(If only she could figure out how to blog without getting out of the blankets, Bella would have a MUCH more active blog than I ever could...)Recently I've had some down time between getting manuscripts and drafts and papers and research out... so I've been exploring various blog-related tools and am desperately hoping you guys have some thoughts and opinions about your favorites and some suggestions. Here's what I've tried AND liked (complete with links)-
- Link Within - those little boxes at the end of each entry with thumbnails and titles; basically it's a widget that helps readers find old posts they might like after reading the current post (so your old entries get some love AND your blog looks prettier). Super-easy to do, takes less than a minute and no account necessary!
- Blog Catalog - a sort of directory for blogs. While I wasn't sure where to put my blog and I may not have my full privileges in the community yet, it's already helped me discover new and interesting blogs AND I've found lots of 2osbs on there!
- JS Kit Comments - required when you get the listing on the Blog Catalog, this is sort of like Google Analytics or StatCounter for your comments.
- Kaboodle - lets you make lots of wishlists and shopping lists that can be divided up by section. You can connect to friends, make collages of items, and store items with prices and information about them so you can find them later...
- Playlist - lets you make lots and lots of playlists and post them to your blog without forcing you to find the song and upload it and deal with lots of legal things.
- Young Professionals Blog Aggregator (or YP Blogs) - like Blog Catalog and 20sb, a directory of young professionals and their blogs.
- Be Funky - sort of like the special effects used in PhotoBooth on recent Macs, it lets you Warholize, Cartoonize, Inkify, Charcoalize your photos and more... very easy and totally free!
