My Personal Blogging Tools.

One of the challenges for me after actually writing something is getting the post up on the site, easily. Over the past year I’ve used MarsEdit as my desktop blogging platform. In fact i’m writing this from MarsEdit3. It allows me to easily save drafts for later, and allows me to switch to a browser to grab a link without accidentally crashing a browser and my new post that may be saved. I know there are other desktop blogging tools out there, but MarsEdit is what I’m using now. It works with most blogging platforms i’m aware of. I use it with WordPress and ExpressionEngine.

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Another tool I use daily is Smugmug.com I post quite a few photos form my Daily photo project and Smugmug handles all bandwidth and resizing of my photos for my posts. When I upload a full resolution photo to Smugmug, their servers create 6 versions from thumbnail to XL3large. Also, Smugmug.com offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, having my photos served up through their servers reduces load on my hosting server. The various sizes also allows me to post a large version and in MarsEdit I make the image clickable to very large image in a new window. I’m able to bring the smugmug image links directly into MarsEdit so i can see how the images will look inside my post, which is helpful. Smugmug.com is an annual fee site, starting at $40/year, but well worth it, Ive been a customer for over 6 years now. For $5 off your first year here’s a coupon code/link: https://secure.smugmug.com/signup.mg?Coupon=8v0X3g7f8J58s

Pretty simple and I’m amazed at the difference finding the right tools makes.