-use.php
Jim Duncan
March 14th, 2007 1:01 am
1. ecto
2. NetNewsWire
3. Firefox
4. cyberduck ftp
5. statcounter for quick insight into what readers are searching for/reading (i use google analytics for deeper analysis)
Alex Mielus
March 14th, 2007 1:03 am
1. WordPress / Blogger (I say this because I’m very familiar with them) or it can also be ANY other blogging platform that you are used to work with
2. Adobe Photoshop with ImageReady + Illustrator for photo editing and optimization / vector images creation
3. Feedburner – for feeds / avoiding high loads on your server
4. Google Analytics – monitoring tool
4. Akismet / Spam Karma – for antispam (MUST-HAVE tools)
5. CuteFTP – transfer of files
6. Technorati / MyBlogLog / Digg / del.icio.us / Bloglines – you all know why :)
7. EditPlus – text editor with excellent php / html coding references
8. Firefox + spell check
9. YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, MotionBox, Metacafe and Grouper for many quality videos that can become your content or supplement it
10. Google Search … definitely the best tool above all
webee
March 14th, 2007 1:05 am
i’m new at this… so if you have that section… i’m eligible for that:
mostly a use:
1. wordpress
2. google analytics
3. technorati
4. feedburner
5. reader
see you.
webee.ro
What’s in My Blogging Toolkit? « Ian’s Messy Desk
March 14th, 2007 1:29 am
[...] Darren is looking for answers to the question, “What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools?” I’ve posted a quick and dirty answer in the comments, but thought I’d expand on it and try to capture the tools that are found in my blogging toolkit. [...]
LinkListing Tuesday
March 14th, 2007 1:46 am
[...] LinkListing Tuesday Published March 13th, 2007 in Internet and Business. Tags: blogs, star trek, youtube. blogs, star trek youtubeIf you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why? [...]
Pre Pro Sports
March 14th, 2007 4:58 am
Pre Pro Sports Blog
1. Blogger (Out of Beta)
2. Feedburner (RSS/Atom Feeds)
3. Google Personalized (Reader)
4. Google Analytics (Stats)
5. Adobe Photoshop CS (Images)
http://blog.preprosports.com
Keith Dsouza
March 14th, 2007 5:20 am
1. Joomla
2. My Custom Desktop Publisher for Joomla
3. Google Anaylytics / Feed burner stats
4. Links / Google IMs
5. Feeds / Google Alerts
6. Adobe Photoshop
RachelAPP
March 14th, 2007 6:15 am
Wordpress
Notepad
Napster (so i can check out new bands etc)
Wikipedia (when in doubt about something, i check it ou on Wikipedia)
IMDb (very useful when writing film reviews)
Cas
March 14th, 2007 7:28 am
1) Safari for browsing – without a browser, really what’s the point?
2) WriteRoom for writing – I’ve tried a lot of different writing environments and WriteRoom just pushes my buttons. I love how at full screen it really is full screen, just you, your words and the insertion point, no distractions what-so-ever.
3) Flickr uploader – all those gorgeous pictures have to get online somehow.
4) Vienna for RSS – RSS reader of choice. Again, I’ve tried lots but Vienna just fits how I work.
5) WordPress for the platform – it does what it says on the tin, and does it really rather well.
Stephanie Quilao
March 14th, 2007 11:31 am
1. TypePad (Pro level) – beacause you can do CSS without going into Advanced Templates if you like, and the customer service Help folks are fantastic!
2. iStockphoto.com – I’m one who likes to have pictures in posts.
3. Thesaurus.com – So my posts can be more creative and entertaining.
4. iLife – for GarageBand, iMovie, and iPhoto – Podcasting in GarageBand is so easy a Caveman could do it.
5. Adobe CS2 Standard – for Photoshop and Illustrator
Side note: I don’t like blogging as an island. I cannot blog without other bloggers for inspiration, support, and bonding.
tony dean
March 14th, 2007 3:10 pm
It seems to be popular the stats on the server seem to prove it, the FREE blog software on this site:- http://www.worldnetsources.info
is downloaded at least sixty times a day!
It is FREE and comes with full instructions and is fully functional, it is freeware.
Rick
March 14th, 2007 3:12 pm
WordPress (I see a theme emerging here…)
Performancing for Firefox
MS Live Writer
Technorati
Feedburner
Akismet spam thingy
Ok, that’s more than 5.
Don Ray
March 14th, 2007 5:09 pm
Nice list of essential blogging tools.
My Top 5 Blogging Tools » The Bivings Report
March 14th, 2007 11:59 pm
[...] The excellent Pro Blogger has a post up asking reader’s to list their top 5 blogging tools. I started to write my list in the comments, but I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and make it a full blog post. [...]
Jesper
March 15th, 2007 12:16 am
Being a total beginner I still write my posts in Wordpress directly, apart from that do my PHP editing using PHP Designer 2007, and use various SEO tools (like the ones found at SEOBook.com and webmaster-toolkit.com) to try to optimize my blogs for SE visibility.
It’s already starting to pay off as one of my blogs are getting more and more SE hits (a one month old blog).
Jonathan-C.
March 15th, 2007 12:57 am
Wordpress
Firefox
Photoshop, Fireworks
MyblogLog
Feedburner
:)
Leo Piccioli
March 15th, 2007 3:38 am
Very easy: Blogger (or any other platform) / I feel like the ugly duckling not using WordPress
All the rest is unnecessary. Bells and whistles that may be used, but should not be abused.
Simplicity.
Mind-Mapping « Count Ramblings
March 15th, 2007 4:12 am
[...] He recently ran a post “What are your top 5 blogging tools” with much success all levels of bloggers commented on their top five. Talk about a braintrust of blogging tools, it’s kept me pretty busy. [...]
WordPress Wednesday: Mandatory Update Reminder, WordCamp2007, Instant Upgrade Plugin, SxSW Conference, and More at The Blog Herald
March 15th, 2007 4:55 am
[...] WordPress Among Top Recommended Blogging Tools: Darren Rowse of ProBlogger asked What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools? WordPress continues to be among the top recommended blogging tools, and it’s interesting to see the mix of what people think are the must-haves for blogging, with and without WordPress. For fans of Darren Rowse and ProBlogger, he’ll be in New York for a ProBlogger Readers Meetup on March 28. Space is limited! [...]
Anita
March 15th, 2007 5:40 am
StumbleUpon – great way to find new material, surprised nobody else mentioned this
Feedburner
Wordpress with Akismet
Technorati
Photoshop – however, if I were to say 1 thing that I needed to be a better blogger, but didn’t have, it would be photoshop skills.
Danny
March 15th, 2007 5:33 pm
Blogger – Its very basic, but that’s what I started to blog with.
Feedreader – I really need an offline reader.
Pingoat – For pinging multiple sites at one.
Photoshop CS – Bulky, but I am familiar with it.
Addfreestats – to monitor Adsense clicks on blogger. Not perfect and misses many clicks, but haven’t found anything better (to use on blogger).
Danny
March 15th, 2007 5:33 pm
Blogger – Its very basic, but that’s what I started to blog with.
Feedreader – I really need an offline reader.
Pingoat – For pinging multiple sites at once.
Photoshop CS – Bulky, but I am familiar with it.
Addfreestats – to monitor Adsense clicks on blogger. Not perfect and misses many clicks, but haven’t found anything better (to use on blogger).
~C4Chaos
March 15th, 2007 6:39 pm
1) Firefox
2) Performancing FF plugin (for composing blogs and tweaking HTML before posting to the lame Typepad editor)
3) Feedburner
4) Google Reader
5) Flickr
Amit
March 15th, 2007 11:39 pm
1) new blogger
2) Firefox 2.0+
3) FeedBurner
4) technorati
5) google reader
6) gimp
Top Blogging Tools to blog better
March 16th, 2007 12:37 am
[...] Here’s a good question that strike me thinking for some moment there, a question asked by Daren Rowse – If you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why? [...]
Thea Westra
March 16th, 2007 1:36 am
My 5 Favorites (currently) are:
http://www.jaxtr.com/forwardsteps
http://www.google.com/analytics
http://www.google.com/reader
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/life-coach-daily-tips
http://www.squidoosecrets.com/build/?yourlens=7124
Namaste,
Thea
Darren
March 16th, 2007 6:25 am
1. WordPress: I love the flexibility, interface and the wonderful plug-in and theme development community. I really want to learn CSS well enough to create my own themes! I am using version 2.1.2 on http://www.digitalchurch.com.au
2. Firefox: This is the best browser ever. especially with all the extensions available. My favourite of these is the spell checker which has improved my spelling out of sight!
3. Scribefire for Firefox: The tool formally known as Performancing for Firefox is a great blogging extension which allows me to write and post directly from the browser.
4. Google Reader: I am a recent convert to Google Reader and absolutely love it! It allows me to quickly keep tabs on everything that is going on in my blogosphere.
5. Media Temple: As a web host these guys are the bees knees. Far better than any of the Aussue Web hosts I have used previously, and heaps cheaper!
» Pandasmic
March 16th, 2007 6:44 pm
[...] The credit for today’s inspiration comes from ProBlogger in What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools?. He poses the question: If you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why? [...]
natnit
March 16th, 2007 7:00 pm
I took the bait in your most recent edition of speedlinking, and wrote up a post of my own:
5 Blogging Tools Not to Live Without:
1. WordPress
2: StatCounter
3: Problogger
4: StumbleUpon
5: Amazon S3
Explanations and reasoning abound in the post.
Aziz
March 16th, 2007 8:45 pm
1. Blogger (coz thats the blogging platform I use, and frankly speaking, it sucks big time… wish I could switch to wordpress)
2. Google Reader
3. Gmail
4. Google Search
5. Last but not the least – Google Analytics
Seems like I am addicted to google.
I still can’t survive with just 5, I need more:
6. 103bees
7. Statcounter
8. Flickr
Jim Duncan
March 16th, 2007 11:16 pm
I neglected to mention http://co.mments.com. It enables me to track conversations on other blogs without having to explicitly remember to revisit them.
bloggadget
March 16th, 2007 11:39 pm
1. Blogger
2. Ad sense
3. Google Toolbar
4.Google Analytics
5. Gmail
I hope you like these?
Niko Neugebauer
March 17th, 2007 5:10 am
I have just 4 tools:
1. Wordpress,
2. Firefox spell check plugin,
3. Notepad++,
4. my own head
=O)
Justyn
March 17th, 2007 2:54 pm
Google Alerts is priceless for me. I setup a very detailed list of search strings once, and it puts web and blog content in my mailbox every morning. Feeds and news are nice, but this picks up anything they might miss. It also allows me to easily find where my content is being re-used.
A few more that didn’t get much mention;
HitTail – Phenomenal!
ConstantContact – for non blog/feed marketing
WorkSpace Macro Pro – Automate ANYTHING
MyGoogle – To get my day started
Please publish a rolled-up summary of the responses!
Cheers!
Alex
March 17th, 2007 9:16 pm
1. Drupal. It just does everything, not only blogging, so well.
2. gEdit
3. Google Analytics, Firestats
4. Hmmmm, visiting other sites and blogs that would be interested in my blog/site, and being constructive and informative
5. RSS. Gregarius
6. Bluefish and reading loads of APIs/guides
5 Blogging Tools Not to Live Without » Pandasmic
March 18th, 2007 8:52 am
[...] The credit for today’s inspiration comes from ProBlogger in What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools?. He poses the question: If you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why? [...]
buxx
March 20th, 2007 7:41 pm
wordpress – for my weblog it self
firefox – for reading news and blogging itself
google reader – for fetching news
google analytics – for the stats of my weblog
flickr – for posting my own photos
NightAngel Blog » Blog Archive » Les outils de blog
March 23rd, 2007 3:56 am
[...] Les outils de blog Lancé par Darren Rowse, ce buzz fait le tour de la blogosphère. Nina, qui est une très gentille demoiselle, m’a donc généreusement refilé ce buzz [...]
DonKeyWord » Blog Archive » Qu’ont ils mis dans leur boite à outils ?
April 4th, 2007 7:30 pm
[...] Historique de la chaine le premier maillon était : Darren Rows & en France : GuiM [...]
Welcome ! »
April 25th, 2007 2:26 am
[...] pas mal sur le web ( j’suis un peu à la bourre à vrai dire ) lancée par Darren Rowse , qui consiste à présenter mes outils de bloggeur ( encore amateur à vrai dire [...]
Andy
May 5th, 2007 6:24 am
1. Blogger
2. My Own Code *
3. Video (also my own)
4. Ping-O-Matic
5. Friends.
* If you visit http://www.keything.com/blog , you’ll find my company blog living happily there… it’s actually residing on http://keything.blogger.com, but pulled in on-the-fly to my website. It’s a great tool for increasing relevance and your overall footprint.
Sophia
August 23rd, 2007 11:35 am
Sophia…
awesome blog keep updating and you will see us comming back and back….
Richard Wilson
October 29th, 2007 2:05 pm
1. Google Analytics
2. Technorati
3. Google News
4. Blackberry – to type up blog entry ideas on the fly
5. WSJ – To keep a pulse on what people want to read about or are not getting through mainstream media
SharonRot
November 18th, 2007 1:43 am
Hi my best blog tools are:
W.bloggar 3 – can be found in http://www.outyard.com/product/Wbloggar-303,70001,28110.aspx
Pico Blog Software – http://www.outyard.com/product/Pico-Blog-Software-10,70001,27535.aspx
Iblog – http://www.outyard.com/product/iBlog-05,70001,61985.aspx
Bloglines Browser Plug-In 1- http://www.outyard.com/product/Bloglines-Browser-Plug-In-1,70001,32627.aspx
Sharon,
Love you mom :-)
Make Money Online with Homebizseo
April 15th, 2008 6:07 pm
I am new to the blogging word (make money online) and found the articles and comments very educational. Great post.Blogging tools can be the difference between the top or the welfare line.
Gage
May 9th, 2008 12:54 pm
I am also new to blogging but have been developing web sites for a couple of years now. Quite a few great suggestions here in this post.
One tool I have found to be very useful, especially for importing material and information from other web sites to your blog, is Clipamrks
Very handy. Posts to your blog seamlessly and provides links back to the original site.
IP
October 16th, 2008 12:31 am
1) Blogger
2) Wordpress
3) Technorati
4) Drupal
are good one!
Norhafidz
December 28th, 2008 5:37 pm
1) Wordpress
2) Keyword tool
3) Notepad
4) Feedburner
5) Spell Checker
agentpx
June 10th, 2009 4:31 am
Here’s mine. From Start to Finish
Top 10 Blogger tools you can count on”
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