Webwordslinger:
keepin' it fresh.
7 Must-Have Apps for New Bloggers
Welcome to the blog band. We’ve been waiting for you. And you. And you. Every day, thousands of new bloggers launch using third-party blogging platforms like WordPress or blogspot, or free-standing blogger clients like Flock and Bleezer.
So, you have some competition. Here are seven must-have apps that’ll get you some readers and start the creation of a blog-based community. Your own.
1. Ping.fm
If you don’t already use it, you will.
Ping.fm enables you to write an SM (short message – 140 characters) once and post to dozens of sites – Facebook, LinkedIn, BrightKite, Plurk and other social media.
You can also notify subscribers by e-mail and Ping.fm is totally mobi so you can ping your followers through their cells or PDAs.
Post once and you tag hundreds of readers when you post.
2. Zimbio.com
First, Zimbio is a pretty cool on-line magazine, focusing mostly on tabloid-type gossip. That’s part one.
The site also enables you to create your OWN magazine. Zimbio scours your blog for new content, offers suggestions for keyword-based categories and posts with a click. You can keep the content up for as long as you want, delete it – it’s your on-line magazine and the tabloid content ropes in visitors. Also great for building a presence on SERPs.
3. technorati
No brainer. technorati is a search engine for blogs so you want your blog in the mix. Open an account and get indexed on technorati.
4. Seesmic
Seesmic is a Twitter client that’s much more user friendly than Tweetdeck.
Track all your social media from this one interface. Add your Facebook column. Your RTs. Direct messages. Add and delete columns at will. If you’re starting a blog, use Ping.fm (see #1) to post to Twitter (and other social sites).
5. Ning.com
Ning is a kinda cool tool but read the TOS carefully.
With Ning, you build your own social network – everything from your office staff to the bowling team to people who raise iguanas (what’s wrong with lizard lovers, any way).
Build a social network of people who are connected to the topicality of the blog. Knitting blog? Knitting social site to swap stitches.
6. Feedburner
Feedburner is owned by Google so you know it’s organically search engine friendly.
Feedburner optimizes your blog for pick up by RSS feeds, pings and flaring sites. You can design some cool scrolling banners and even monetize the blog with Google AdWords. Hey, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.
Be sure to burn a new feed each time you post to let ping servers and RSS aggregators that there’s something new on your blog.
7. Feedping.com
Get the word out about your blog on a global scale. Feedping automates the process.
A ping is, in essence, a push for your blog. Feedping submits your blog to dozens of ping services and RSS feeds including Yahoo and AOL. Simply enter the name of your blog, its address, click on the Check All box.
Scroll to the bottom of the page, Click agree to terms of service and click the Ping button. Then watch your computer screen.
You’ll see a growing list of ping servers and RSS aggregators that connected to your blog and sent your address on to other interested readers. Now, you’ll see a lot of “Connection Failed” notices. Could be anything – different protocol, the server is down, the server hasn’t been used in 10 years – you just don’t know.
But you’ll also see a lot of “Done” notifications which means you and your blog address got through. You’ll start seeing visitors from countries you never heard of via Feedping. Use it each time you post.
These tools will save time and get you some notice in seconds. It’s up to you, new blogger, to keep your blog fresh and to build your readership.
And that’s another whole matter altogether.
No comments:
Post a Comment