A to Z of Professional blogging

Following is my A to Z of Professional blogging including blogging tools, blogging platforms, blogging services and ways of making money from blogging (in fact whether you blog for money or not much of what follows should help you improve your blogging).

I hope you enjoy it and feel free to share your own tools and services in comments (I’m sure I’ll have missed some). update – I’ve been adding your suggestions and we’re now up to over 130 blog tools and platforms.

A

AdSense – contextual ad program by Google

Adbrite – sell text ads

Amazon Associates – popular affiliate program

aStore – add an Amazon Store to your Blog

AdGenta – text ads by Qumana (see ‘Q’)

AdRotator – WP ad rotating plugin

Akismet – Comment Spam Fighting Tool

Adhearus – pay per click advertising

AdWords – the advertisers side of AdSense – many bloggers use it to promote their blogs

AzoogleAds – advertising system

Audio Blogger – adds audio to your blog

B

Build A Niche Store- add an eBay store to your site

Bidvertiser – bid based advertising

Blog Ads – blog advertising network

Blog Jet - blog editing tool

Blog Desk - blog editing tool

Bloglines – Web based RSS feed reader

BlogPulse – blog search tool

BlogPolls – tool for putting polls on your blog

Blog Poll – another blog poll tool

Backpackit – useful organizational tool

Blogger.com – blog platform

Bloggers for Hire – bloggers looking for work and potential employers looking for bloggers

BlogSitter.net – service for find guest bloggers while you take a holiday

BlogBurst – syndicates bloggers content for mainstream medium

BlogFlux – blog services portal

BlogRolling – a blogroll management tool

Blogbeat – blog metrics tool

Blogger Jobs – a blog following the advertising of blog jobs

C

Chitika eMiniMalls – advertising program

CrispAds – blog advertising network

Creative Commons – copyright licenses

Copyscape – tool for checking for content theft/plagiarism

Clicksor – advertising program

Clickbank – library of many affiliate products

Commission Junction – collection of many affiliate programs

Casale Media – advertising solution

D

Del.icio.us – social bookmarking

Digg – social bookmarking

Drupal – blog platform

DomainsBot – a tool for finding domain names

Digital Point – useful forum for webmasters

E

Ecto – blog editing tool

Expression Engine – blog platform

Endo – News aggregator for Mac Users

Ether – lets readers book a consulting call with you from your sidebar

F

Feedburner – RSS feed management tool – also provides Feed Advertising

Feedster – RSS search Tool

FeedDemon – RSS reader from NewsGator

FeedBlitz – email blog and RSS subscription service

Flickr – photo sharing and hosting

Flock – a browser with in built blogging

Furl – social bookmarking

Free Blog Polls

FilmLoop – free photocasting network

Feedpass – RSS management – integrates with AdSense

Favicon Maker – make Favicons from photos

G

Google Analytics - Metrics Tool

Gabbly – add chat to your blog

Google Reader – RSS reader

Gnoos – Australian made blog search tool

Google News – tracking news – many use it as a source of content

Google Blog Search – Google’s…. blog search

Google Sitemaps – get indexed in Google

H

Haloscan – a free commenting system for blogs (a little dated but I was a tad desperate for a ‘H’

I

IntelliTXT - In text advertising

Ice Rocket - blog search engine

 

J

Jar (as in Tip Jar) – many bloggers ask their readers for donations/tips – but few make much from them

K

Kanoodle – Advertising program

Kontera – In text advertising

Keyword and Backlink Tracker - Search Engine ranking tool

L

LiveJournal – Blog Platform

Linkshare – Affiliate Program

M

Mars Edit - Blog Editing Tool

Memeorandum – Tracking and Aggregating news from blogs

MyBlogLog – Metrics Tool

Mint – Blog Metrics Tool

MovableType – Popular blog platform

MeCommerce – Sidebar shop – in beta

MSN Adcenter – Coming Soon – Contextual ads

N

NewsGator – RSS News Readers

Nichebot – keyword research tool

Nameboy – domain name generator

Nucleus CMS – open source blog platform

Netvibes – RSS News Aggregator

Netscape Beta – Social Bookmarking Tool

O

Only Wire – social bookmarking service

Overture Keyword Tool – keyword research tool

P

Performancing – great blog, firefox blog editor and metrics tools

Pheedo – RSS advertising

Post2Blog – Blog Editing tool – blog using Word, IE or Firefox

Pingoat – Pinging Tool

Pingomatic – Pinging Tool

pMachine – Blog Platform

Paypal – Payment tool – used by many affiliate programs and ad systems to pay publishers

PPCalc – Paypal Fee Calculator

PubSub – service that notifies you of new content

Photobucket – image and video hosting

Q

Qumana – Blog Editing Tool

R

Rojo – RSS feed reader

RocketPost – Blog posting tool

Right Media – advertising

Rmail – subscribe from any RSS feed to email

S

Sitemeter – a free website stats tool used by many bloggers

Six Figure Blogging – learn to make money blogging (one of my blogging resources)

Shoplinc – add a Chitika store to your blog

Scoopt Words - service to sell bloggers content to mainstream media editors

Sitening – Search Engine ranking tracker

Sparklines – sidebar widgets/graphs

Skype – VOIP tool for networking, podcast interviews etc

Spam Karma – WP comment spam tool

Sitepoint – Forums for webmasters

Slide – photo hosting, slideshows etc

SoloSub – RSS feed management tool

Squidoo – good alternative place to put content, make money and promote your blog

Snap – a preview tool to give your readers a preview of external links on your blog

T

Text Link Ads - text link advertising system

Technorati – Blog Search engine

Topix – News service – used by many bloggers to find stories

TagCloud - tool for making tag clouds

TinyURL – make long URLs tiny ones

TypePad – Hosted Blogging Platform

Tribal Fusion – Impression Based Ads

3bubbles – live chat on a blog

U

Unobtrusive Sidenotes - a way of putting sidenotes in your posts

V

ValueClick – Impression Based Ad Program (was FastClick)

Vizu – blog polls tool

Vox – a new blogging/social bookmarking platform from Six Apart (in beta)

W

WordPress – Blog Platform – very popular

w.bloggar – blog editing tool

Webpad – web based text editor

Weblogs.com – recently updated blogs – aggregator

WebmasterWorld – forums for webmasters

X

Xanga – Weblog Community

Y

YPN – Contextual Advertising Service

Yutter – RSS/Blog Subscription Service

YouTube – Video Hosting/Sharing

Yutter – RSS/Blog Subscription Service

Yahoo News – Tracking News from around the Web

Z

Zookoda – RSS to Email and Newsletter tool

Zoudry – blog editor