This update from DragonBlogger.com is about some of the top free software and other information/materials you can find online to help you in just about any online venture you are participating in. So here is my list of free online stuff that I use and recommend to other bloggers or social media promoters.
Also, join the DragonBloggerTech Fanpage on Facebook and stay current with topics and conversations on all things technology, blogging and entertainment. I recently updated the Fanpage with an all new FBML page only to find out that Facebook is doing away with FBML pages at the end of the year and there are only a few weeks left for new FBML pages.
Free Online Stuff
- Office Suites – unless you are working in a corporation where you need Microsoft Exchange chances are you don’t need to purchase Microsoft office to do your day to day work. Open Office is fantastic as a desktop installation office suite, and Google Docs is probably the best cloud suite. If you want collaboration then Google Docs is the way to go, if you prefer to work with all your documents offline then Open Office is for you.
Open Office
Google Docs
- HTML Editors – Most office suite programs add mark up or other junk to text files which can interfere with your ability to cut and paste raw HTML code between your sites. This is when you need a true “text editor” that doesn’t do anything fancy with formatting but has the true code without any formatting for easy html, javascript manipulation. These are the two I use and recommend and both can color code HTML or other language syntax.
NotePad++
TextPad
- Paint / Graphics Programs – If you need to do some logo work or some image editing, then these programs will work very well. I can create some decent images with Paint.NET and GIMP is virtually as featured as Photoshop though has a littler higher learning curve. With Paint.NET you can easily outline or border images and text as well as add blur effects and make dozens of other simple edits.
Paint.NET
GIMP
- Free Images – As a blogger I am constantly looking for free stock images to put in my posts, images help draw eyes but you can’t afford to pick images randomly from Google Images or you could open yourself up to a lawsuit. These image stock sites offer free images, all you have to do is credit the source in a link in your article. I will also sometimes contact the photo author on Flickr or Deviantart.com and ask to use their images in exchange for a credit.
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Stock.Xchng
Flickr
- Free SEO Tools – Whether its tools to find keywords, trends or analyze your pages/posts for keyword density I rely on SEO tools. SEOQuake is a great toolbar for Chrome that will show you all the rank metrics (Alexa, PR, Links, Dofollow…etc) of any website just by visiting it.
SEO Tool Set
Google Keyword Tools
Google Trends
Google Webmaster Tools
SEOQuake Extension for Chrome Browser
- Free Blogging Resources – Okay this was for all the other resources that just didn’t fit into their own category, these are a list of tools specifically for helping bloggers. MyBlogGuest will help you find free content in the form of “guest articles” for your site, ComLuv.com is a blogging network that has a great search engine that lists all blogs who will link back to your site when you comment on them. BlogEngage is a great article submission directory to both network and submit your blog articles too. Dlvr.it is a great RSS feed broadcaster which helps promote your articles or other RSS feeds to your social media accounts.
MyBlogGuest
ComLuv.com
BlogEngage.com
Dlvr.it
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