8 Basic Blogging Tools & Tips

Note: Be sure to read to the end for info about my upcoming blog-related GIVEAWAY!

I started blogging back in 2004 and the number of available resources for bloggers is mind-boggling. If you’re new to the whole blogging thing (or even a old pro) here are a few basic tools and resources that have been helpful to me along the way and I hope will be helpful to you too!

1. Gravatar – Allows your photo to show up automatically in blog comments (and other places) online. (I posted a quick how-to here.)
2. Flickr Creative Commons search – If you’re looking for photos to include in your blog posts, this is a great place to start. (These photos are made available under various Creative Commons licenses. Make sure you understand what the restrictions are before you use them.)
3. stock.xchng – Again, more free photos you can use in your posts (different photos have different restrictions so please read carefully).
4. Google Analytics – See who’s visiting your site, how many, when, from where and everything else with this easy-to-use tool which tracks your site traffic.
5. ProBlogger – If you want to make money on your blog (or just want to know more about blogging in general), Darren Rowse is the master and his site is FULL of great info.
6. 10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website – A great article full of useful tools and resources if you use Twitter.
7. RSS in Plain English – This is a handy little video in case you’re still unclear about RSS.
8. No music – I don’t want to offend anyone, but please oh please, don’t set up music to play automatically when someone visits your site. It slows down loading time, it can be fantastically annoying and it’s one of the quickest ways to get visitors to click away.

So, speaking of blogging…

Come back next week for my Blog Design Giveaway! I’ll be giving away a free blog design made especially for you.  So, follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my feed or check back so you don’t miss it!

This post is part of Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family. Check it out!

Related posts:

1. Blogging Do: Resize your images before inserting into posts
2. How WithPurpose.com is different
3. What I learned at the SavvyBlogging Twitter party
4. Blogging Do: Have an easy-to-find search bar
5. It’s a GIVEAWAY!