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How many blogs do you have? 1? 2? more? If you are a problogger, then the chances are you maintain multiple blogs.

That must be a lot of hard work. So tell me, do you Entrecard? I do, and I try to promote all my blogs (I have 4 of them) equally. But the fact remains, there are only 24 hours in a day, and oftentimes, we are left with much to do and little time to complete all the work in. What steps would you take to increase both traffic and free time?

Posting on all four blogs takes up a chunk of my time, and blogging is so much more than just posting. Thankfully, with the advent of Web 2.0, we now have a few tools handy to help us blog better, with a more normal blood pressure, and with some time to sleep. The best thing about these tools are that you can access and use them from anywhere, and at any time.

1. Netvibes: I like to read blogs as much as I like to write for mine. I am sure, so do most other bloggers. We also like to check our stats, keep track of our mails, and keep a tab on who is dropping an Entrecard on our blog.

If your needs match with the list above, then netvibes is the tool for you. It is similar to I-Google, but much more powerful and flexible. Sign up is free, and all you have to do is keep that one web page open to see who is mailing you, what restaurant John Chow is visiting, what the Problogger’s latest Zen is, and who is dropping an Entrecard on your blog.

Netvibes comes with a handy RSS reader, so you never have to leave the service to read your RSS feeds.

2. Zoho: If reading, and tracking, and dropping, was all there to a blogger’s life, then it definitely could have been a lot easier. We also have to write interesting, engaging and useful posts, and we have to publish them on our blog.

Zoho.com is an online productivity suite similar to Google apps. However, Zoho is more feature rich. It has a variety of applications, but the one we will need is Zoho writer.

A user can log in to Zoho writer, create a post, and publish it to his/her blog directly with a click of the mouse. How is it different from your blogger platform? Well, on Zoho, you can not only write and store your posts, you can also have friends and co-bloggers review them and add comments before publishing. There is a chat feature specifically to discuss your posts. Now if that’s not value addition, what is?

You can also export your posts to a number of formats including .doc, .rtf and .pdf. The entire process is as easy as 1-2-3.

3. Linkify: Problogger Darren Rowse wrote about this useful tool in his blog, but it doesn’t take the Problogger for you and me to understand that this is a must-use tool for better blogging.

Linkify is a Google Ajax Search API based tool. To run it, you have to install the Linkify toolbar. Once the toolbar is in place, “Linkify” is all you need to direct your readers towards useful resources.

You just highlight the words in your blog post that you want referenced, and activate the bookmarklet. The search query defaults to the highlighted text. Click on “create link” to have the link of your choice in place, and voila! Think of the extra research time this tool can save you.

4. Google talk + Freecorder: I found this combination while looking for podcasting tools that would suit my blog’s needs. This combination of tools is ideal for recording VOIP interviews and posting them on your blog.

Google talk, as you all know is Google’s free VOIP chat client. Freecorder is a free sound recording utility that can record any sound on your computer that you want it to… including VOIP calls.

The makers of Freecorder claims that it does not need a sound card to function, and can considerably eliminate background noises. Remarkably, it is also said to eliminate “dead air” or awkward quiet moments during calls. You can grab the Freecorder toolbar from here.

5. Remember the milk: So you’re checking your netvibes page by the minute, and making your posts on the go using Zoho. You are already done with the interview of the famous celebrity over Gtalk, and you’ve made sure that your Freecorder records it for the podcast. What have you missed? Yes, even with so many tools to help us do our job better, there will always be things that we will forget.

So here is one tool that will just not let you forget those little anniversary gifts, or birthday cards. It will not let you forget your medicines or your daily glass of milk. No silly, I am not talking about John Cow! It is this really amazing service called “Remember the Milk” that is designed to make you remember almost anything that you need to.

The service is not just another online reminder service. It lets you:

• Add tasks
• Sends you reminder via email, instant messages and SMSes
• Creates tags for your tasks for easy recognition
• Integrates with google maps to help you locate a place related to your tasks
• Remind your wife/husband to pick the kids up from school, and all other similar chores and collaborations
• Lets you add tasks on the go. All you have to do is shoot an email from your computer or your mobile phone.

So there you go. Here the 5 new-web productivity tools I swear by. What productivity tools do use?

This post has been written by Anindita of Paws Awhile. Do drop by her blog and leave a word or two if you support the cause. You may also subscribe to her blog’s feed here.

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