Blogging Article by: Roy Werner Karlsen
Welcome to Part 5 of the Become A Blogger Mini Course.
If you've followed all the steps inside the previous lessons, you should now have your blog setup, with your chosen topic, optimized for the search engines and busy creating magical content that will attract a hoard of traffic to your blog.
But, just creating text for your blog is kind of boring...
And to spice it all up a little, I have a very exciting lesson for you today.
Today, I'll spill the beans on ALL the major tools Yaro and I use for creating content for our blogs, including powerful tools for normal text, images, audio and video for your blog.
Without a doubt, if you use the tools I recommend to you today, your blog will start standing out BIG time from everyone else's on the blogosphere, and people will finally start taking notice of what you're up to.
The tools that we use can be broken down into 4 main areas:
1. Tools for text
2. Tools for images
3. Tools for audio
4. And tools for video
Together, these tools will give you an amazing arsenal of content creation "weapons" to help you blow people away when they come to visit your blog.
For each of the above 4 areas, I'll provide you with content creation tools, editing tools as well as "cool" tools (the kind of tools that will help you stand out from the crowd...)
Ok, let's stop beating around the bush and get straight into it...
-------------------------------------------------- 1. Tools For Text --------------------------------------------------
For each of the tools I'm about to share with you, there are a plethora of other tools that you can also use.
One would think that it's an advantage having so many tools to choose from. But sometimes having so much choice makes it actually quite hard to distinguish between tools that are useful, and tools that will just waste you time and frustrate the heck out of you.
So, the way to look at the following tools, is to see them as "shortcuts" to help you get the job done.
Between Yaro and myself, we've spent years and years of research on the BEST tools in the industry, and this is a compilation of that list.
The bulk of your content creation is likely to be text. So, it's important that you get this bit right first.
--- Content Creation Tools For Text ---
To kick the process off, I almost always make use of mind mapping for creating new content. The best and also no-cost tool that I've found so far is FreeMind. You can download a copy here:
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download
In terms of actually creating text, I use one of two programs - if you're on PC, it's KeyNotes or just NotePad (which comes with Windows):
http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/keynote-download-1160.shtml
And if you're on Mac, it's TextWrangler:
http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/
Both these programs are excellent for creating text fast because they are lightweight and they offer you a very easy way of handling your text articles.
Using something like Microsoft Word for your blog posts can be a bit of a pain sometimes, especially once you're ready to copy and paste your text into your blog.
Often, the text from Microsoft Word contains special formatting, and when you just copy and paste it over to your blog, it can wreak havoc to what the final post looks like.
You'll see what I mean once you start playing around with either Keynotes or TextWrangler - two fantastic programs!
Oh, and both of these programs cost nothing :)
Ok, what if you want to create a professional looking pdf document that you can provide as a downloadable resource for your audience?
That leads us to...
--- Editing Tools For Text ---
Other than just creating text posts for your blog, from time to time you might want to create a downloadable report that you can offer your readers at no extra cost.
Offering you readers with a complimentary report can be a very powerful tool for building trust with your audience, and also helping you spread the word about your blog.
The Roadmap To Become A Blogger is one such example. And in fact, we used the exact same tools I'm about to reveal to you for creating the Roadmap report.
Of course, you can also use these tools to create e-books, and sell them through a service like ClickBank. But more on this later...
Ok, so here's what you need:
If you're on PC, just use Microsoft Word for editing your document and adding pretty pictures etc. I know it's a bit of a pain to use, but it's good enough for what you're trying to achieve here.
Then, once you're done with your document, you can use the Bullzip software to convert your document into a pdf document - the best format for downloading documents on the internet:
http://www.bullzip.com/
If you're on Mac, you have some nicer and easier options...
We just use Pages that comes with Apple's "iWorks" package and it does a fantastic job (this is what we used for the creation of The Roadmap To Become A Blogger report).
What's great about Pages, is that it has a built in feature that allows you to easily export your document to a pdf document - very easy to use.
The best thing about both the above options, is that they allow you to add clickable links inside your reports.
This is essential if you want people to be able to come back to your blog or other web pages while reading the pdf report.
And that's pretty much it - that's all we use for creating our text content and turning them into powerful reports that people can download from our blogs and other websites.
Let's now look at some...
--- Cool Tools For Text ---
There is only one "Cool Tool" I want to mention here for text, and that is the Slide Share application:
http://www.slideshare.net/
It's really more a presentation tool than a text tool, but what's great about it is that you can use it to create automatic slide presentations that you can then embed straight on your blog.
And even better, when other people see it, they can grab the same embed code and embed the very same slide presentation on their own blogs.
It's a bit like YouTube, except that it's only for slide presentations.
SlideShare can be a very powerful traffic generation tool when used right, so I'd encourage you to experiment with it and test it to see what kind of results you get from it.
If nothing else, at least you'll have something cool on your blog that other people will admire and find interesting :)
Ok, let's now move onto...
-------------------------------------------------- 2. Tools For Images --------------------------------------------------
Next up are some great tools for images.
You know what they say... "An image is worth a thousand words..."
So, if you can use the right kind of images to go along with the content of your blog, you could have a MUCH more powerful impact on your audience, compared to if you only used text.
There's just so much more you can do with images that you can't do with text. So, even if you don't get into audio and video for your blog, at least start using images regularly. It will add *significantly* to the value of your blog.
Ok, let's get into it...
--- Content Creation Tools For Images ---
Unless you're a talented graphic artist, creating the right images for your blog can be a pain.
But the next best and easiest way for finding great images for your blog, is to simply use a service like StockXpert.
This is where you can choose from thousands and thousands of images for your blog without worrying about copyright or royalty payments.
It does cost something, but if you think about how much time you can save by quickly finding the right images, it's really a "no-brainer" decision.
You can find StockExpert here:
http://stockxpert.com
--- Editing Tools For Images ---
Sometimes, just getting an image from a service like StockXpert may not be quite enough for what you are trying to achieve.
For example, sometimes you may only want to use a portion of the actual image, or you may want to change some colors, or simply change the sizes and resolution of your images.
Whatever those changes may be, you'll need some kind of an image editing program.
But don't worry, the following two amazing tools also cost nothing. So you won't have to burn a hole in your pocket.
For just simple image manipulations, you can use IrfanView, a great little program that helps make all kinds of changes to your images.
I mostly use IrfanView for changing the size of my images, cropping, or changing the resolution.
You can get a copy of IrfanView here:
http://www.irfanview.com/
If you're interested in doing some more hard-core image manipulation, I suggest you use The GIMP.
It's an amazing image editing program that allows you to either create your own graphics from scratch, or just simple image manipulations.
I used The GIMP to design the cover for The Roadmap To Become A Blogger report, as well as all the other graphics on Become A Blogger.
It's a very powerful piece of software, and you can grab a copy here (also at no cost):
http://www.gimp.org/
--- Cool Tools For Images ---
If you really want to impress your friends with your blog, you'll like the next cool tool...
It's called Animoto, and it helps you create simple slide show presentations with music that you can stream straight from your blog.
All you have to do, is upload a bunch of your photos or images, upload your own music, and voila, the rest is done for you automatically.
Once everything is processed, all you have to do, is grab the embed code, and paste it into your blog - easy peasy.
You can access Animoto here:
http://animoto.com
Let's now move onto the next section...
-------------------------------------------------- 3. Tools For Audio --------------------------------------------------
Creating audio for your blog is great fun and it can add a whole new dimension to your blog. A dimension that your readers will just LOVE!
Trust me on this one...
So, here are a few tools that you might want to start using, if you're not using them already...
--- Creation Tools For Audio ---
A really easy way to create audio for your blog is to do interviews with experts in your niche. You can do this very easily using software like Skype for the interview:
http://www.skype.com
And you can use Pamela Recording software to record the call with:
http://www.pamela.biz/
If you're on Mac, I suggest you use a neat little program called Call Recorder for recording your calls:
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/
Of course, you don't HAVE to interview people to create audio content. You can also record just your own voice using recording software on your computer, like Audacity for example (see below).
--- Editing Tools For Audio
To edit your recordings, you can use one of the following programs (they both cost zero):
For PC users, you can use Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
And if you're on Mac, you can use Garageband:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
--- Cool Tools For Audio ---
To put the cherry on the cake for audio on your blog, here are two great cool tools:
1. Use the Audio Player WordPress Plugin to help stream the audio straight from your blog:
http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/
Just make sure you export your final audio production to an mp3 file format for this to work.
2. And if you want to get real fancy, use the Odiogo plugin to automatically turn your text posts into podcasts (this is really neat if you like listening to computer generated voices):
http://www.odiogo.com/
Let's now move onto the final part of today's lesson...
-------------------------------------------------- 4. Tools For Video --------------------------------------------------
Finally, let's talk about some great tools you can use for getting video onto your blog.
--- Creation Tools For Video ---
If you're new to online video, the first thing I recommend you do, is to go to my online video training site where you can learn the basics of video production (again, zero cost):
http://getyourvideoonline.com/
On the above site, you will learn about a number of really great tools you can use for creating your own videos that you can ad to your blog.
But let's just quickly go over the basics...
--- Editing Tools For Video ---
If you're on PC, the best entry level editing program you'll find at the moment is Sony Vegas.
Trust me, I've tested A LOT of different programs, and, while not perfect, Sony Vegas came out tops as an entry level editor:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp
(Just grab the basic one - it does a pretty good job)
If you don't like spending money, you can always just use Windows Movie Maker, which comes with all Microsoft Windows installations.
If you're on Mac, you can do some pretty cool editing with the program that just comes with the operating software, iMovie.
But if you're keen for a bit more video adventure, I'd recommend you get yourself a copy of Final Cut Express (the cut down version of the software that Hollywood movie editors use):
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/ (Not too expensive, but really worth it if you're doing a lot of video editing.)
It's what I currently use for all of my non screen-capture videos... and I just LOVE it!
If you just want to do screen capture videos though, I recommend you use Camtasia for PC and Screenflow for Mac:
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm
--- Cool Tools For Video ---
If you want to make your video content "go the extra mile", here are some great tools you could use...
First up is LinkedTube and Overlay.tv.
Both these services allow you to add clickable links inside your videos.
All you have to do, is upload your videos to YouTube as you normally would do, and then use one or both of these services to add clickable links inside your videos.
This can be great for adding affiliate links inside your videos or for driving people to a specific web page, for example a sales page for your new product.
You can find these services here:
http://www.linkedtube.com/
http://www.overlay.tv/
Now, if this does not impress your audience and make you stand out from the crowd, I don't know what will!
As I said right at the beginning of this lesson, there are a plethora of tools around on the internet that you can use to help you stand out from the crowd.
The above list of tools are the ones that Yaro and I have used in the past or are using right now to help us create "wow" content.
It took us years to get to this point, so all you have to do now, is take advantage of these "shortcuts" and see what happens.
Remember to have fun with all these tools and to look at this whole exercise as one big experiment.
If you don't like any of the tools, just don't use them. But I'm pretty sure that you'll like at least ONE of the above tools!
Inside the next part of this mini course, I will show you how to drive hoards of new traffic to your blog using sneaky little traffic generation methods and tactics.
So you'll definitely want to hang around for the next one. Traffic is what ultimately helps you monetize your blog.
But more on this inside the next lesson...
Talk soon!
Roy Werner Karlsen
Become A Blogger
Part 5 of 7
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