Five incredibly cool and useful blogging tools
1. Cool: Bookr
Bookr is a tool that lets you create really neat embeddable photo flip-books from images on Flickr. If your blog frequently covers events, this is one of the best ways I’ve seen to include a group of photos in your post without overwhelming the user with a bunch of images or sending them away from your site with a Flickr album link. These things are incredibly easy to create. Check out the example below.
2. Useful: Docstoc [see our previous coverage of Docstoc, a Beverly Hills startup]
Docstoc describes itself as a Youtube for documents. The site has thousands of user-uploaded legal and business docs that can be searched, browsed and downloaded free of charge. What makes Docstoc such a useful tool for blogs is that all the documents are embeddable, allowing you to display pdfs, Word docs and Excel files in an intuitive flash reader from within your posts. Find a cool doc while browsing around Docstoc that your readers would be interested in? Maybe you run a blog about entrepreneurship and run across a great business template. Don’t link to it, embed it. On the flip side, if you have a doc that is relevant to one of your posts, upload it to docstoc and throw it on. Click here for Docstoc’s quick and easy embedding instructions. Here’s an example of a doc embedded with Docstoc:
3. Useful: Show Me Widget
When it comes to blogging, the importance of staying connected with the community cannot be understated. “Show Me” is a widget that displays links to all of your profiles on social networks around the web, providing a quick-and-easy way for your audience to connect with you and follow your content on multiple networks. This widget that won’t work quite as well for blogs with multiple authors (such as this one), but for personal blogs this is a great tool. Click the thumbnail to the left to see what “Show Me” looks like.
4. Cool: ClustrMaps
For a tool that has some of the most instant “wow” appeal out of all the widgets out there, check out ClustrMaps. After submitting your URL, ClustrMaps gives you embeddable code that will display who is currently viewing your blog by geographic location. By now, most of you have probably seen these around the blogosphere, and for good reason: the experience of having a truly global view of where your readers are coming from is awesome. Sure, we all know that the web is international, but being able to actually see where your visitors are coming from around the planet is a different story. The widget is free for sites that have less than 2,500 visitors daily.
5. Useful: Google Webmaster tools
If you at all serious about your blog, or even if you’re mildly interested in your audience/traffic, you need to be taking advantage of Google’s awesome webmaster tools. When beginning to utilize these tools, you should first go to web crawl diagnostics to make sure Google has indexed your site and doesn’t have any problems crawling your pages. Second, take a look at the top search queries page. It tells you which keywords people have been using to find your site. With this information in hand you can make an effort to tailor content around what your readers are interested in. Another tool that doesn’t fall in the same category of these but is a must-have is Google Analytics, a free, simple and powerful tool that gives you heaps of information about who is visiting your site and what they are doing on it. It’s a great way to get to know your audience. Combine all of Google’s tools and you’re on your way to becoming a very informed blogger.
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By LaTease Rikard on Nov 17, 2021 | Reply
Cool tools. I’ll share with my friends.
By Sumesh on Nov 17, 2021 | Reply
your comment field…pink? yuck.
By Nathan Ketsdever on Nov 17, 2021 | Reply
Great list! I would add three…
Slideshare.net for amazing powerpoints.
Google keyword tool for tagging & search
Utterz for mobile audio blogging.
By digga on Nov 17, 2021 | Reply
some very nice tools. i plan to incorporate at least 2 of them into my site in the [hopefully] near future.
cheers
www.takingoverthe.net
By stewart on Nov 17, 2021 | Reply
I liked clustrmaps
By subcorpus on Nov 18, 2021 | Reply
i’m gonna check out docstoc …
u gotta get this pink thing sorted out …
By Jake Ryan White on Nov 18, 2021 | Reply
What about the tool, “What’s your home worth,” from Cyberhomes? It’s an API feed you can see in action at http://www.countrywidehomeloans.com
Also, SitePal’s avatars are cool too.
By Gorn Yashic on Nov 18, 2021 | Reply
By the way. The pink edit boxes are absolute shit.
By Marc Savoy on Nov 18, 2021 | Reply
#2. You are such an a-hole.
By Planet Malaysia on Nov 18, 2021 | Reply
Cool Tools but never try before.
By didsn on Nov 20, 2021 | Reply
Nice article John, albeit a bit short. 10 tools probably would do nicer.
By Test on Nov 24, 2021 | Reply
Hi
G’night
By Dog training on Nov 25, 2021 | Reply
Very interesting… as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.
By Jamaipanese on Nov 25, 2021 | Reply
great tools
By darin on Nov 25, 2021 | Reply
finally a nice list of new and useful tools!
Great job!
Darin
By Davinder on Nov 25, 2021 | Reply
Hey… nice list. Wil try out few. thnxxx
By Webmasters Directory on Dec 6, 2021 | Reply
Nice list Many thanks for this post
By Idetrorce on Dec 15, 2021 | Reply
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
By Gobo on Jan 7, 2022 | Reply
Webmaster tool is irrespective of blogs!
check out feedjit and spotplex - nice tools.
You will also like this link:
http://bangalorebuzzz.blogspot.com/2008/01/productivity-toolbox-tools-for-taking.html
By SEO Clan on Jan 7, 2022 | Reply
Check out this site for free eBooks on such topics
http://i-ebooks.blogspot.com/
By David U. on Mar 12, 2022 | Reply
awesome, thanks a lot for the info.
—
if you need to market yourself or your business, go to www.cards29.com, get 5000 business cards for $29. seriously.
By Samir Koosah on Mar 14, 2022 | Reply
Yet another cool tool for you guys, please take a look…
I recently have been presented to an interesting new concept (at least for me). I am testing their services and possibilities in the last few days and they have overpassed my expectations. I encourage you to test it too and pass the word ahead, so we can help anyone who might need this kind of tecnology.
I could talk a lot about it, but none can say it better than themselves:
ReadTheWords.com began as a simple concept in January 2008: To assist students with learning disabilities with their studies, by means of auditory learning and auditory processing.
To that end we seeked out programers, technologies, and research departments from around the world and came up with a very basic platform, far less sophisticated than what you currently see on our website. Although we had originally intended this site to be used for auditory learning, through our researching efforts we found that the demand for this technology reaches far beyond our originally intended audience. Many other students, young professionals, actors and actresses, research departments, bloggers, ecommerce sites, and others, expressed how this technology could help them with their daily lives, and their businesses.
For this reason, we went back to the drawing board and added more features to meet more users’ needs. ReadTheWords created multiple input methods for users to create readings. We also greatly expanded our efforts to allow users take full advantage of the created readings as mp3’s. In particular, we found that Bloggers are constantly looking for ways to reach a larger audience and we, in turn, have found a way to meet this need by enabling them to create podcasts and share them with their readers. We also created a platform for bloggers and website operators to paste an audio toolbar in their website or blog, making it possible for any reader to become a listener. The feedback has been overwhelming and we continue to add new features and users to our site each day.
So, all this may lead you to wonder about the full extent of the possibilities that this technology presents. The answer is truly limitless. We encourage you to try our free service and let us know how you’ve been able to use it to your meet your own needs.
I invite you all to test it for yourself, just register at www.readthewords.com/default.aspx and tell us what you think about it.
Have fun!!!!
By Samir Koosah on Mar 14, 2022 | Reply
Yet another cool tool for you guys, please take a look…
ReadTheWords.com began as a simple concept in January 2008: To assist students with learning disabilities with their studies, by means of auditory learning and auditory processing.
To that end we seeked out programers, technologies, and research departments from around the world and came up with a very basic platform, far less sophisticated than what you currently see on our website. Although we had originally intended this site to be used for auditory learning, through our researching efforts we found that the demand for this technology reaches far beyond our originally intended audience. Many other students, young professionals, actors and actresses, research departments, bloggers, ecommerce sites, and others, expressed how this technology could help them with their daily lives, and their businesses.
For this reason, we went back to the drawing board and added more features to meet more users’ needs. ReadTheWords created multiple input methods for users to create readings. We also greatly expanded our efforts to allow users take full advantage of the created readings as mp3’s. In particular, we found that Bloggers are constantly looking for ways to reach a larger audience and we, in turn, have found a way to meet this need by enabling them to create podcasts and share them with their readers.
I invite you all to test it for yourself, just register at www.readthewords.com/default.aspx and tell us what you think about it.
Have fun!!!!
By Dan on Aug 10, 2021 | Reply
real situation in Georgia
real situation in Georgia
o
By Enummasounny on Sep 21, 2021 | Reply
thats for sure, dude
By spoosiuh on Apr 3, 2021 | Reply
хех… интересно
By sandrar on Sep 10, 2021 | Reply
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Cheers! Sandra. R.
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