Freeware Blog Editor from Firefox Browser

Deepest Sender is a blogging client that runs inside popular browsers Firefox, SeaMonkey, and XULRunner.

So, Deepest Sender is a blogging client for Firefox-based applications. What does this mean? Well, it means that instead of having to go to the Update page on LiveJournal/WordPress/Blogger/whatever, or loading up a separate client program, all you have to do is hit Ctrl+\, or click the button in your toolbar, and you can start posting.

Advantages over using update pages:

* Multiple accounts - You can have multiple accounts in Deepest Sender, and quickly switch between them.

* WYSIWYG - An integrated mini-HTML editor, with countless hacks implemented to get it to function as well and as neatly as possible. You can also switch between that and source view, or preview mode. No more typing countless <li> tags!

* Sidebars! You can load up Deepest Sender in the Mozilla/Firefox sidebar, and post from there.

* Drag and drop - select part of a page, drag it onto DS, and it's there!

* Music detection - if you have Foxy Tunes installed, or are running Windows and are using a plugin for your media player that is compatible with the Windows Media Player blogging plugin, then you can have music automatically detected for you. If you can get your player to write song details to a text file, then DS can detect the current music from that, too.

* Spellchecking - if you're running Firefox 2 or SeaMonkey with spellcheck installed, you can spellcheck your entries!

* Crash recovery - if Mozilla/Firefox crashes while you were halfway through typing up a huge entry, don't worry! When you next load Deepest Sender up, it'll try and recover as much of your post as possible.

* Load and save drafts - want to come back to something later? Save it as a draft, then get to work on another post. You can load it back up later.

* Easily edit posts - instead of poking through LiveJournal's edit system, just hit Ctrl+Shift+H, and use the calendar to find the post you were after, load it up, and edit it. If you're using other blogging protocols, you can easily search through the last 15 posts.

* Offline mode - Can't connect? Well, type away at your post, then load Deepest Sender at a later time when you can connect to your server!

Advantages over other clients:

* Easy installation - go to the Deepest Sender site (or Mozilla update), click install, restart your browser, and start posting! Even if you're on a computer account that doesn't have administrative priveliges (on Firefox)!

* Small download - how many other blogging clients are under 300KB?

* Cross-platform - Deepest Sender will run on any OS that Firefox will run on. Type up posts at work on your Windows computer, then come home and type up more posts on your Linux box - using the same program!

Screenshots (Click to Enlarge):

Developers Website: http://deepestsender.mozdev.org/

Latest software release: 0.9.3 (June 2, 2010).

Direct Client Download: http://downloads.mozdev.org/deepestsender/deepestsender-0.9.3.xpi

Review more free software for blog publishing (48 items to choose from at the moment) at RateItAll Rating List.

How to track stats directly from the Blogger blog?

I have noticed a new feature Stats in Blogger onsite editor not right away, as it was introduced, but now I am using it all the time. It gives you convenience of instant access to the basic statistics and data of the blog, you are working on. The brief explanation on the new feature is offered on the official Blogger blog.

Although some of you use Google Analytics or other third party tools to track your blog traffic, many of you have requested an easier-to-use, fully-integrated stats feature for Blogger. We heard that, and we are excited to announce that Blogger in Draft now has built-in stats. Just go to Blogger in Draft, and you'll notice a new "Stats" tab. You don't have to install or configure anything to start benefitting from Stats.

The coolest thing about the new Blogger Stats is that it monitors and analyzes your visitor traffic in near-real-time. You can see which posts are getting the most visits and which sites are sending traffic to your blog right now. For example, if a reader shares one of your blog posts on Twitter and the post is getting lots of clicks, you will see a traffic increase in Blogger Stats almost instantly, with the particular Tweet mentioning your post being identified as the traffic source. Of course, traffic data across longer time periods (day/week/month) and all-time historical data are available as well.


There's also a lot more data that's being tracked, such as popular search keywords that send visitors to your blog, which country your visitors come from, and which web browsers they are using. Basically, with the new Stats feature, you know what's going on with your blog right now.

The new Stats feature shows all of this data in a simple, easy-to-understand graphical user interface. Since Stats are part of Blogger, you don't have to sign up for another service, or embed any code in a gadget.

Additionally, if you want the enterprise-level power and flexibility of Google Analytics, you can still use it, as outlined in this Help Center article. Note that the pageview data in Blogger Stats and in Google Analytics may not be identical, due to different collection mechanisms used. Also, Blogger Stats do not support private blogs for now.

How often should you blog?

One of the blog readers asked to share my experience on the topic of how frequently the blog should be updated to reach the best outcomes. Let’s see what the expert’s advices are.

So how do you decide how often to blog? What’s the magic formula? There’s no definitive approach to figuring this out. Instead, take time to ponder the recommendations offered by WebWorkerDaily to help you find what will work for your blog.

• Review your business goals. Increasing blog readership is a worthy goal, but how does the blog support your business’ goals? If your web site itself is the income generator, then you’ll need frequent fresh content. If the blog is for promoting you as an expert in your field, which in turns supports your consulting business, then you probably don’t need to blog daily.
• Know your audience. What jobs do your readers have? How much of their time do they have for reading blogs? How active are they on blogs and social media? What industry do your readers come from? Are they reading during the workday or after hours?
• Identify your contributors. Is your publication a one-person blog or a group blog? Group blogs cut the chances of burnout.
• Look at the length of your posts. Some people with large followings write 1,000+ word posts; these people tend to publish less often. Readers may better tolerate daily posts when they’re shorter: 200-400 words. Some bloggers mix it up with longer posts on a weekly basis, with shorter posts filling in the other days.
• Check web site stats. After adjusting your blogging frequency, check to see if the stats have changed. Remember that while a change could be associated just with the frequency or posting, it could also be because the content quality or level of blog promotion changed.

So, Mister S., did you get the answers? Probably, no… Because, the question on the blog publishing frequency has multiple dimensions, and does not have a magic answer. Let’s say, more you write, you have a higher chance to get the wide-spread exposure in a shorter amount of time. Not only do new blog posts give people a reason to return to your blog, but they also help your blog in terms of search engine optimization. Each new post is a new entry point for people to find your blog through search engines. The more entry points, the better the chances are that new readers will find your blog.

However, do you have abilities and time to publish several quality posts on a daily basis? In most cases, frequent publishing is a sign of a splog, not a busy blogger. So, be sure to offer the attractive content as much as you can. But, do not lose a fun of writing and do not get burn out, rushing for publicity. I would say that consistency of the posts is more important than frequency. If your readers are used to your two posts a week, do not disappoint them by long gaps. They might just leave and never come back.

Blogging for fun

39 Best Freeware Blog Desktop Publishing Utilities

As I mentioned in my previous post, many bloggers look forward on using stand-alone desktop applications to prepare their blog post before publishing them. WriteToMyBlog provides free web-based solution, but it has several drawbacks:

1. You need Internet connection when you work with the site.
   
2. You depend entirely on the site functionality and operation speed.
   
3. You have to provide your login data to get connected to your publishing platform, which many users do not feel comfortable to do.

Desktop Blog publishing utilities, while having their own problems, successfully bypass the noted limitations. You can work offline on your article generation and formatting, and publish it as soon as it is ready. That saves valuable online time and traffic, if your data plan is not unlimited.


In the Rating list, I am going to present today, I listed free software assisting bloggers in preparation, formatting, and submission the posts to their hosting sites with minimum amount of time and best outcomes. Presented utilities are to help those using free blogging platforms like Blogger and Wordpress, and those who prefer maintaining their Blog on the independent Web Site using server-based scripts.


I presented this list on this blog for the first time in January 2008, when there were just 14 utilities included. As of today, there are already 39 free computer programs, scripts, and plug-ins on the list. Feel free to review the collection, input your rating and experience, and even add some items that might be currently missing from consideration.


RateItAll List: http://www.rateitall.com/t-24825-blog-publishing-freeware.aspx


The programs with the highest rating are:

1. Windows Live Writer
   
2. BlogDesk
   
3. Qumana
   
4. W.bloggar
   
5. WordPress
   
6. Zoundry Blog Writer

BlogDesk - free software for Blog writing and publishing

Sometimes, blog post preparation for publishing takes more time than post generation. It is not suppose to be like that. You should delegate as much responsibilities for the post publishing to your secretary (if you have one), or software.

BlogDesk is an offline software client that assists you in comfortable writing and easy publishing new posts to your blog.

Software Features:
* The main feature - it is totally free to use.

* Software is optimized for the following blogging platforms: WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity, and ExpressionEngine.

* Insert images directly with WYSIWYG editor, edit them with built-in ImageWizard, and even create linked thumbnails.

* Easily insert and edit links. If you link to local files (such as MP3 or PDF), BlogDesk will automatically upload them to your blog file storage.

* For multi-language blogging, you got 14 Dictionaries to conduct spell checking.

* Interesting feature of Frequently Used Phrases saves time on typing of often used phrases, sentences, acronyms or complex formulations.

* Define and insert tags instead of retyping them with Tags-Generator.

* Publish you post simultaneously to multiple blogs with one click.

* Keep your ideas and notes for the future posts in the convenience of Notebook, where you are able to create multiple entries under multiple categories.

Download the software from authors’s Web Site: http://www.blogdesk.org/en/index.htm
P.S. The only thing, I do not like in this software - is that it does not support Blogger.