Tracy's Internet Marketing

Due to the extended dimensions that the blogging phenomenon has achieved, one can hardly imagine the richness of tools that bloggers may use to improve the performance of their pages in the web circuit. What tools should one look for? First of all you need to select a specific platform to set up for the blog, then other tools complete the picture in case you want to include photos or videos. Last but not least, you definitely need some special software to allow you to easily moderate the comments and fight unwanted mails, labeled as spam.

Let’s take a look at the way some tools can help you post entries on the blog with the help of the platforms. Due to the wide variety of available software, formats may vary, nevertheless the working principle is the same: type the title and the text you want to accompany it in the platform. Not all tools provide italics, bold and large font sizes, and you may have to get this by using HTML in order to achieve the desired results. In case you have to copy-paste Microsoft Word text, you need to check whether the blogging platform allows it without interference with RSS feeds.

In order to upload videos and pictures on the blog we have to mention Adobe Photoshop as one of the best tools here (or as a free alternative check out Gimp). You may have to resize the images in order to make them easy to download by visitors. Furthermore, such tools enable you to align the photos in the way that matches your entry best. Embed multimedia files are also widely used by bloggers, mainly with the help of third-hand utilities like those offered by YouTube. All you have to do is include a JavaScript in the posts in order to allow the blog users to access the photo or video files you upload.

The RSS support may also prove crucial for the success of a blog, particularly since most Internet users are mainly concerned with accessing blog content via RSS feeds. You can find a variety of RSS formats available, not to mention that most tools include some sort of RSS help. To make sure you really get what you want, and the blog looks professional to the targeted audience, it is advisable that you should check the RSS formats a special software offers before actually purchasing or installing it.

Personally I use Wordpress for my blog because it offers a lot of themes and very useful plugins. Wordpress is open source so there are a lot of people constantly working to better improve it as well as more and better plugins and themes being released all the time.

Here is a list of plugins I use and find very helpful:

Add to Any: Share/Save/Bookmark Button. This plugin allows readers to share, save, bookmark and email your posts and pages.

Akismet: This is a must have plugin! Akismet checks your comments to see if they look like spam. Spam is the bane of any blog owner so we need all the help we can get. By using Akismet and by setting your options to “comments moderated by administrator” you will greatly reduce of not eliminate spam from your comments.

All in One Adsense and YPN: Great for monetizing your blog!

All in One SEO Pack: Helps to optimize your blog for search engines. What could be better?

Google XML Sitemaps: Generates a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your Wordpress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer: One thing blog owners need to be careful of is not being tagged as a ping spammer. By installing this plugin and adjusting your settings you can help prevent this from happening.

Plugin Central: This plugin is great for installing plugins. Just type the name or url of the plugin you want and Plugin Central will install in for you. Occasionally Plugin Central will not be able to install a plugin so it will tell you to do it manually but it is still a great plugin.

SEO Slugs: As we know pretty much everything revolves around SEO (search engine optimization) these days. Now if you just have a personal blog you might not care about SEO to much but if you want to use your blog for business, well….. SEO Slug removes commons words like “a”, “the”, “in” from post slugs to improve SEO.

Submit It Plugin: Lists popular blog aggregator and feeds submitter.

SociBook: We hear the buzz all over the internet about using Social Networking. Well SociBook adds social bookmarking to your blog posts. See mine at the bottom of the post? You have several bookmarking sites to choose from! If I don’t have your favorite bookmarking site listed post a comment and I will see if I can add it

TweetMyBlog: Are you using Twitter? If not you should be   This plugin updates your Twitter account with each new post. How cool is that? TweetMyBlog is completely free.

Wordpress Automatic Update: Do I really need to explain this one? Ok I will give a short explanation. This allows you to automatically upgrade Wordpress to the latest version with only a few steps.

WordPress Database Backup: Keeping a backup of your database is ALWAYS a good idea whether you run a blog or a website. I have read many horror stories from people who lost their entire website (months if not years worth of work) all because they did not backup their databases on a regular bases. I backup my WordPress database once a week and have it emailed to me, although with this plug in you can choose how often you want to do your backup and have it downloaded to your computer or emailed (just remember if you choose to have it downloaded you also stand a chance of your hard drive crashing and still losing your backup). It is pretty much set and forget and you will never have to worry about losing your data.

Now you have an idea of some of the tools available. Remember though that the plugins I listed here are only for Wordpress. You may or may not be able to find something similar if you are using a different format.

Also all of these plugins are completely free and can be found at WordPress.org except for TweetMyBlog and MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer. Search for new tools, plugins and themes and play around with your blog a bit to see if you can improve it or make it more fun, ect.

Until next time,

Disclosure:

This is NOT a paid endorsement! Meaning I was Not paid for posting this article.

Tracy’s Internet Marketing hereby discloses that it Is Not affiliated with the above endorsement and that it Does Not receive compensation in connection with the above endorsement. However, Tracy’s Internet Marketing does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of the above endorsement, neither would it be responsible for any consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from the use of this product or service. Reader is asked to do their own due diligence before using any products or service mentioned on this site!

Tracy’s Internet Marketing hereby discloses that it Is affiliated with all other ads shown on this site (or is compensated for showing other peoples ads) and that it Can receive compensation in connection with the above mentioned ads. However, Tracy’s Internet Marketing does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of the above mentioned ads, neither would it be responsible for any consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from the use of any product or service advertised. Reader is asked to do their own due diligence before using/purchasing any product or service advertised on this site!

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