Content is king (or queen if you will permit me the variation), no questions asked. The personal (in your eyes) and perceived (in the eyes of others) success in the blogging world belongs with those who can clearly articulate their thoughts, connect with the heart and mind of their readers and consistently write authentic content even on non-original commonplace topics. It is your writing voice that carries you through and through!
With that slap of truth out of the way, I admit I have been itching to write about blogging beyond the writing. I want to write this post my best discoveries in this world of changing and evolving technologies. I want to share only the top tools, platforms and applications which I use to create and maintain Prolific Living. I call them my indispensable pillars of blogging excellence and I must share the genius of these pillars with you.
This is Part 1 of 2 where I share the first 5 of Top 10 indispensable Pillars of Blogging Excellence. Part 2 of this topic in the next post reveals the next 5.
1 Macbook Pro for Computer Platform
The confessions of a true Mac convert are generally tinged with a bit of regret and a large dose of happiness and mine are no different. The regret is not from ditching the PC or heavens forbid, missing it in any way shape or form. Far from it. The regret is the whispering wonder why you did not ditch it sooner!
The Macbook Pro has revolutionized the way I do anything but mostly the way I blog. I do not think of my Coco as an expense; I consider her an investment into my time, my effort and my sanity. She is the ultimate blogging machine! I also think it nonnegotiable to be in love with the machine with which you spend hours upon hours of your days, much the same as with your partner in life. A casual so-so affair just won’t do the job well!
What I love about my Macbook Pro in a nutshell:
Fast.
Stable.
Intuitive.
Beautiful.
Virtual windows!
Smart.
Reliable.
Simple File Structure.
Flow of Applications.
Manageable and Delightful.
User Friendly. User Lovely even!
Does not try user’s patience or sanity by bizarre untimely crashes.
2 WordPress for Publishing Platform
WordPress is the unmatched king of publishing platforms for bloggers. It is worlds ahead and beyond Blogspot which I used in my dark early days of blogging. Transition of archives to WordPress from Blogspot was a breeze and the possibilities that opened up with WordPress are still amazing me. I could see the potential only one week into using it and now, a year and a half and a few thousand hours of playing around later, I still think WordPress and the entire community around it rocks. Choosing the right platform is like choosing the right tango shoes (super important!). It makes or breaks the dance!
Why I love WordPress for blogging in a few words:
Open Source: created by a community of developers (as opposed to licensed software.)
Thousands (10,060 listed just on the site) of plugins, 1200 themes, and tons of widgets to enhance the plain vanilla (which is pretty darn nice to start with!)
Free. Completely free!
Supremely intuitive and powerful user interface.
Easy to use visual editor (like Word but better) or the HTML/PHP editors as needed (geeky and sometimes necessary!)
State of the Art (in their own very true words).
Professional and Reliable.
Compatible with Thesis (#3) and Scribe (#4).
Powerful and Expandable in Features.
Discussion forums and the knowledge
Stays up-to-date with fast-paced technology and user community demands.
Community support for your questions.
Hundreds of users and blogs dedicated to WordPress understanding and improvement.
Made with blogging visionaries in mind (it sees the future before it gets here!)
Smart and Simple. Love it.
3 Thesis for Blog Theme of Choice
August 2009 marks the day Prolific Living grew up and started hanging out in the park with the big boys and girls. No doubt she is still a baby but she is prepared for the games. All this to mean, I broke down and splurged on the fabulous Thesis Theme and have not regretted it once. I went from one great free theme to next but always lacked one thing or another. Thesis is simply brilliant, genius, and revolutionary; that Chris Pearson guy is not just a cute face!
Why I am in love with my Thesis Theme in a tiny nutshell:
Professional.
Well-worth the one-time price.
Upgrades are free for lifetime.
Powerful and Feature Rich, well beyond what I have explored.
Optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Adds speed to your blog.
An education robot on many aspects of blogging.
Probloggers love it. Probloggers USE it.
Works well with Google search engines (I am simplifying the best complexities of this Theme and not doing it justice for sake of brevity)
The support forums rock! (Godhammer and GirlieGeek are two of the most responsive and knowledgeable people, think little Chris-Pearson robots, they answer questions on the forums in a matter of minutes! Can you pay for support like this? Apple makes me wait longer on the phone!!)
Talk about State of the Art.
All these and many more, it makes you want to get up and squeeze it tight with a big virtual {hug}!
4 Scribe for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A few months ago, I decided to invest yet again on one more thing: Scribe for SEO. A few of my blogger friends use it and the hype around it is respectable as is the source (Copyblogger). I am overall happy for the investment. The Scribe team provides good support but has been slow on just a couple of minor issues, mostly feature enhancements sent by yours truly. I really believe my blog’s SEO has improved with Scribe. I like to think of Scribe as a supervisor in making sure you are doing your SEO right rather than a slave doing your SEO for you, so beware of the difference!
Why I think Scribe is a good investment:
Goes hand in hand with Thesis.
Score my work on SEO and suggests how to optimize it to get a better score.
Professional bloggers use and recommend it.
Simplifies the complex topic of SEO by putting a structure around it.
I really believe it increases the ease with which my posts are indexed.
The support team could do a better job though – I suggest learning from Thesis (#4 above) top-notch players in their field!
5 iPhone Apps for the Mobile Blogger
Have I mentioned how I feel about the iPhone? This is not just a love-love relationship based on good looks and sweet whistles. The iPhone is brilliant for making a mobile blogger happy. What are you doing to turn your blog into a professional-looking one on your readers’ Smart Phones? See my list of indispensable iPhone apps.
On the photo to the right, you can see some of my favorite iPhone apps for blogging with the butterfly marker!
What I love on the iPhone for blogging:
WordPress Mobile Admin (Safari version) You have got to have this free remote WordPress plugin!
WPTouch iPhone Theme – This little guy turns your blog into a professional layout on the iPhone, my best discovery yet!
Dropbox and Evernote (more on my love affair with these 2 in Part 2 of this post) – Take notes, record ideas, snap photos, and sync up to the server cloud and to the Mac for backup!
Hootsuite (Twitter) and Facebook for social media networking
Gmail (even for multiple accounts) to be connected with readers and bloggers!
iTalk Lite – to record your thoughts and ideas on the go!
Safari – Safari is the innate app to iPhone and enables you to access the WPTouch of which you see a screen shot (on the right) as well as WordPress Mobile Admin. Learn to navigate your Safari well!
Summary and your Thoughts
Wooh! These guys were not easy to line up, even when I broke it into two parts. These apps are not just for blogging either as you can see, think of all the brilliant uses in which you can engage them!!! Well, I am off to rest my pretty fingers for all of 5 minutes and then prepare Part 2 of the genius applications and services for us.
I am Farnoosh, the founder of Prolific Living. So glad you are here. My mission is to empower you to unblock your creative genius to live your dream life.