Six Tools For the New Blogger's Tool Belt

This post is part of the ongoing “Beginner Blogger” series, designed to help and aid people who are just starting out in the world of blogging.

So you’ve started your blog. You’ve got a cool domain, a great-looking site, and some killer content. Now you’re ready to start with the rest of the blogging world- RSS, advertising, plugins, widgets, and the like.

Though there are a number of things you will and should try and use, and most vary by blog and blogger, there are a few things every new blogger should at least give a fair shake. Here are six tools every new blogger should integrate into their new blogging system:

Who’s Coming? Google Analytics

Except for a few instances, blogs are designed to be read by people other than the writer- it’s much more fun to actually write for an audience. The tool of choice to gauge the number and source of visitors is Google Analytics. To use it, you simply sign up, and then place a bit of code inside the template of your website. Every time someone visits a page, that code loads (which doesn’t show on the pages of your blog), and Google Analytics tracks the visitor, the way they got to the site, and how long they stay. It’s a sophisticated way to see where traffic is coming from, what it’s coming to, and how well your blog is doing.

RSS Goodness: Feedburner

Most blogging platforms create an XML feed for your blog, which can be used to allow people to subscribe to your content in their RSS reader. If you’re serious about growing your blog, though, you’ll want to switch over to Feedburner. “Burning” a feed is easy, and Feedburner can do a huge number of useful things- add advertisements, track the number of subscribers, clicks and views, make sure it works in every browser, and offer email subscription. Though Feedburner’s had its issues, including on this site, it’s still the best way to take your RSS feeds to the next level.

Monetize: Google Adsense

Most bloggers eventually want to make money from their sites. Thanks to Google, who seems to run all the advertising in the world, you can. By signing up for Google Adsense, you can get a code that, once put in the appropriate place in your blog (easier on some themes than others), will create changing, content-specific ads for your site. The box in the upper right corner on The 2.0 Life is from Adsense, and does a great job. You get paid every time someone clicks on an ad, and it can add up fast as you start getting more visitors to your blog.

Write: Windows Live Writer

There are a ton of ways to add content to your site, including the administrative dashboard of the site itself. There are a bunch of higher-powered, easier to use options out there, though, and king amongst these is Windows Live Writer. WLW offers offline writing of posts, easy formatting and media-adding, and even a way to download your theme to WLW so you can edit the post as it will look on the site. If you’re going to write posts longer than about six words, you’ll want a desktop-based application to do so- you can’t beat WLW, in my experience.

Better Comments: Gravatar/Disqus

The community aspect of a blog is one of the most important parts of the site. The comments and conversations that occur are what allow your content to go beyond your own head, and develop into bigger and better things across the Web. Though most blogging platforms and themes allow comments by default, they’re feature-bare. For a better option, try Disqus (the software of choice here at The 2.0 Life). It allows for threaded comments, and lets you control and edit your conversations across the Web. Also, I recommend installing a Gravatars plugin of some sort. Gravatars allow you to have pictures of people who leave comments on the blog. Instead of comments coming from random, nameless strangers, you can put an image to the name (or screen name).

Socialization: ShareThis

Social media is arguably the best way to make your blog bigger than yourself. By leveraging sites like delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and others, you can move your content all over the Web, give people an easier way to share your content, and ultimately drive more traffic back to you. The lollipops you’ll see at the end of this post are there for just that reason- making it easier to share your favorite posts with the world. The easiest way to use this is through ShareThis, which lets you put a button at the end of every post to let people email your post, Digg it, bookmark it, or share it through their favorite channel. It’s not the prettiest choice (which is why I went away from it), but it’s both useful and simple to use.

What do you think belongs in the tool belt of a new blogger?

Photo: docman

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