Eight Essential Tools for Bloggers

Today’s list post is all about the essential tools for bloggers to use. Tools that will make life easier, faster and generally more efficient:

Windows Live Writer

It’s currently cool to have a downer of Microsoft and their products, but Live Writer is just an amazing tool for bloggers and I would urge you to try it if you haven’t already. It works with pretty much any type of blog, it downloads your blog theme to the writer. Adding, positioning and resizing photos is simple, video equally so and creating links is a piece of cake. All in all, you may never have to think about code again! Here’s my full review of Livewriter.

Google Reader

I’ve covered this in some detail already on this blog. But Google Reader is just the fastest way to read a lot of blogs, which is something we all have to do! You can see my tips for using Google Reader here.

Google Gmail

Even if you host your own mail, switch it to Gmail. Three key features will help to make your life much better. The Spam filtering is second to none, canned responses save so much time and the size of storage combined with an awesome search facility mean you will never waste time looking for “that” email again. I wrote in more detail about GMail here.

Google Analytics

Webhost analytics programs are notoriously inaccurate. I’ve found that Google analytics are the reliable way to see what’s really happening on your blog. Everything from bounce rate to where traffic is coming from is provided on the dashboard. But from there you can really drill down into the stats to get way more information. I talked some more about statistics in this post.

Moleskin Notebook

There are times when you aren’t near a PC and you have great ideas for posts or for the things you want to do with your blog. A Moleskin notebook is the solution – beautifully made, with lots of pages and designed to last for ages, the Moleskin is super useful and will mark you out as a serious person. You can look at and order a Moleskin at this link at Amazon.

Twitter

You could argue that Twitter, being a blogging application in it’s own right, isn’t really a blogging tool. But it can be used as such. I’ve had loads of good advice from Twitter friends, and I also Tweet my blog posts when they go up – this brings me lots, and I do mean lots, of traffic. Are you following me yet? If not I’m @mikecj

Flip Video Camera

Any video camera will do, and you should have one – video adds a whole new dimension, and a whole new audience to your blog. If you need to buy one, you won’t go wrong buying a Flip. They’re great value, designed for the job and plug straight into your PC via the flip out USB plug. Here’s a link to Flip’s own website.

Remember The Milk

Remember the Milk is a terrific to do list application, based on the web, which means you can access your to do list from any PC, or from your phone. I find the Gmail task list too basic, so I switched to RTM a few weeks ago and I haven’t looked back since. Tasks can be prioritized, they can recur and they can be divided into headings for personal, work, or even relating to different blogs. You can also set up reminders via email or to your mobile phone. And best of all RTM is free to use. You can find out more here.

What would you add to this list?