Must Have Blogging Tools for Bloggers

The number of blogs keeps growing everyday, and they deal with every subject under the sun. Of course, if you are like me, you have more than one blog and sometimes you run out of ideas. This is especially true if these blogs are on different and unrelated subjects.

The tools that every serious blogger should have in their arsenal should include those for helping to create ideas for topics as well as helping to garner traffic. The number of these tools, both free and paid for, is overwhelming. If you are serious about your blog, you need to put time aside to test these out so as to find the ones that best suit your needs. Some of these tools that I think are definite must haves are discussed below.

Content Idea Generator: A tool from SEO Gadget, it is great for keeping abreast of what’s happening on the web so that you can come up with ideas for your blog or website.

Diigo:  If you are like me, you want a tool that allows you to mark, make notes and highlight for later, and that is what this tool does – allows you to organize the web. You can organize, make screenshots, and highlight sections of a webpage for later reading and revisiting.

Finding images and links is made easier with Zemanta. We all know the importance of images and links for generating traffic for your blogs. This tool helps to make it so much easier.

Generating polls and surveys is also a good way to connect with your readers. Conducting surveys also helps you learn what is working for you and what your customers or readers want or would like to see more of.  There are quite a few tools available for this, but one of the easiest to use is PollDaddy.

Finally add SEOBook to your toolbox if you want to have a successful blog or website. This has a host of tools to help you, some free and others you have to pay for, but the free options are fantastic. You can use the free tools to generate keywords, analyse keyword density of your page, and generate Meta tags to name a few.

I would love to hear what tools and apps you use to help you be a better blogger. Drop me a line.

Being Single isn’t the Worst Thing That can Happen

“Being single isn’t bad. What is bad is giving up hope on finding that someone special.” – Anonymous

I have lots of friends, some single, some married, a few are in-between relationships, while others are ‘kind of single’. What I’ve found is that many of my single friends are always seeking that special someone. There is nothing wrong with that, but settling just to be with someone is definitely not the way. Some reasons why being single are not the worst thing that can happen:

• You see that couple that you admire so much? You just may never know that behind closed doors they are like strangers.
• That husband/boyfriend/lover you see holding the car door for her, may just be the one beating her when you cannot see
• That adoring wife, may be the most disrespectful person ever when no one sees or hears
• Ever wonder why your friend has no time for you? It may not be that she or he is so smitten they don’t like to leave each other’s side, it’s because he or she is forbidden to talk to you anymore
• Yes, she’s driving the most expensive car, she dresses like a supermodel, but do you know the price she pays to live that way?
• Do you know the tears she shed in private and the nights she has to sleep alone even though she ‘has someone’
• Have you ever wondered why he stays out as late as he can before going home?

Some Reasons Why Being Single can be Great

If you stop to think about it, there many benefits to being single; five simple ones are:

1. You can do what you want whenever you want
2. You don’t have to feel guilty about spending more time at work or studying. Single people can easily climb the corporate ladder or build their business as they worry less about taking time away from family so they can work longer hours. This also means more wealth in the long run
3. You can decide to stay in and not worry about a messy house
4. You can learn more about yourself
5. There is no need to compromise or give up your dreams and aspirations
   

I know that companionship is important, but take your time and enjoy being single. Sharing your life with someone is wonderful, but only when it’s with someone worth sharing with. Stop lamenting that you have no one to love, or to love you, start by loving you. I am not saying it’s easy, but I am also saying enjoy being single and if it happens that you find that someone, you wont have regrets about never being able to enjoy being single before settling down.

The grass is not always greener on the other side, and even if it seems to be, it may just be artificial turf.

As a self described idealistic I never consider myself as single. I like to say that I’m in between romances at the moment.” ….Carl Henegan (Author of Yesterday’s Darkness)

Being Grateful and Never Giving Up

I've found that with practice you can learn to appreciate life with all its valleys and hills. Yet, being miserable and unhappy is such an easy thing. Being human we tend to take the easy road…and for many that means being unhappy and thinking that life is just too hard.

Over the weekend my son, Jalen made the statement that life is neither hard or easy, its just weird. I told him I was just thinking about life and that we just have to make the most of it. In true 9-years old going on 90 he said, "I'm not going to make the most of life, life better make the most of me. There'll never be anyone else just like me. I'm special and crazy and unique."

That statement got me thinking. There I was worrying about income, bills and everything in between and questioning why life had to be so hard. As if to take me out of my funk even more, I read the following from Sid Savara, “It takes a lot to win at this thing we call life. But it takes even more to lose.” I hate the thought of losing – it’s not normally a part of my vocabulary, but I was certainly allowing life and its challenges to drag me under.

It was if the universe, God, whoever or whatever forces you wants to attribute it to, was talking to me. Telling me to get up, start over, look at where I went wrong and learn from it. Life is what it is, but I had better still strive towards attaining my dreams. Whoever said that I had to attain them all in my 20s and 30s or even my 40s and 50s?

Yes, sometimes life doesn’t follow the path we plan, in plain language, sometimes it seems as if everything is crashing down around us despite and in spite of all our efforts – it stinks. However, the biggest failure is to stop trying – to succeed we need to be stubborn and persistent. Right at that point when we give up, success was just one step away!

I truly believe that if we look, we will that there is beauty from the valley as there is from the hilltop…I’m ready and I intend to attain my goals. Life is indeed beautiful!