Blogging101:Top 10 Tools for Savvy Bloggers Part 1

Let’s face it: if your blog is your business, you need to treat it that way. You need to have the right tools to make sure your blog grows and makes money. But how do you know what those tools are? It’s simple. You don’t have to. We’ve tried them all, and we are here to tell you what works.

1. WordPress

Blogging101:Installing Wordpress and Start Blogging!

Before we can get started and I can show you how to make money online, we need to sort the essentials out, that means we have to get you online! Today I will show you how to build your first blog, which is surprisingly easy!

Make sure you take action as you read through my emails or you will find yourself a month down the road and you still haven't started! If you do have any troubles with the eCourse, then hit the reply button and I will be happy to respond to your email.

It is fine to host your blog with free hosts like Blogspot or Wordpress. If you are interesnted in creating a serious site, you should consider finding a Domain Name.

I'm always creating blogs because you can literally set them up in a hour, one of the fundamental things you need to have is a good domain name. For those of you are aren't quite sure what a domain is, it's one of those .Com URL's you type in your web browser to visit websites.

It's super important to choose a good domain, I often see long winded domains like, RobertSmith4CentralOregonHomes.com? For a start It's really long, boring and has so many words you will spend so much time just typing the domain that you will give up. When coming up with a domain name I have a little test I use, basically you have to be able to tell someone on the street your domain and then a hour later when they get home they must be able to remember it. This basically means, make it simple, no .Net .Co.Uk .Info domains, no dash's in between words and try to keep it to a 3 word maximum. 

Here's what I do, I put a twist to my domains to make them more interesting, for example, I could of had YoungEntrepreneurs.com instead of Retireat21.com, but the name Retireat21 is really catchy and something no one forgets, its even a speaking point for a lot of people. It's all about being creative and not trying to get every keyword under the sun in your domain. Another way you can come up with new domain names is by putting the benefit and your keyword in a domain. My friend was creating an outsourcing website and was thinking of domains like OutsourcingDistrict.com but it doesn't stand out to you and say what's its about, I advised him to buy the domain, SaveTimeOutsource.com, it tells the reader straight away the benefit of Outsourcing and why you should use the site.

When buying a domain you want to use a big company so that you know they will look after your domain and give you the support you may need

Hosting your Domain

The most important thing about running an Internet Business is that you have a reliable host, without one, you are wasting your time.

Peoples Choice: 20 Most Popular Open Source Software Part1

20 Most Popular Open Source Software

These days, you can quite easily buy a brand-spanking-new computer and install all the software you need for free, using applications offered under the Open Software License. You can get a free image editor, a free sound editor, a free word processor, media player, file archiver, PDF creator… the list goes on and on and on. While some of these free apps do not offer quite the same level of polished functionality as their commercial rivals, others far exceed the capabilities of everything else on the market. Below, we take a close look at the cream of the crop: 20 invaluable and indispensable open source applications that you really should be using, if you’re not already. The vast majority of them are cross-platform and absolutely 100% free! You’re bound to find several that are perfectly suited to your needs.

 

1. WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular blogging platform, used by a staggering 202 million websites. As simple or as complex as you want it to be, WordPress is supported by a wide array of plugins which can be used to transform a standard blog into anything you could possibly desire. Besides blogs, WordPress can be used as a straightforward content management system to power anything from an e-commerce site to a social network.

 

2. Magento

Magento, used by 30,000 merchants, including Samsung, Nespresso and The North Face, is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce platform. Magento Community Edition is offered for free under the Open Software License. The Enterprise Edition, for which you have to pay, offers features like multi-store capability, store credits and gift cards, out-of-the-box.

 

3. Mozilla Firefox

Firefox currently accounts for 24.43% of the recorded usage share of web browsers, but this figure is on the rise. Already the browser of choice for most web professionals, Firefox’s popularity is growing thanks to its vast selection of third party add-ons, which let users tailor their browsing environment down to the finest detail.

 

4. Mozilla Thunderbird

With its speedy searches, built-in RSS feeds, strong security and superb add-ons, Thunderbird has to be the best, free email application available. If you’re prepared to spend some time tailoring your email environment with add-ons, you’ll absolutely love it, but it’s probably not ideal for complete novices.

 

5. FileZilla

FileZilla is a hugely successful, cross-platform FTP client. It’s also available as a server, for Windows only. Created in January 2001 by Tim Klosse as a class project, FileZilla has gone on to become the 5th most popular download of all time from SourceForge.net.

 

6. GnuCash

GnuCash provides a great, free alternative to paid-for accounting software. Designed for personal and small business use, it offers bank account, stock, income and expense tracking, in addition to double-entry accounting.

 

7. Audacity

Music software like Cubase and Logic Pro can be incredibly expensive, which is why an increasing number of people are turning to Audacity, a free, cross-platform sound editor. Users can record and edit live audio; cut, copy, splice and mix sounds; and convert ageing tapes and records into digital format.

 

 

8. GIMP

Just like sound editors, industry standard image editing software is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, but GIMP provides a free alternative. It performs every major function you could desire, except for, vitally, CMYK separation functionality necessary for prepress work.

 

 

9. OpenOffice

With the ability to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases, OpenOffice is an accomplished rival to Microsoft Office, which clearly influenced OpenOffice’s design. Microsoft Office users will feel completely at home and find that OpenOffice performs just as well, if not better.

 

10. VLC

At last count, VLC media player had been downloaded 300 million times. Unlike some paid-for alternatives, VLC supports practically every audio/video codec and file format. The most recent VLC release also offers live recording of streaming video, frame-by-frame advancement and superb speed controls.

Read the Conclusion