July 1st, 2009 | Written by: lauren
When I first started blogging, I thought all I needed to do was write, and as they say, “they would come.” I dropped myself in the midst of the blogosphere, and have been learning ever since. The first thing I learned is that writing is only a small portion of what’s needed to run the all-mighty web log! After all this self-education, I find certain tools useful when I write, post and promote blog entries.
AdWords Keyword Tool: Even without an AdWords campaign, the free keyword tool gives a quick overview of search volume, and you can take the advertiser competition as a loose indicator of the amount of competition on the web. I visit the AdWords keyword tool as soon as I know the topic of my blog entry, and choose 1-3 keywords to focus on within the content.
Zemanta: I only recently started using Zemanta, which is a helpful tool that offers related content as you write! Zemanta gives suggested links, images, tags and related articles. Even if you choose not to use the content, you can use it to learn more about your web log topic.
PressThis: A useful tool from WordPress, PressThis is a blogging tool that lets you save the interesting tidbits you find around the web as a draft in WordPress. The factor is convenience- if you’re surfing for entertainment, pleasure, or some non-blog related reason, and come across a juicy-something for your web log, you can save the link automatically, and sign in to WordPress to work with it later! Blogger has a similar tool as well, called BlogThis.
Twitter and Memes: Twitter’s sidebar displays the top “Trending Topics” on the micro-blogging site. Nearly every day there is a topic related to our blog, and I find this to be a great blogging tool for inspiration. The more you cater to what readers are already interested in, the more potential for eyes for blog entries. Internet memes collect similar info on top topics for different sites across the web, so you can observe trends and use them to your advantage.
BlogRolling and Links management: A simple to use interface and a great way to share more content with your readers, swap links, get noticed by other bloggers and try to “link-up” (my web version of climbing the social ladder.)
AddThis or ShareThis: In this day of Web 2.0, it’s more than a blogging faux pas not to include one of these buttons or the many variants available. These free tools allow readers to easily share your content with a couple of quick clicks! Which sharing button is your favorite?
9mp.com and URL shorteners: I have been a loyal user of 9mp.com since I popped my URL shortening cherry. When you register with 9mp, the site keeps track of your URLs, and you can view link details such as clicks, referrals, locations and Twitter results, including helpful graphs.
Ping-O-Matic: This site is simple to use- simply type in your blog’s URL when you have new posts or updates, and automatically ping (as the name implies) 24 blog sites.
Google Alerts: I want to know who is spidering- don’t you? Pingbacks and comments are great, but Google Alerts lets you see the vagabonds that are spreading your content. Creating alerts takes seconds and provides valuable information.
Google Analytics: Every blog should have some version of analytics or tracking software- I just love Google’s free tools, so this is the one I use. Analytics are easy to install on your domain- if your blog does not have its own domain, install Analytics on the main site. Analytics provides graphs, statistics and reports that can help track your web log’s progress.
Tags: Blog, blog promotion, blog tools, bloggers, blogging, blogs, content creation, keyword research, promoting, tools, Web 2.0, web logs, weblogs, WordPress, Zemanta
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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