photo © 2007 Ken | more info (via: Wylio)

Some people have asked me what programs I use for blogging, as well as what are some of the WordPress plugins I find useful. I have only been heavily into blogging for four months, but I have already developed quite a toolbox. It seems like this is a nice year-end post, so here is a list of my top 41 blogging tools and WordPress plugins. Lists are in no particular order.

Tools I Use For Blogging

1. Evernote and the Evernote Firefox extension – IMO possibly the best application out there. It is like a huge digital file cabinet that can capture nearly anything you throw at it; text, web pages, graphics, audio. I use it to keep blog ideas, web pages I want to comment on and notes of all sorts. It is free, works on all platforms, including mobile. Try it, you won’t be sorry.
2. ScribeFire extension – Firefox extension that syncs with your blog and allows you to create and edit posts right in Firefox.
3. Google Reader – I live in Google Reader. I browse the web via RSS feeds. When I find a RSS feed I want to comment on in a blog I Star it and can quickly go back and take action.
4. ShareThis extension – Firefox extension that easily lets me submit my blog posts to sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit.
5. Hootsuite extension – Remotely related to blogging. Great tool for posting to multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.
6. MarsEdit – Blog application for creating and editing outside of your browser. Completely offline.
7. Wylio.com – Website for finding free images to use in your blog posts.
8. BlogPress – When I need to create or edit on my iPhone or iPad this app is great.
9. Google Tasks and GoTasks – You better have a todo list and Google Tasks is a nice simple task program. GoTasks is a iPhone and iPad app that syncs with Google Tasks.
10. Analytics HD – A Google Analytics app for the iPad.

WordPress Plugins I Use on MichaelBrandvold.com

1. WordPress.com Stats – Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.
2. WP Super Cache – Very fast caching plugin for WordPress.
3. Secure WordPress – Little basics for secure your WordPress-installation.
4. Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu – All admin links available in a neat horizontal drop down menu. Saves lots of screen real estate!
5. AddToAny: Share/Bookmark/Email Button – Help people share, bookmark, and email your posts & pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Digg and many more.
6. Facebook Like – Add the new Facebook Like button and Facebook Recommendations widget to your wordpress blog.
7. Google Analytics for WordPress – This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics to your WordPress blog, adding lots of features, eg. custom variables and automatic clickout and download tracking.
8. Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
9. All in One SEO Pack – Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.
10. iTunes Affiliate Link Manager – Easily create links to the iTunes store with or without affiliate id’s
11. MailChimp – The MailChimp plugin allows you to quickly and easily add a signup form for your MailChimp list.
12. NextGEN Gallery – A NextGENeration Photo gallery for the Web 2.0.
13. SEO-Tool – Keyword Density Checker – The SEO-Tool Keyword Density Checker is generating the statistics part (including the meta keywords suggestion) of the Keyword Statistics Plugin only. Densities of the used keywords and 2-/3-word phrases will be calculated while writing the content. No meta informations will be embedded into your blogs pages. This is for those of you who use other SEO plugins but also want an overview about the keywords and phrases in content – without the overhead of generating meta informations while serving the blogs pages.
14. Wordbooker – Provides integration between your blog and your Facebook account.
15. WPtouch – A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for visitors on Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm and Torch, Palm Pre and other touch-based smartphones.
16. Twitter Tools – A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. Show your tweets in your sidebar, and post tweets from your WordPress admin.
17. Tweet Old Post – Plugin for tweeting your old posts randomly
18. Yet Another Related Posts – Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds.
19. Align RSS Images – Makes image alignment work in RSS feeds.
20. Link to Post – This plugin allows you to easily create a link to an existing article, page, category or tag.
21. podPress – The podPress plugin gives you everything you need in one easy plugin to use WordPress for Podcasting. Also a great plugin for just delivering audtio and video in your blog.
22. Search Meter – Keeps track of what your visitors are searching for. After you have activated this plugin, you can check the Search Meter section in the Dashboard to see what your visitors are searching for on your blog.
23. Social Media Widget – Adds links to all of your social media and sharing site profiles.
24. Tweetbacks – Show the tweets about your posts and pages as comments on your blog!
25. WP-Polls – Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page.
26. WP Greet Box – Show a different message to your visitor depending on which site they are coming from. For example, you can ask Digg visitors to Digg your post, Google visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed, and more!
27. Broken Link Checker – Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.
28. Smart 404 – Rescue your viewers from site errors! When content cannot be found, Smart 404 will use the current URL to attempt to find matching content, and redirect to it automatically.
29. GD Star Rating – GD Star Rating plugin allows you to set up advanced rating and review system for posts, pages and comments in your blog using single, multi and thumbs ratings.
30. Envolve Chat – Adds the Envolve real-time chat tool to your blog. Envolve is a full featured chat toolbar, similar to Facebook’s chat. It lets your visitors chat with each other about your content!
31. GTranslate – Get translations with a single click between 58 languages (more than 98% of internet users) on your website!

Please leave a comment if you have a favorite tool for blogging or a favorite WordPress plugin.