170+ Must-Have Tools For The Beginning Blogger

Ok, so you’re a startup blogger. You want to establish yourself in the online world and hopefully make a little money in the process. Well, if you’re like me, it is quite a difficult and intimidating task to just “start.” Maybe you are a website designer, a logo designer, maybe you specialize in banner design, business card design, blog design, or you work with coding like CSS and xHTML. No matter what it is you are doing, we all must start somewhere.

So I’m here today to hopefully give you some pointers and some resources that will help get your blogging career jumpstarted and get you rolling on the road to fame.

Let’s start with the basics: Getting your website. It is generally accepted that having your own domain name will not only help you in the long run, but also make you appear more serious about your blog and what you are writing. So to get a domain, there are a number of options you can choose from.

Registrars
1. GoDaddy.com – Buy your domain name starting at $9.99 per year and lower.
2. Register.com – $10/year services on domain name registration.
3. 1&1.com – $2.99 Domain name registration.

Ok, so maybe you chose one of the above websites or you found your own services. Now you’re ready to host that domain. By ‘hosting’ I mean to get it officially up on the internet for everyone to see.
Here are some hosts I have found that seem to be pretty good:

Hosts
1.HostICan
2.BlueHost
3.HostMonster
4.HostGator
5.AptHost
6.WebHostingBuzz
7.HostingZoom

Out of those seven companies, you are bound to find one plan or service you like. Personally, I am hosted with HostICan. You can read my in-depth review of them Here.

Alright, so you’ve got your website, you’ve got it hosted, now onto designing it. Since we’re blogging here, you need to find some good CMS (Content Management Systems) to help you maintain your site. Here are some of my favorites.

CMS
1.Wordpress (Is installed on my website) – Extremely large and widely recognized CMS platform.
2.Blogger – I believe this is Google’s solution to blogging.
3.SquareSpace – Another way to create your blog online.
4.TypePad – Paid CMS services.

Good job. You’ve made it this far, and you’re that much closer to establishing your online presence.
So the next step you must take is, of course, making your blog look nice.
If you are either a coder or designer, check out any of these websites to get some helpful hints and tips, along with some free templates, about how to design your blog.

Designs
1. CSSVault – CSS and design resources updated daily.
2. SoloStream – Lots of inexpensive blogging templates
3. WPThemesFree – Huge compilation of free Wordpress themes available for download.
4. WPSkins – Browse the latest and greatest blog templates and get access to tons of free designs.
5. Real-Time HTML Editor – Enter your code and preview it to make sure everything is working just right.
6. CSS – Find lots of information and several different tools all related to CSS.

Great. Now let’s go ahead and get your website advertised. Here are some forums/sites that you can visit to boost your traffic.

Advertise
1. NamePros – Discuss domain names and design. Great section for advertising.
2. SitePoint – Find lots of design discussion and lots of ongoing contests to bring out your inner designer.
3. TalkFreelance – Advertise your site, sell your designs, and talk freelance.
4. DigitalPoint – Discuss domain names and sell your designs. Find new business here too.
5. Entrecard – Free advertising. Sign up and watch the instructional video to learn more.
6. BlugRush – Advertising service via widgets and credits.
7. Bittbox – Great design forum with lots of freebies.
8. Elance – General freelancing website.
9. Guru – Advertise your designs and get jobs.

Well, if you’ve done your work, hopefully you have a few visitors now. The next step is to get in touch with your readers.

RSS
Here are some great RSS readers and resources.
1. FeedBurner
2. RSSReader
3. FeedReader
4. RSSFeedReader
5. Sharpreader
6. JetBrains
7. RocketInfo
8. Pluck
9. RSSOwl
10. YeahReader
11. Rojo

Communication Tools

1. Gmail
2. Yahoo
3. Hotmail
4. AIM
5. GTalk
6. MSN
7. Yahoo Messenger
8. Skype
9. Twitter
10. ICQ
11. LiveJournal
12. Jabber
13. Bonjour
14. Adium
15. Meebo

Excellent.

Resources
Now let’s go ahead and get some great resources to make your blog more aesthetically appealing (look better).
These links include vector images, brushes, logos, icons, fonts, etc.

1. FamFamFam – Free icons
2. Brusheezy – Free brushes
3. Vecteezy – Free vector images
4. KollerMedia – Free pattern downloads
5. SquidFingers – Free pattern downloads
6. k10k – Pixel patterns
7. Fresheezy – Free themes
8. IconBase – Icon source
9. IconFinder – Another icon resource
10. NDesign-Studio – Icons
11. ConvertIcon – Icon resources
12. Sweetie – More icons
13. IconFactory – More icons
14. WebsiteIcons – More icons
15. Dafont – Free fonts.
16. 1001FreeFonts – Free fonts.
17. Free-Fonts – Free fonts.
18. UrbanFonts – Free fonts.
19. GetFreeFonts – Free fonts.
20. TheFreeSite – Free fonts.
21. DezignUs – Just found! Incredible source for free vector shapes, icons, and pictures.
22. Widgenie – New! Widgenie allows for easy widget creating, customization, and easy management to help you share your widget with the world.

Inspiration
We all have writer’s block and artist’s block, so check out these sites and get some inspiration that will hopefully get you back on track.

1. FuzzyFuture
2. IconPond
3. SmashingMagazine
4. JohnChow
5. ShoeMoney
6. Adii
7. Blogtrepreneur
8. StylishLabs
9. CSSBeauty
10. WebCreme
11. DynamicDrive
12. StyleBoost
13. CSSInsert

Tutorials
We all need some help once in a while. So whether you are writing, designing, coding, or whatever else, check out these sites to find some great tutorials and tips.

1.Good-Tutorials – Vast resource of photoshop, CSS, PHP, Ruby, and photography tutorials.
2.PSD Tuts – Mix between a blog and Photoshop tutorials. Great website!
3.Photoshop Star – Extremely high quality tutorials on every topic imaginable.
4.Stock Vault – Thousands of stock images as well as links to tutorials, textures, and other great designing resources.
5.Templates Feed – Great inspiration site with some tutorials and resources on the side.
6.Tutorial Vault – Massive collection of tutorials.
7.Tutorialized – Literally thousands of tutorials, over 7,000 of them devoted entirely to photoshop.
8. CSSTutorial – Great CSS collection of tutorials and help.
9. Tizag – More resources regarding CSS
10. KillerSites – Inspiration and CSS help.
11. PageTutor – Everything you want to know about coding.
12. OSWD – One of the largest collections of CSS related material out there.
13. BlankCSS – Yet another CSS help site.
14. CSSFly – Some more CSS tutorials and tips compiled into one website.

Blogs
Here is a selection of top-notch blogs that can give you advice, tips, tutorials, and of course, inspiration. These blogs are about several topics from making money to designing.

1.JohnChow – One of the most successful bloggers out there with massive amounts of information regarding making money.
2.ShoeMoney – Another one of the most successful blogs of all time with complete guides to making money.
3.Adii – Great web designer with awesome personality and a lot of talent.
4.Blogtrepreneur – Teenage blogger with an established presence in the blogging world.
5.PSDTuts – Mix between a tutorial site and a blog. Great for beginners!
6.SmashingMagazine – A fabulous blog based around web design. Includes lots of tutorials and help.
7.FreelanceSwitch – Website owner’s guides and tutorials. Post on their job board and get clients and business.
8.WebDesignersWall – One of the coolest looking blogs, with some incredible content.
9.WebAppers – Huge compilation of online resources essential to website creation and blogging.
10.ProBlogger – Great money-making website.
11.CarloCab – Learn from a thirteen year old how to make money online.
12.EarnersForum – Community of money-makers and blog owners.
13.WakeUpLater – Freelancing and money-making.

Making Money
So you’ve read so much information, you have your website going, hopefully you have a small reader base, now it’s time to finally start rolling in the dough. Here are a bunch of advertising and money-making services available on the web for you to use.

1. Google Adsense
2. Text Link Ads
3. This is a post from John Chow’s blog with 150+ advertising websites. By posting all the links on here, it would be too cluttered and hard to work with. So go to this post and you will hopefully find the 1 service that is just right for you.

Tools
Here are some really great tools that will make your life a whole lot easier.
1.Firefox – Tabbed browser
2.FastStone – Screen Capture utility (Download Link)
3.ClipX – Clipboard manager
4.Firefox Add-Ons – Firefox’s list of recommended add-ons.

Other
I couldn’t really place this tool into any of the other categories, so I made a new one! Thanks for the recommendations!
SiteGrinder – “Photoshop plugin that turns any photoshop design into a functioning website.”

Social Marketing
Last, but most certainly not least, we come to our last section of resources: social marketing sites. These sites will boost your popularity and pump up your traffic. I highly recommend all of these services.

1.30daytags
2.BlinkBits
3.BlogHop
4.BlogLot
5.BlogMarks
6.BlogMemes
7.BlogPulse
8.BmAccess
9.Browsr
10Fark
11.CiteULike
12.Clipclip
13.Clipmarks
14.Complore
15.Connectedy
16.Connotea
17.De.lirio.us
18.Del.icio.us
19.Digg
20.Diigo
21.Fantacular
22.Feedmarker
23.Feed Me Links
24.Furl
25.Gibeo
26.GoKoDo
27.Google Notebook
28.IceRocket
29.Kaboodle
30.LinkaGoGo
31.Linkfilter.net
32.Linkroll
33.Listible
34.Lookmarks
35.Ma.gnolia
36.Netvouz
37.Newsvine
38.OpenBM
39.RawSugar
40.Reddit
41.Rojo
42.Rollyo
43.Scuttle
44.Shadows
45.Simpy
46.Sitetagger
47.Smarking
48.Spurl
49.StumbleUpon
50.Taghop
51.TailRank
52.Ticklr
53.Unalog
54.Yahoo My Web 2.0
55.Yoonoo

Social Marketing Sites From Here.

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Well, all this should hopefully set you on your way to making money, getting devoted readers, and having some fun along the way.
I hope you found these websites and resources as useful as I have.

If you have any sites I forgot to mention, please comment or email me and ask me to include them. I am always trying to expand this list to make it more user-friendly and helpful.

Thanks for reading!
~Brian

For more blogging tutorials check out the new tutorial site, The Tutorialist.