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Being an early adopter of new technology is almost a must for those bloggers that want to stay cutting edge. I read a comment to my earlier post on this site mentioning that they try not to let the specifics of blogging get in the way of having fun with the actual post. Let me start off by saying that I completely agree; if you’re not having fun why would you spend all the time you do blogging?

So to take some of the seriousness off some of my other posts on both this site and my own, I wanted to focus on a discussion on the tools YOU use for blogging. I am going to share my tools and perhaps some of you have pros and cons about what I use, and perhaps can share some recommendations of their own.

Remember, a tool is only as useful and effective as the person using it. That being said here are my top tools when I blog.

1. Jott

I love Jott because it provides for me a way to quickly get ideas before I lose them. I’m more likely to pick up the phone in the wee hours of the night and leave myself a message then I am to turn on the light, find paper and pen, and actually write down my ideas.

What Jott offers the user is a way to leave a message to themselves, another person, or a group via audio message, transcribed message in your email, or posting it to your favorite social media site (your blog, Twitter, various calendars). I have an account set up for blog ideas, so when an idea comes, I hit speed dial to Jott and leave a message for myself which is also transcribed for me to review later. This way I never lose track of my thoughts, and whether I have a pen or not, it now become irrelevant.

This is the first tool that I typically use because it’s non-stop, day or night.

2. Evernote

This 2nd tool has only recently become a vital part of my blogging process. Once I’ve acquired my thoughts from my email, I begin a web search which allows me to do research. I begin to find support for my idea, but I also find it interesting to find people that disagree with me and build my counter argument. All of this reading and searching can take a lot of space in your bookmark section, that is where Evernote steps in.

Evernote allows me to capture information no matter where I am to be used later. If I’m out in the city and find something that inspires me, I can take a picture of it and send to my Evernote account. If deep in web research I can copy and paste whole sites, or quotes directly to my Evernote account. This prevents me having to add and later remove bookmarks I am no longer using.

Evernote syncs to your phone, pda, laptop, and desktop, so no matter where you are at, you have access to your material. Evernote keeps all your “clippings” in “binders.” The clippings can be shared publicly, they can be edited, and grouped in any way you wish. The binders can be renamed, and shared with an entire community.

I specifically enjoy the use of my mobile phone to Evernote so when I take pictures for my articles I can send them to Evernote for editing later. Check out Evernote if you’re looking for something new. I got some invites left (12), look me up and drop me a line if you are interested.

3. Fireshot

I found this tool not too long ago and it has saved me a lot of time when working with screen shots. If you have ever used Skitch, then this program is very similar in that it does a great job screen capturing, but what I love about this plug-in for FireFox is that you can then add commentary bubbles to detail or explain something from the screen shot.

Previously I was doing the Print Screen command and then taking the capture into Photoshop for image editing, and it would take approximately 15 minutes for the entire process. Now I can quickly get what I need, focus on any segment of the website and then write up some explanation on the actual image to help the reader understand what I am talking about. I just added Fireshot to my newly downloaded FireFox 3, so I know it works for sure.

I honestly had a hard time find another alternative for screen capturing that was free, do any of you have other suggestions?

4. Zemanta

This tool is useful for both the newbie and the veteran blogger. I personally try not to lean too much on this tool, but I cannot deny its usefulness when finding material for the blog becomes difficult to the point of straining your brain.

Zemanta is a plug-in that works hand in hand with your blogging platform of choice. I currently use Blogger while I’m coding my WordPress theme, and Zemanta fits nicely onto the screen where you write your posts. The way it works is every 300 words it updates itself by offering you pictures to drop into the post, links for the page, key words for the article, and supplementary material for you to read by showing you other links to articles that might be related to your topic.

This little add on can be hit or miss, for me sometimes more miss, but it has gotten me out of a jam every now and then. For starters I find the pictures it locates for me to be useless. I definitely appreciate the articles it recommends since it adds some depth to the article. The keywords are okay, but I usually have keywords in mind already, if anything it only serves as a reminder of what I was going to put in. The links it offers are pretty useful, especially linking heavier concepts to Wiki’s and other resources for further explanation.

Naturally Zemanta will want to put advertising on the page, but interestingly they are easily deleted, and will not come back to show on your page. I suggest that if you do use them, use their advertising sparingly, to delete them totally would counter their efforts in helping our blogging community.

5. Google Documents

Any word processor will do, but I chose Google Docs because all my material is online, tied to the google network of products, and no matter where I am I have access to my documents. It sure beats carrying around a USB drive with documents on them. Important for me because I move from a MAC and a PC quite often throughout my day and constantly using the USB between two tends to corrupt some of the data.

I am sure there is a great many tools that our community uses when researching, building, and writing their blogs.

Sound off!

Let us know what you find most useful and perhaps your thoughts on products to stay away from.

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