Helpful Blogging Tool for Posting Rich Content
Quite a number of our clients use blogs for business to establish an online presence and publish informative and searchable content to the web. Of those blogs/websites, we always use Wordpress because of the flexibility for custom design and access to a seemingly endless array of community applications. As powerful as Wordpress is, it is not always the easiest application to use for non-technical business owners and employees who want to provide more than just text and links. However, there is a solution.
Windows Live Writer is a free, downloadable desktop application that runs on your Windows PC and allows you to publish pictures, videos, and other rich content to your blog/website. There are also a number of useful free extensions available that you should check out if this is of interest to you.
As an example, I will use it to show you some recent blogs/websites that we have launched in the past week or so.
Here is an example of how you can use Windows Live Writer to create a table, format, insert pictures and links. No html knowledge required.
| Business | Location | Business Type | Website |
| Red Rover | Corvalis, Oregon | Software |  |
| Eagle Gate | Salt Lake City, Utah | Education |  |
| SouthernLINC | Atlanta, Georgia | Telecom |  |
| Big Valley Honda | Reno, Nevada | Retail |  |
| The Godfather | Las Vegas, Nevada | Entrepreneur |  |
| International Bank | Concord, New Hampshire | Finance |  |
You can also use it to insert videos or maps. I’ll just stick to the same example as above and show the locations of these particular clients.
You can also input tags that specifically relate to your blog post, which help with search engine optimization.
tags: blogging tools windows live writer
When you are ready to publish your post, simply click Publish, and it will also do a quick spell check for you. If you are not ready to publish yet, simply Save Draft for later, or set the publish date and it will post automatically. There are several other handy little features for you to explore and find on your own.
To get started, simply go to the Windows Live Writer page to download it. Once you have installed the application, go to “Weblog” in the upper navigation and select “Add Weblog Account.” There you will be asked to give the url of your blog, as well as your username and password. That’s it! You can even add other blogs if you like. It will detect the styles, plugins, categories, and recent posts for each one.
A key component of a successful blogging strategy is doing it fairly frequently The more empowered you and your colleagues are to publish content to the web the more likely you are to do it. I hope this helps.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:57 am
That’s an awesome tool. Thanks for sharing!
February 14th, 2008 at 5:08 am
Excellent ideas. I’ll put into practice. “A key component of a successful blogging strategy is doing it fairly frequently”
I agree with you 100% there!
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
Pretty neat tools. Thanks for putting this together. I will try them.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Hi, Robert. What a great write-up! I just switched not only webhost, but blogging platform. I went with WordPress after a local friend showed me how he uses Live Writer and WordPress together. WP is so much easier than MovableType for the code-challenged, and Live Writer is icing on the cake. If I’d known it was that easy, I’d have made the move a long time ago! Thanks for the examples of what all Live Writer can do. I’m sold on it.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Wow, this is awesome. i have used Drivel for some time now, but this looks like it blows it out of the water. Sadly i dont see a linux port in the near future lol.