7 Effective Blogging Tools

I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user. ~Bill Gates


What tools do you use for blogging, such as writing articles, getting images, copywriting attractive headlines, notifying others of your new blog posts and measuring the performance, competitiveness and authority of your site? These are the usual tools that I use every day:

1. Microsoft Word: This is the software that I use to input, arrange ideas and put them into a proper blog post. A tool is a tool and, it is up to the user to create words which are good for human consumption. It is able to check some of your errors but not all of your errors. A human being is still required to edit, proofread an article before it goes live. It is still a useful and effective tool to write articles.

2. Stock.xchng: Where do you get a constant supply of images to complement each and every article of yours without cost? Look no further and go to stock.xchng. When you are there, the easiest thing to do is to type the keywords of your article into the Advanced search space; you will be thrilled to find many images to suit your particular requirements. Just make your choice.

3. Google Analytics and Statcounter: These are the tools I use to measure the performance of my site. I get to know page views, unique visitors and returning visitors of my blog. I also get to know what my most popular articles are, where my visitors are coming from and what keywords they are using to reach my site. I can check my daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly data easily and many more things for free.

4. Headline Analyzer: How do I know my headline is impactful? Just go to Headline analyzer to find the Emotional Marketing Value of your title. The higher the value, the more attractive is the headline to attract the reader to read your article. By the way, it is free.

5. Ping.fm: How do you notify your social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more all at once when you have posted a new article on your site? Let Ping.fm do the job for you for free instantly.

6. Alexa Traffic Rank: This is the tool I use to measure the competitiveness of my website. According to BlogPulse, there are more than 163 million blogs in the blogosphere and I am happy to be among the top 0.3% (rank around 400,000) sites on the Net.

7. Technorati Authority Rank This is to measure the authority of your site according to relevant sites linking to you currently. It fluctuates according to the prevailing status of your blog by the number of links you have got. When there are no new links, your authority drops immediately.

What tools do you use for blogging? Share with us.