Ten Blogging Hacks

Since my last three "hack" posts on bookmarklets, RSS and Technorati were so popular, I thought I would follow up with my ten favorite blogging hacks. Don't ask me why, but I like the number 10. These work on most if not all of the major weblog platforms, including TypePad, Blogger and Wordpress. (This post is in memory of Ben Hammersly's killed book, Blogging Hacks, may it RIP)

1) Blog Alone or Together with Writely
Writely is one of my favorte Web 2.0 apps. It's a full-fledged web-based word processor that you can access from anywhere. Think of it as Microsoft Word for the Web - except with just the parts you need!

Using Writely you can draft blog posts, spell check them and then with one click - boom, post to Blogger, Moveable Type/TypePad, Wordpress and others. Even better, you can collaborate on a blog post with a friend and upload it once it is baked. This works better on some blogging platforms than others. The only downside is, you can't add trackbacks (definition). You can always add them later. Writely also generates blog-friendly HTML if that's what you'd prefer. Writely is still in beta so give it a test or two first before relying on it all the time for blogging.

2) Automatically Post Your Daily del.icio.us Links
Regulars here know that everyday I run once-a-day posts stuffed with a bunch of links. I know from conversations with readers that some of you think that I stay up half the night painstakingly compiling all these links and tags into a blog post. I don't. I spend a ton of time online throughout the day. As I find things to share, I use my del.icio.us bookmarklet to file it away on the bookmark sharing site. Then around midnight eastern time, del.icio.us automatically takes the day's links and turns them into a new blog post. Fred Wilson describes how to set this up on TypePad. Instructions for other platforms are all over the Web.

3) Auto-Insert Technorati Tags Using ecto
If you're a blogger and you're not using ecto, stop reading this post right now and go download it. I'll be here when you come back. ecto is a desktop blogging application for both Mac and Windows. It has tons of features, but my favorite is the ability to automatically insert Technorati tags. This ensures that your blog post is amassed with other bloggers' posts under the same tags. Technorati explains this here. ecto can also ping all of the major search engines that you have updated your blog. This makes you easier to find more quickly. Alternate pinging tools include Pingoat or Pingomatic.

4) Blog from Your Cell Phone
Sometimes you want to get something up on your blog instantly, no matter where you are. Well, you can blog from any email-capable phone on both TypePad and Blogger and perhaps others as well. Each platform provides instructions how to accomplish this. Read this article in PC Today for a thorough overview.

5) Get a Cool Icon for Your Blog
Many people run photos of themselves on their blogs. Here's another idea. Get your own custom icon from iconize me! For $50 iconize me will custom create a color charictacture from one of three different artists for all of $50. You get to pick the photo. The artists will send you your line drawing in several formats, including blog-friendly jpegs. Be prepared to wait two-three weeks for your image. Mine is on order.

6) Tell the World Where They Can Find You
Where's Waldo? Who cares. Where's Stowe Boyd? Ah, I definitely care about that. Normally it would be hard to know when this blogging legend is actually in a town near you. But Stowe, being the enterprising guy that he is, he has a map on his blog that gives us his coordinates. You can add one to your blog using Plazes. Here's a related bonus hack. You can find other bloggers who live near you using feedmap.

7) Meet Your Blog Neighbor
Every once in awhile you meet one person who you say, damn, we're separated at birth. Why wait for that moment when Findory can tell you who your blogging neighbor is. This helps you hang out with fellow birds of a feather.

8) Make Money with Your Own Blog Schwag Store
Most bloggers know that you can make some money by signing up for AdSense or BlogAds, but there are other ways. For example, the simplest is to add a tip jar. However, there's another. You can build your own store of blog-branded merchandise using Cafe Press. Slacker Manager, for example, sells some cool schwag. It helps to have a cool name for your blog that people will want to wear. In other words, Nevon works. Welcome to Joe Blogs' Blog, well?

9) Create a Blogroll in One Click
Both Newsgator and Bloglines make it a snap to convert your existing RSS reading list into a blogroll that you can share with the world. Instructions for Bloglines can be found here. An overview for Newsgator subscribers is located here. Everyone else can try Blogrolling, which accepts OPML.

10) Give Readers the Option to Subscribe to Updates via Email
As much as we love RSS, for some, old habits never die. There are people who like to receive their news via email and that's that. The good news is that you can give these people what they want using FeedBlitz. Simply follow the instructions on their site and integrate the HTML code they give you into your sidebar and you're good to go. Feedblitz recently partnered with FeedBurner. This means all you need to do is add one modification to your Feedburner feed and you're golden.