An aspiring blogger can be overwhelmed with the vast amount of resources, tools, and advice for bloggers available on the net. While in no way definitive - there?s simply too much going on in this space to cover it all - we did our best to bring you a comprehensive list of blogging resources, which should be equally useful to beginners as well as veteran bloggers. Enjoy.

WordPress

WordPress Themes

ThemeViewer - The number one location to find WordPress themes to make your page cool, which you will most certainly want to do.
Templates Now - A smaller collection of WordPress themes, but still worth your while to check out.
TemplateMonster - If you want more professional quality themes then this site can be useful. They offer extremely high quality themes that you can purchase
for WordPress.
Wordpress Themes - a neatly categorized site with a huge selection of themes

Best WordPress Plugins

Akismet - The best blog comment spam prevention plug-in. Ships free with WordPress, but you still have to turn it on and keep it updated.
Wordpress Backup - an absolute must if you want to keep your archive in case of something going wrong
WP Cache - if your blog ever experiences a burst of traffic, you?ll be thankful you have WP Cache
Sitemap Generator - everyone who cares about SEO (and that should be everyone) should have this one
Preview Pane - If you upgrade/install WordPress 2.2.x, the Preview Frame has gone missing, as the developers decided to leave it out, and it is a vital tool on checking your posts, so this plug-in restores that functionality.
Facebook Photos - A nice WordPress plug-in that allows quick access to your Facebook photos and the ability to integrate them in to any post within WordPress with ease.
Flickr Photos - Same as Facebook Photos, but for use with a Flickr account.
Related Posts - This plugin lets you display all the posts you have written on the same subject near each post. It increases the chance that a visitor will spend more time browsing your blog posts.
Feedburner Feed Replacement - sooner or later, most people switch to Feedburner for their RSS needs. This plugin redirects all the RSS feeds on your blog to the Feedburner one. Might cause problems with Technorati.
Ultimate Tag Warrior - an advanced solution for all your tagging problems.
Adsense Deluxe - a great way to manage AdSense ads on your blog.
Super Archive - Creates a great dynamic archive for your Wordpress blog posts.
Stat Traq - Get detailed statistics in a very effective graphical format.
Sociable - adds all those cute tiny icons for easy social bookmarking
LightBox 2 - A fade effect that you see on a myriad of blogs you visit these days where you click the image, the background fades and then the image itself displays in full view. A very nice effect to have.

Wordpress Plugin repositories

Official Wordpress Plugins Site - The official Wordpress plugin repository is actually one of the best lists of its kind out there
Wp-Plugins - a comprehensive list of Wordpress plugins
Wp Plugins DB - another large database of plugins for Wordpress
Weblog Tools Collection - an often updated site bringing you the latest Wordpress plugins as they arrive

Movable Type

Movable Type Styles

Style Library -If you are looking for a way to make your Movable Type blog look fresh, then look no further.
The Style Contest - A collection of Movable Type Styles created from contests to create the best styles. Only the best is here.
Style Generator - Use this if you wish to take things in to your own hands and
create your own Styles for use with Movable Type.

Best Movable Type Plugins

MT Notifier - This plug-in gives you a great amount of control of notification options for your users and helps with keeping your users connected to your Movable Type blog.
InlineEditor - No more clicking through 3 or more pages to edit your posts on Movable Type, this plug-in allows you to edit through Ajax technology right on the same page as your post.
MT Blogroll - If you want to link to your favorite blogs and sites, then you need a ?blogroll? (collection of links to sites and other blogs), and this plug-in solves this problem with providing you the ability to create and manage as many ?blogrolls? as your heart desires.

Movable Type Plugin repositories

Official Movable Type Plugin site - a comprehensive alphabetical list of Movable Type plugins

Blog Hosting Solutions

Dedicated & Shared Hosting Services

Dreamhost - Offers a lot for a very small amount of money.
CirtexHosting - Hosting plans starting at as little as $2.
BlueHost - Another affordable hosting solution.
HostGator - Cheap shared personal hosting.
Media Temple - Grid based hosting; known to be able to sustain lots of traffic.

Paid Blog Hosting Services

TypePad - If you are a MovableType fan, then TypePad is the premiere service to be using to host your blog.
Blogsite - An enterprise level blogging and publishing platform. Multiple blogs can reside withing one blogsite. Amazing SEO visibility.

Free Blog Hosting Services

WordPress - WordPress allows you to create and host a blog on their own servers and you can display it to the world. You don?t get as much customization and functionality as if you have it hosted on your own server (for example, advertising is not allowed), but it is still a very good way to blog without paying money.
Blogger - A service owned by Google, Blogger is a way to have your blogs hosted for free and you can post as much as you want. It allows Google?s AdSense to be used.
Xanga - iXanga is a lively community of online diaries and journals. Users create their own profiles and there are many opportunities to interact with other users.
LiveJournal - LiveJournal is excellent if you wish to blog on a personal level and join a community and share your blogs among friends.
Vox - A new contender to the arena but Vox is a very nice and powerful blogging tool; not to mention free!; You receive many social experiences with this option as Vox is based heavily on community based blogging.
Tumblr - Tumblr is great if you don?t have time to blog, but still want to share something now and again. It lets you easily post videos, pictures, links, and of course you can write there too.

Mini-Blogging Services

Jaiku - Jaiku allows you the ability to post ?mini-blogs? which are short blogs (usually under 140 - 160 characters in length) about whatever you decide. Jaiku also allows you to link together content from other services and social sites that provide RSS/ATOM feeds and they can be displayed as well.
Twitter - Twitter lets you say what you are doing in 140 characters or less. Recently new features have been added that have made it into a great communication tool.

Mobile Based Blogging

TextAmerica - A way to blog on the go. You blog with service by adding photos to your mobile blog and then later on you can add text descriptions and people
can see your world on the go.
Twitter - Twitter also has solid support for blogging from mobile devices.

Tips & Advice

Blogs about Blogging

About.com Weblogs - Professional blogger / freelance writer Deborah Ng covers a wide range of blogging topics for all levels of blogger, but is especially good for new bloggers.
Advanced Business Blogging - Two people who are really making money with blogs and new media and showing others how to.
Blogging for Business - Ted Demopoulos focuses ?on practical business implications and uses of new media and technologies, including Blogging and Business, pod-casting, and other ?Cool Internet Stuff?.?
Andy Wibbels - The author of Blog Wild! puts emphasises blogs for small business marketing, but his tips are useful for all bloggers.
Problogger - Darren Rowse is the definitive guide to making money with your blog.
MasterNewMedia - A site about independent publishing and social media which publishes articles showing how to create effective blogs and improve online marketing strategies.
Copyblogger - a great resource of no-nonsense information for bloggers (and everyone else who wants to learn how to write well)
DailyBlogTips - a place where you can find useful tips to improve the quality of your blog. Updated daily.
Blogging Pro - news, tips and technical support for bloggers.
Blogs in Education - a great list of useful resources aimed at those who want to use blogs for educational purposes.

Tips

10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs - No philosophy, theory or personal rants/raves/ramblings here - just practical tips for business
owners.
Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog - Tips for increasing the usability of your blog for your users which can lead to new and returning readers.
Big list of blog search engines - a very detailed resource for blog search engines.
Search Engine Submission Tips - an interesting list of techniques and strategies you can use to make your blog appear in relevant search results.
How to Make Money From Your Website - a practical guide that explains the differences between the different advertising systems that you can use on your blog.
25 Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Readers & Search Engines - useful tips that help your blog stand out from the crowd.
Research, Promote And Monetize Your Online Writing: A Blogger?s Guide To Twitter - a great guide by Michael Pick that shows you how to get the best out of
Twitter.
25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog - a detailed list of tips to help bloggers optimize their site for online marketing.
9 Lessons for Would-be Bloggers - Joshua Porter shares interesting lessons he learned in 7 years of blogging.
Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes - Jacob Nielsen writes down a list of the worst things you could do on your blog.
How to Become a Freelance Blog Writer - Leo Babauta shows how to become a freelance blog writer and get rewarded.
How To Prevent Running Out Of Blogging Steam - Did you run out of words? Here is what you can do when you have to face a situation like that.
13 Tips To Get Your Blog Noticed - a list of short tips to make your blog shine among the others.

Blogging Forums & Sites

Blogger Forum - This site has a nice forum with plenty of resources for helping you on your beginnings in blogging.
Bloggst - a fairly new community devoted to bloggers, and blogging, with howtos, interviews and other resources.
True Blogging - a forum completely dedicated to bloggers, blogging resources and blog monetization.
Blogger Talk - great resource for bloggers who want to share their experiences.
Bloggeries - a community for bloggers from all over the world to gather and discuss their blogs.
Webloggers - forum on marketing blogs, software for bloggers, blogging news and mobile blogging.
The Blog Herald - a source of blog and blogging related news for bloggers.

Blog Tools and Resources

Blog Search Engines

Technorati - One of the most popular search engines for blogs; its top list is one of the most often cited metrics on the Internet.
Sphere - a blog search engine that offers a contextual widget which shows related posts from other blogs.
Google Blog Search - A very simple blog search engine. It?s basically Google Search that only looks through blogs and comments on blogs.
Ice Rocket ? A Google-like blog search engine.

Blog Top Lists

RSSTop55 - the most comprehensive list of blog top lists and blog submission sites on
the net.

Blog Statistics & Analysis

StatCounter - A completely free statistics and analysis tool for tracking your blog?s numbers.
Site Meter - Site Meter comes in two flavors, Site Meter Basic and Site Meter Premium and this service offers advanced analytics of your site statistics.
AWStats - A free and open-source alternative to track your site statistics.
Feedburner - A wide range of tools to spiff up your RSS feed, including HTML preview, geotagging, merging link and photo feeds, password protection, and one of our favorites - a customizable GIF-based headline animator. They can also insert ads into your feed and have both free and premium analytics.
Alexa - Alexa has the statistics for all of the internet and it lets you compare your blog to another.
Google Analytics - a free, full-featured (albeit a bit slow) analytics program from Google (ex. Urchin).
MeasureMap - another free tool for detailed analysis of your blog?s visitor habits

Blog Monetization

PayPal - PayPal allows you to set up a donations system on your site. Your readers can click a button that will bring them to a page where they can send you some cash.
Chitika - Contextual interactive CPC advertising. Requires more screen real estate than AdSense, but tends to have higher click-through rates and payout rates.
LinkAdage - Text links and text advertisements to generate revenue from your website by way of bidding, brokering, and exchanging text advertisements.
Txtswap - If you want to exchange text links to try and bring in more users, and in turn raise the potential to gain income, this is another service to try.
Google AdSense - Almost certainly the largest single source of income to bloggers worldwide. Pay per click and per view.
Yahoo Publisher network - pay per click ads, similar to Google AdSense.
AdBrite - Get paid for text link advertisements on your blog.
Text Link Ads - One of the leading suppliers of text link advertisements.
BidVertiser - an advertising system where you set the bids for pay per click ads.
ReviewMe - a marketplace for paid blog reviews.
PayPerPost - another marketplace for paid blog posts; often criticized, not only because of the idea of paid blog posting, but also due to the fact that they don?t require full disclosure on paid posts.
BlogBurst - get your blog syndicated by the bigtime media; best blogs get paid for their content.

Spreading The Word

Reddit - Social content site with focus on fun stuff, politics, science; sometimes, anything goes. Witty descriptions are obligatory.
ClipMarks - A service that allows you to save and share ?clips? from web pages.
Digg - Social content site that likes technology-related content; especially Google and Apple related. Promoting your own blog - especially too aggressively - on Digg is not a good idea.
Blogmarks - another ?clipping? service for saving and sharing links from the web.
Newsvine - Social news site with plenty of options and features
Netscape - Netscape?s social news portal, less oriented towards technology than both Digg and Reddit
Del.icio.us - If you need to share bookmarks or you want people to tell you about websites, Del.icio.us will allow you to do that.

Misc. Tools

MyBlogLog - Possibly the coolest blog community building tool around. Doubles as a simple analytics tool.
BlogRolling ? Blogroll manager.
PollDaddy - cool polls for your blog.
BlogPolls - another provider of free polls for bloggers
Favicon Maker ? simple service that enables you to easily create a favicon from an image.
Qumana - a desktop blog editor for Mac and Windows.
Blogjet - another desktop blog client, works only on Windows.
Blogarithm - enables you to track all your content at one place.
GeoLoc - a widget that shows your visitors? locations on a world map.
JunkIWant - display your Amazon wishlist as a widget on your blog
BlogSticker - create stickers for your blog.
MyOpenId - enables you to identify yourself for various online service, using your blog address.
BlogFlux tools - several cool tools for bloggers.
ImageShack - free photo hosting service.

RSS & Aggregation Resources

Everything related to this topic is covered in our previous big feature, the RSS toolbox.

The following Mashable authors contributed to this article: Stan Schroeder, Livia Iacolare, Rodney Rumford, Scott Allen, James Mowery, Todd Carter, Ben Gold

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