Become a Blogger "part 5 / 7"

Welcome to Part 5 of the Become A Blogger Mini
Course.

If you've followed all the steps inside the
previous lessons, you should now have your blog
setup, with your chosen topic, optimized for the
search engines and busy creating magical content
that will attract a hoard of traffic to your blog.

But, just creating text for your blog is kind of
boring...

And to spice it all up a little, I have a very
exciting lesson for you today.

Today, I'll spill the beans on ALL the major tools
Yaro and I use for creating content for our blogs,
including powerful tools for normal text, images,
audio and video for your blog.

Without a doubt, if you use the tools I recommend
to you today, your blog will start standing out
BIG time from everyone else's on the blogosphere,
and people will finally start taking notice of
what you're up to.

The tools that we use can be broken down into 4
main areas:

1. Tools for text

2. Tools for images

3. Tools for audio

4. And tools for video

Together, these tools will give you an amazing
arsenal of content creation "weapons" to help you
blow people away when they come to visit your
blog.

For each of the above 4 areas, I'll provide you
with content creation tools, editing tools as well
as "cool" tools (the kind of tools that will help
you stand out from the crowd...)

Ok, let's stop beating around the bush and get
straight into it...


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1. Tools For Text
--------------------------------------------------

For each of the tools I'm about to share with you,
there are a plethora of other tools that you can
also use.

One would think that it's an advantage having so
many tools to choose from. But sometimes having so
much choice makes it actually quite hard to
distinguish between tools that are useful, and
tools that will just waste you time and frustrate
the heck out of you.

So, the way to look at the following tools, is to
see them as "shortcuts" to help you get the job
done.

Between Yaro and myself, we've spent years and
years of research on the BEST tools in the
industry, and this is a compilation of that list.

The bulk of your content creation is likely to be
text. So, it's important that you get this bit
right first.

--- Content Creation Tools For Text ---

To kick the process off, I almost always make use
of mind mapping for creating new content. The best
and also no-cost tool that I've found so far is
FreeMind. You can download a copy here:

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download

In terms of actually creating text, I use one of
two programs - if you're on PC, it's KeyNotes or
just NotePad (which comes with Windows):

http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/keynote-download-1160.shtml

And if you're on Mac, it's TextWrangler:

http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

Both these programs are excellent for creating
text fast because they are lightweight and they
offer you a very easy way of handling your text
articles.

Using something like Microsoft Word for your blog
posts can be a bit of a pain sometimes, especially
once you're ready to copy and paste your text into
your blog.

Often, the text from Microsoft Word contains
special formatting, and when you just copy and
paste it over to your blog, it can wreak havoc to
what the final post looks like.

You'll see what I mean once you start playing
around with either Keynotes or TextWrangler - two
fantastic programs!

Oh, and both of these programs cost nothing :)

Ok, what if you want to create a professional
looking pdf document that you can provide as a
downloadable resource for your audience?

That leads us to...

--- Editing Tools For Text ---

Other than just creating text posts for your blog,
from time to time you might want to create a
downloadable report that you can offer your
readers at no extra cost.

Offering you readers with a complimentary report
can be a very powerful tool for building trust
with your audience, and also helping you spread
the word about your blog.

The Roadmap To Become A Blogger is one such
example. And in fact, we used the exact same tools
I'm about to reveal to you for creating the
Roadmap report.

Of course, you can also use these tools to create
e-books, and sell them through a service like
ClickBank. But more on this later...

Ok, so here's what you need:

If you're on PC, just use Microsoft Word for
editing your document and adding pretty pictures
etc. I know it's a bit of a pain to use, but it's
good enough for what you're trying to achieve
here.

Then, once you're done with your document, you can
use the Bullzip software to convert your document
into a pdf document - the best format for
downloading documents on the internet:

http://www.bullzip.com/

If you're on Mac, you have some nicer and easier
options...

We just use Pages that comes with Apple's "iWorks"
package and it does a fantastic job (this is what
we used for the creation of The Roadmap To Become
A Blogger report).

What's great about Pages, is that it has a built
in feature that allows you to easily export your
document to a pdf document - very easy to use.

The best thing about both the above options, is
that they allow you to add clickable links inside
your reports.

This is essential if you want people to be able to
come back to your blog or other web pages while
reading the pdf report.

And that's pretty much it - that's all we use for
creating our text content and turning them into
powerful reports that people can download from our
blogs and other websites.

Let's now look at some...

--- Cool Tools For Text ---

There is only one "Cool Tool" I want to mention
here for text, and that is the Slide Share
application:

http://www.slideshare.net/

It's really more a presentation tool than a text
tool, but what's great about it is that you can
use it to create automatic slide presentations
that you can then embed straight on your blog.

And even better, when other people see it, they
can grab the same embed code and embed the very
same slide presentation on their own blogs.

It's a bit like YouTube, except that it's only for
slide presentations.

SlideShare can be a very powerful traffic
generation tool when used right, so I'd encourage
you to experiment with it and test it to see what
kind of results you get from it.

If nothing else, at least you'll have something
cool on your blog that other people will admire
and find interesting :)

Ok, let's now move onto...


--------------------------------------------------
2. Tools For Images
--------------------------------------------------

Next up are some great tools for images.

You know what they say... "An image is worth a
thousand words..."

So, if you can use the right kind of images to go
along with the content of your blog, you could
have a MUCH more powerful impact on your audience,
compared to if you only used text.

There's just so much more you can do with images
that you can't do with text. So, even if you don't
get into audio and video for your blog, at least
start using images regularly. It will add
*significantly* to the value of your blog.

Ok, let's get into it...

--- Content Creation Tools For Images ---

Unless you're a talented graphic artist, creating
the right images for your blog can be a pain.

But the next best and easiest way for finding
great images for your blog, is to simply use a
service like StockXpert.

This is where you can choose from thousands and
thousands of images for your blog without worrying
about copyright or royalty payments.

It does cost something, but if you think about how
much time you can save by quickly finding the
right images, it's really a "no-brainer" decision.

You can find StockExpert here:

http://stockxpert.com

--- Editing Tools For Images ---

Sometimes, just getting an image from a service
like StockXpert may not be quite enough for what
you are trying to achieve.

For example, sometimes you may only want to use a
portion of the actual image, or you may want to
change some colors, or simply change the sizes and
resolution of your images.

Whatever those changes may be, you'll need some
kind of an image editing program.

But don't worry, the following two amazing tools
also cost nothing. So you won't have to burn a
hole in your pocket.

For just simple image manipulations, you can use
IrfanView, a great little program that helps make
all kinds of changes to your images.

I mostly use IrfanView for changing the size of my
images, cropping, or changing the resolution.

You can get a copy of IrfanView here:

http://www.irfanview.com/

If you're interested in doing some more hard-core
image manipulation, I suggest you use The GIMP.

It's an amazing image editing program that allows
you to either create your own graphics from
scratch, or just simple image manipulations.

I used The GIMP to design the cover for The
Roadmap To Become A Blogger report, as well as all
the other graphics on Become A Blogger.

It's a very powerful piece of software, and you
can grab a copy here (also at no cost):

http://www.gimp.org/

--- Cool Tools For Images ---

If you really want to impress your friends with
your blog, you'll like the next cool tool...

It's called Animoto, and it helps you create
simple slide show presentations with music that
you can stream straight from your blog.

All you have to do, is upload a bunch of your
photos or images, upload your own music, and
voila, the rest is done for you automatically.

Once everything is processed, all you have to do,
is grab the embed code, and paste it into your
blog - easy peasy.

You can access Animoto here:

http://animoto.com

Let's now move onto the next section...


--------------------------------------------------
3. Tools For Audio
--------------------------------------------------

Creating audio for your blog is great fun and it
can add a whole new dimension to your blog. A
dimension that your readers will just LOVE!

Trust me on this one...

So, here are a few tools that you might want to
start using, if you're not using them already...

--- Creation Tools For Audio ---

A really easy way to create audio for your blog is
to do interviews with experts in your niche. You
can do this very easily using software like Skype
for the interview:

http://www.skype.com

And you can use Pamela Recording software to
record the call with:

http://www.pamela.biz/

If you're on Mac, I suggest you use a neat little
program called Call Recorder for recording your
calls:

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/

Of course, you don't HAVE to interview people to
create audio content. You can also record just
your own voice using recording software on your
computer, like Audacity for example (see below).

--- Editing Tools For Audio ---

To edit your recordings, you can use one of the
following programs (they both cost zero):

For PC users, you can use Audacity:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

And if you're on Mac, you can use Garageband:

http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

--- Cool Tools For Audio ---

To put the cherry on the cake for audio on your
blog, here are two great cool tools:

1. Use the Audio Player WordPress Plugin to help
stream the audio straight from your blog:

http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/

Just make sure you export your final audio
production to an mp3 file format for this to work.

2. And if you want to get real fancy, use the
Odiogo plugin to automatically turn your text
posts into podcasts (this is really neat if you
like listening to computer generated voices):

http://www.odiogo.com/

Let's now move onto the final part of today's
lesson...


--------------------------------------------------
4. Tools For Video
--------------------------------------------------

Finally, let's talk about some great tools you can
use for getting video onto your blog.

--- Creation Tools For Video ---

If you're new to online video, the first thing I
recommend you do, is to go to my online video
training site where you can learn the basics of
video production (again, zero cost):

http://getyourvideoonline.com/

On the above site, you will learn about a number
of really great tools you can use for creating
your own videos that you can ad to your blog.

But let's just quickly go over the basics...

--- Editing Tools For Video ---

If you're on PC, the best entry level editing
program you'll find at the moment is Sony Vegas.

Trust me, I've tested A LOT of different programs,
and, while not perfect, Sony Vegas came out tops
as an entry level editor:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp

(Just grab the basic one - it does a pretty good
job)

If you don't like spending money, you can always
just use Windows Movie Maker, which comes with all
Microsoft Windows installations.

If you're on Mac, you can do some pretty cool
editing with the program that just comes with the
operating software, iMovie.

But if you're keen for a bit more video adventure,
I'd recommend you get yourself a copy of Final Cut
Express (the cut down version of the software that
Hollywood movie editors use):

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/

(Not too expensive, but really worth it if you're
doing a lot of video editing.)

It's what I currently use for all of my non
screen-capture videos... and I just LOVE it!

If you just want to do screen capture videos
though, I recommend you use Camtasia for PC and
Screenflow for Mac:

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm

--- Cool Tools For Video ---

If you want to make your video content "go the
extra mile", here are some great tools you could
use...

First up is LinkedTube and Overlay.tv.

Both these services allow you to add clickable
links inside your videos.

All you have to do, is upload your videos to
YouTube as you normally would do, and then use one
or both of these services to add clickable links
inside your videos.

This can be great for adding affiliate links
inside your videos or for driving people to a
specific web page, for example a sales page for
your new product.

You can find these services here:

http://www.linkedtube.com/

http://www.overlay.tv/

Now, if this does not impress your audience and
make you stand out from the crowd, I don't know
what will!


As I said right at the beginning of this lesson,
there are a plethora of tools around on the
internet that you can use to help you stand out
from the crowd.

The above list of tools are the ones that Yaro and
I have used in the past or are using right now to
help us create "wow" content.

It took us years to get to this point, so all you
have to do now, is take advantage of these
"shortcuts" and see what happens.

Remember to have fun with all these tools and to
look at this whole exercise as one big experiment.

If you don't like any of the tools, just don't use
them. But I'm pretty sure that you'll like at
least ONE of the above tools!

Inside the next part of this mini course, I will
show you how to drive hoards of new traffic to
your blog using sneaky little traffic generation
methods and tactics.

So you'll definitely want to hang around for the
next one. Traffic is what ultimately helps you
monetize your blog.

But more on this inside the next lesson...

Talk soon!

Gideon and Yaro
Become A Blogger