10 tools to make a better blog

tools for developing building better blogThere are many useful tools out there that can help you improve, tweak and maintain your blog. There are also tools that can help you blog better, easier and be more productive.

In this post I want to list some of the tools I personally use. Here they are, in no particular order:

  1. Windows Live Writer

    In addition to doing what other blog clients are doing, WLW lets you preview your post (I mean really show you what it would look like when posted). In my opinion, it is the best blog client out there. The image handling capability is second to none.
  2. Google Webmasters Tools

    Google Webmasters Tools allows you to submit your blog sitemap to Google. You can also check your blog search queries, crawl errors, popular keywords, site performance, inbound links, internal links and subscriber stats. 
  3. Firebug

    Firebug is an add-on for Firefox. Point the mouse to any place in a webpage, Firebug will show you the codes that go with it. You can then change the code and instantly view the effect. A great debugging and learning tool.
  4. Statcounter

    A web tracker, providing real-time statistics of your blog traffic. I prefer Statcounter to other web trackers because it can handle multiple sites with just one account.
  5. w3schools

    This is a website, but I consider it a tool too. This is the place you go if you want to learn about HTML, CSS and Javascript (or any else related to web building). The aspect that I like most here is the ability to try out the code and view the effect instantly, in the same screen.
  6. Syntax highlighter

    Web browsers are smart, you put in codes, they translate them into pictures and display on the monitor. But, but…what if all you want is to just display the codes. Then this is the tool you use. After much searching, I found the one I like. I’ve written about it in How to show code in blog post.
  7. Color Picker

    Found a color you like, but don’t know the hex code for it? Then use this tool. Just click the color and it copies the hex code for you. You can then paste the hex code in your CSS stylesheet.
  8. CoLT

    CoLT (COpy Link Text) lets you copy a link easily. It has 3 options -copy only the anchor text, only the link or copy both text and link (in HTML link or text form).
  9. Ping-O-Matic

    Ping-O-Matic provides free blog pinging service. It is a service to tell different search engines that your blog has been updated. Use it every time you publish a new post.
  10. Google Search

    No introduction needed.

Enjoy!

What tools do you use? Feel free to share them in comments below.

 

photo credit: www.freephotosbank.com

20 comments to "10 tools to make a better blog"

The Scathing Brit March 17, 2011 at 7:43 PM    

Hi Greenlava.

Can you please tell me, (Hmmm! Better be words of one syllable!) how I can make the comments people have left on my blog appear permanently, i.e., without having to click on the post a comment link. I want people visiting the blog to be able to see posted comments as part of the post. At the moment, they have to click the link and I would prefer that to be unnecessary. Of course, they should still have to click the link to post a comment of their own, which, when posted, would then also appear as part of the whole post.
Thanks.
Thescathingbrit

bippi March 19, 2011 at 3:37 PM    

hi ... thanks for sharing, I am newbie and I try to build my blog

Greenlava March 20, 2011 at 8:07 AM    

@The Scathing Brit
Go to Settings > Comments > Comment Form Placement and select "Embedded below post".

The Scathing Brit March 20, 2011 at 7:48 PM    

Thanks for your answer, but "Embedded below post" is already selected, but I notice that this won't work if "post pages" is disabled. I can't find anything about "post pages" anywhere under any settings, so how do I enable "post pages"? Is this something to do with the "edit pages" heading under the "posting" tab? (I have not created any pages. Do I need to, and publish them?)
Thanks once again for your help.

Greenlava March 21, 2011 at 11:20 AM    

@The Scathing Brit
You can find it in Archiving tab.

kamto April 2, 2011 at 6:31 PM    

thanks for your info

Haneef April 6, 2011 at 8:38 PM    

hey thanks so much!! this site is awesome! im learning so much about bloggin and how to sort my blog out!! thanks again and could have a look at my blog and give me some tips?

nurmisnan April 18, 2011 at 9:06 PM    

Hello GL..
thanks for sharing here

Capiz Blogger May 8, 2011 at 12:50 PM    

One of the plugin that I love is the Global Plugin for Firefox. It lets you identify the rankings of your site/blog in different geographic location in GSerp.

Greenlava May 8, 2011 at 8:37 PM    

@Capiz Blogger
Thanks...I'm checking it out right now :)

Unknown May 18, 2011 at 1:54 PM    

This is the first night in over a month that I haven't had a headache trying to do the blogging thing. omg. thank you so much. I tried some of your tips and even more omg's they work. Just AWESOME. big xxxx
http://www.narratorreviews@blogspot.com

Borneo Ghost Stories May 19, 2011 at 10:15 PM    

Good list of tools you have there, im using some of them now..

Aftab Ahmad August 11, 2011 at 6:41 PM    

really nice & Useful post.

Unknown September 20, 2011 at 2:16 AM    

very useful post but instead of using ping-o-matic, one cas use totalping.com

Mylok September 24, 2011 at 5:35 AM    

I think DisqUS is one of excellent tools for comment and spam comment management.

SEO TOOL October 16, 2011 at 5:44 PM    

I was wondering about the other tools that are listed here. Some are not tools really. Just a piece of advise to have a good blog is to index your blogs first to blog sites like technorati before optimizing it. This is effective.

Charlotte Locksmith October 25, 2011 at 1:20 PM    

Neat blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog shine. Please let me know where you got your theme. Thanks

Greenlava November 2, 2011 at 12:52 AM    

@Charlotte Locksmith
It's custom made.

lol May 30, 2012 at 8:42 AM    

Nice. but I don't have to use all of this.

Toronto Locksmiths May 14, 2013 at 8:04 PM    

Subheadings break up the content making blog posts easier to read. They also offer SEO benefits. When a search engine robot hits a page, it reads the headline/title tag first. Then it reads the H2, H3, and H4 tags. This is easy to do with Wordpress, selecting the heading tabs.

Post a Comment

We love to hear from you! Leave us a comment.

To ensure proper display, HTML/XML/Javascript need to be escaped first using this escape tool.