Eight tools that keep my blog running

If you’ve visited my blog anytime over the last few years you know that I’ve gone through a LOT of designs. I started out on Blogger before moving to WordPress in college. This post is intended to introduce you to the resources that I use for hosting and designing my blog.

Hosting and design resources:

Several months ago I began researching a new web host. I had been using one company for a couple of years and was happy with the cost and services, but the customer support was lacking and WordPress automatic updates didn’t work with their hosting. I eventually found Site5, and while slightly more expensive overall, the hosting package is great, customer support has been outstanding, and setting up WordPress was a breeze with their automatic installer script. Packages start at around $4.99, but you do have to register domains for an extra cost.

Because Site5 has limited support for domains (Top Level Domains), I needed to find a different place to register my web address when I moved from my old host. I found NameCheap.com and was pleased with how easy it was to move my address to them and how quickly their customer support responded to me with helpful answers. NameCheap supports a wide range of TLD, so if you are looking for a place to buy some domains, I recommend checking them out.

I have had my blog hosted on WordPress since 2005. I started with a free WordPress.com address, but eventually bought my own domain and moved to WordPress.org. It was a great decision! WordPress is definitely one of the best blogging platforms out there. WordPress.org is also free, but you get the advantage of self-hosting, which means you can install any theme or plug-in you want and you can hack the code to pieces all day long to make a site look and act the way you want it to. WordPress.org touts the “Famous 5 Minute Install” for setting up WordPress on most servers.

As I mentioned earlier, I use a theme called StandardTheme for my site. I had never considered paying for a theme before since I have a small readership (Hi, Mom!), but something about StandardTheme grabbed my attention. Spending $99 for a theme felt really expensive and I immediately had buyer’s remorse (I usually do when I spend more than $20 on anything), but after I started digging in I was glad I had spent the money. The community surround StandardTheme is incredible. The 8bit guys are extremely helpful in the forums and are constantly working to improve this theme and release plug-ins. If you’re on the fence, I recommend reading Michael Hyatt’s post on why he switched to StandardTheme. Michael is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, a major Christian book publisher and widely read blogger.

Code and content editing resources:

One of the first things I learned how to use after installing was FireBug. This is a Firefox plug-in that is incredible. FireBug has a lot of features, but the main one is that you can make real-time non-destructive changes to code to see what things do. If you want to see what a certain color will look like, you can select the element, change the color and see it without actually changing your site. I’ve used FireBug to learn how other people do things with CSS and then modify them to fit my needs. A lot of my current design was done by peaking under the hood of other people’s sites. If you plan on doing any coding and you aren’t already using this tool, download Firefox and Firebug right now. Mac and PC.

I do most of my CSS work directly in the WordPress admin panel, but if I’m going to be making a lot of changes or want a way to see the code in a more organized fashion, I pull up TextWrangler. This is a free program that is great for editing any type of code. TextWrangler is Mac only, but I recommend Notepad++ for Windows.

I use CyberDuck for my FTP needs. I’ve tried a couple other programs, but have always liked CyberDuck. It’s simple to use, and doesn’t make uploading to an FTP server a complicated process. I’m sure it has flaws or that other programs are better in some way, but it gets the job done. CyberDuck is now available for Windows, but I use FileZilla for my FTP needs at work on my PC.

If you do any basic screen captures and you use a Mac then you should be using Skitch. This has been my favorite screen shot app for the last three years. It’s easy. It’s fast. And it’s awesome! It makes grabbing screenshots and adding annotations incredibly easy and painless. I still use Preview to get some screenshots, but I do most of my screenshot work in Skitch. In fact, I just used it to get the Skitch heart logo since they don’t let you save their logo from the website. There is a free and paid version. Mac only, but I use FastStone Image Viewer for Windows. It’s a pretty impressive free program too, but the interface isn’t nearly as nice or easy to use.

There you have it. Those are all of the things that help me keep my blog online and looking good. What tools do you use for blogging? Leave a comment so others can discover helpful resources for developing a blog. If you recommend anything that has an affiliate link, feel free to use that link unless it’s one of the resources I’ve already listed.

Some of the above links are affiliate links, which means I will make some money from those companies if you purchase one of their services or products through my link. These are products that I personally use and am comfortable recommending to others. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.