Top Blogging Tools

The popularity and usefulness of blogging has made it one of the fastest-growing online industries. From personal to business blogs, it is estimated that more than 50 million weblogs have been published, with thousands more starting up each and every day. If you have ever wanted to explore the world of blogging, you should first check out some of the top blogging technologies to discover which tools are right for your Web publishing needs.

Before you begin, consider your reasons for starting a blog. Are you promoting a business, or do you simply want a place to host a personal online journal? Are you blogging to market affiliate programs, or do you want to feature banner and link ads to generate income? If your needs are fairly simple, one of the many free blogging services will probably be perfect for your needs. For bloggers with more complex needs, you may need paid blog technologies and Web hosting services. Blogs serve as excellent content management systems that can be created in a matter of minutes and are easy to use. The following tools are among those used most often by avid bloggers.

Popular Blogging Tools

WordPress is one of the top blogging tools, voted a ‘Forbes Favorite' by Forbes.com. The open-source application offers a wide range of applications and is the perfect choice for users who want to host their blog on their own website. If you're looking for a high-quality blogging tools that offer a wide range of features, WordPress just might be the perfect choice for you.

Blogger is extremely popular for both business and personal blogging. Provided by Google, this free service offers great features such as free hosting, the ability to add banner and text advertising links, and a great range of beautifully designed templates.

TypePad is owned by Six Apart, the same company that offers the popular blogging tools Moveable Type and Live Journal. Basic membership starts at five dollars a month for a hosted blog and offers the ability to post via email or mobile phone.

Moveable Type has gained popularity for use as a business blogging tool. Free options are limited, but paying members have access to improved support, design options, and posting access. Beginners often report difficulty with this blogging platform, but many intermediate and advanced users are committed Moveable Type fans.

Live Journal is a wonderful option for users who prefer community-based blogging. This popular service offers both free and paid options with the ability to connect to friends and join community groups.

Top Blogging Promotional Tools

Once you've started blogging, its time to promote your weblog to the world. There are a number of great services that have emerged specifically to track the millions of blogs that are updated every day. Other great ways to advertise your blog include social bookmarking sites and blogrolls. A blogroll is basically a list of links to related blogs. The following are some of the most popular blogging promotional tools.

Technorati is one of the leading trackers of weblogs. By signing up and adding Technorati links to your blog, you can gain traffic from searchers who use the service to find blogs of interest. This is a great way to locate niche blogs on highly specific topics.

Del.icio.us

is one of the most-used social bookmarking sites of the Web. Users can add interesting links to their del.icio.us bookmarks and share their lists with other users. The service also allows users to ‘tag' links by subject, so related posts can be found quickly and easily.

Digg allows community members to rank stories, websites, articles, and blog posts. You can add a links to your blog that allow users to quickly submit the content to Digg. Stories are promoted on the site based on user-rankings and popularity.

No matter what blogging technologies you choose to use, always remember that the key to a great blog is interesting content. Write about the things that interest you and that you are passionate about. Express your personality and become an active participant in the blogging community in order to benefit from all that weblogs have to offer.

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