I just bought a new PC – a nice big desktop model running on Windows 7. Of course it came with loads of free trial software, most of which (Norton) I uninstalled before doing anything else. I was also going to uninstall Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 – Open Office has served me well so far, and it’s free. But I’ve got a 60-day trial on Office, and being the software geek that I am, I thought I’d give it a try.

And I have to say, I’m going to buy this one. What a treat!

Microsoft – for once – makes it easy to set up your blog. Just enter your blog address, user name and password, and you’re ready to start publishing. You do need to make sure you enable XML-RPC remote publishing protocol on your blog. On a WordPress blog you’ll find it under Settings/Writing.

Uploading pictures is easy, as well, as long as you don’t want to do anything fancy with the file locations. I can’t seem to make it put my pictures in my image file, so for now I’m going to have to be content with using the WordPress media file locations. Microsoft also has a cool new tool (well, new to me, at least) for dealing with pictures: the Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It’s great for doing fast edits like cropping and resizing, without taking the time to open a full graphics package like Photoshop. It also remembers shortcuts to all your photo libraries, so if you’re like me and you keep pictures for your blogs in separate folders, Microsoft Office Picture Manager lets you see them all in one place.

Of course the best part of using Word 2007 to publish blog posts is that you have all the features of a complete word processor right at your fingertips. Powerful spell check, grammar correction (be careful with this one!), and formatting is super simple with Microsoft Word. The only thing I found lacking in this area is the ability to apply heading styles. For me, that’s not such a big deal, since I like to publish my posts in draft form and go into my WordPress dashboard for final clean-ups anyway.

One other thing missing from the Word to blog interface is tagging. Word 2007 does support categories with a drop-down list, but there doesn’t appear to be any way to add tags.

Overall, I’m looking forward to giving Word a shot at handling my blog posting needs. If you’re interested in checking it out for yourself, Microsoft offers a 60-day trial on Microsoft Office Professional. That’s probably way too much software for you – I know it is for me – but it will give you the core products like Word and Excel as well as all that other stuff. When you’re ready to buy, Amazon has the best price on Microsoft products.

Windows Live Writer is a good alternative to this. Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian.

Over at Self Starters Weekly Tips, there’s a discussion going on about desktop publishing solutions for WordPress. I generally write my blog posts in a text document, then copy and paste into WordPress, upload a picture, add some links, and I’m done. I’ve tried some desktop solutions in the past, but I’ve never been satisfied with them – particularly with how they handle images. But, after reading the opinions about Windows Live Writer, I decided to give it one more shot.

So far, I’m pretty impressed. I installed it at 11:52, and I’m writing this at 12:03, so the setup is quick and easy. All you have to do is give Windows Live Writer your URL, user name, and password, and it goes out and collects all the information it needs, including the css file, making this a true WYSIWYG editor, right down to the fonts and paragraph spacing.

I do have some custom stuff going on in my blogs, mostly having to do with images and thumbnails, and mostly related to Thesis. There is also SEO stuff, like title tags, meta-descriptions, and excerpts that can’t be handled by Windows Live Writer. For those things, I need to get to my WordPress dashboard, so rather than just hitting publish, I’ll still end up publishing all my posts as drafts and then going into WordPress for the final clean-up. Overall, though, that’s not such a big price to pay for not having to deal with the WYSIWYG editor that comes with WordPress.

One other thing I really like about Windows Live Writer is the ability to automagically include links in my posts. Like that link up there to SSWT. I didn’t have to enter that – WLW did it for me. Set up your keywords and matching links, and when you highlight the phrase you want to link to and click the link button, WLW fills in the blanks for you.

Okay, there’s a dark side, too. (It wouldn’t be a Microsoft project without a dark side.) Here’s the thing: the damn thing tried to hijack my whole computer! It tried to set Bing as my default search engine – and helpfully offered to prevent any other program from changing that setting later. Um, no. The default set-up also wants to install a bunch of toolbars and other software, and make your homepage MSN. Again, no. So be careful if you install this, and make sure you uncheck anything you don’t want.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it, and I will likely continue to use it.

What about you? Do you use a desktop publishing program to manage your blogs? Why or why not?

Blog post ideas are a dime a dozen, unless you're struggling to come up with one.

Got a problem coming up with new stuff to write about on your blog? Don’t worry. It’s a pretty common problem. Luckily, it’s also very easily solved. All you need is a keyword list and a some format ideas.

First, your keyword list. Hopefully you already have one. If you don’t, hop on over to your favorite keyword discovery tool (I like Google’s Keyword Tool) and do some research. Depending on your niche, you might find yourself with a list of 100 or more keywords.

Now that you’ve got your keyword list, start thinking about what kind of blog posts you’ll be writing. I told you about 14 kinds of blog posts yesterday, but there are dozens more. Make a list of at least 10 that fit your style of blogging.

Do you see where I’m going with this yet?

Take the first item on your keyword list – let’s say it’s “homemade cat food” – and start brainstorming ideas for each type of post on your list, like this:

“12 Ingredients You Should Never Put in Homemade Cat Food”
“How To Make Homemade Cat Food Your Cat Will Flip Over”
“Cuisinart Elite Collection 14-Cup Food Processor: Perfect for Making Homemade Cat Food”
“5 Tips for Delectable Homemade Cat Food”
“Is Homemade Cat Food Better for Your Cat? We Asked a Vet, and the Answer Might Surprise You”

If we assume you’ve got 100 keywords and 10 different types of blog posts, you’ve got about four years worth of content right there. That should keep you writing for a good long time.

P.S. In a future post I’ll talk about how to keep writing even when you’re sure you can’t possibly type another word. Be sure you sign up for my RSS feed so you don’t miss it!

Everyone loves a story. Photo by Dave Parker.

Okay, Google won’t get bored. Google is a computer and is incapable of getting bored. Yet.

You still need to mix things up a bit to keep your blog interesting, though, so here are 14 types of blog posts you can write instead of that boring old beginning-middle-end post you keep repeating.

• List Post. This is a list post. Pretty self-explanatory.
• How-To. How To Install Microsoft Exchange Server; Bathe a Puppy; Save the World. Not all in the same post, though.
• Product Review. This kind of blog post ties in really well with an affiliate program, just in case you want to get paid someday.
• 7 Tips. This is just a different kind of list article. It doesn’t have to be 7 tips, but it should be an odd number. I don’t know why. Just because.
• Tell a Story. Everyone loves a good story. Tell us why you finally upgraded to Windows 7, or how you discovered that you’re allergic to mink, or what you learned about email marketing while you were on vacation.
• Interview an Expert. Email interviews are super easy to conduct, and take very little cleanup to become a blog post.
• Answer a Reader Question. Don’t have a reader or a question? No problem. Go find a question on a forum or on Yahoo! answers and answer that.
• Video Post. Set up that new Flip Mino you got for Christmas and just start talking. You don’t have to be a television anchor to do this. In fact, you’ll probably get a better response if you just concentrate on being you.
• Case Study. Did you split test your Aweber sign-up page? Change your cat’s shampoo? Try to pass off tofu as chicken to your kids? Write up a case study with the results of your experiment.
• Industry News. No matter what niche you’re in, there is news about it. Check out PR Web for press releases, set up Google alerts with your keywords, and search Twitter to find out what’s happening in your market.
• Best of the Web. This is just a round-up of the best blog posts in your niche, and is a popular choice for a weekend series.
• Best of Your Blog. These are always big around the end of the year. They’re also known as “sneeze pages” (marvelous image, huh?) and are not only easy to write, but great for your internal linking structure.
• Debate a Controversy. This is a fabulous way to get lots and lots of comments. Nothing like a good debate to stir things up.
• Compare Two Unlikely Things. How Chinese Buffets Remind Me of Blogging, or How Choosing a Day Care Provider is Like Getting a Root Canal.
• Start a Blog Series. Like Monday Marketing, Temptation Tuesday, or Funny Friday. You’ll have at least one day’s post figured out every week. And no, you don’t have to be alliterative about it.

These 14 ideas are just the beginning. There are many more post formats you can use to spice up your blogging day. Got a favorite? Share with us in the comments section.

Spending days writing a simple blog post is not a good use of your time.

A lot of my blogger friends struggle to write blogs posts. They write, erase, rearrange, trash the whole thing and start over, and three days (or weeks) later they still haven’t finished it.

What they lack is a post building blueprint. Here’s a simple blueprint you can use next time you find yourself struggling to get the next post up.

Start With Your Keyword

Start with the general topic you want to cover. Let’s say your blog is about dog training, and today you want to cover walking on a leash. Your first stop should be your favorite keyword research tool. I like the Google Adwords keyword tool myself, but you can use whichever method and tools work for you. The point is, figure out which keyword this blog post will be centered around.

For this example, we’re going to use “leash training a dog,” which gets about 1900 searches per month according to Google.

Construct Your Title

The title is the most important part of your blog post, and should be where you spend most of your time. This is the part that shows up in your RSS feeds, in your email updates if you have them, and in the search results listings when people search for “leash training a dog.”

Good SEO requires that your title contain your keyword phrase. But good SEO is only the beginning. You also need people to click on your link, and for that, it can help to be a little more compelling. Instead of calling your article “Tips for Leash Training a Dog” try “5 Things Everyone Screws Up When Leash Training a Dog” or “Leash Training a Dog in 3 Easy Steps.”

Write the Introduction

Simply put, the intro tells the reader what your post is about and why they should read it. For our leash training example, you might start out by telling the reader about your 120 pound Rottweiler who tried to pull your arm off one day while chasing a squirrel, and how proper leash training would have helped.

Get to the Point in the Body

This is the meat of the article. It’s easy to get carried away here and start writing long, run on paragraphs heavy on the details, but don’t. It’s called surfing for a reason, and when hit with a page dense with words and lacking in white space that is exactly what readers will do. Surf away.

Instead, break up the text with section headings and bullet points, use short paragraphs, and aim to keep your post under 600 words.

Wrap it up in the Conclusion

All you’re doing in the conclusion is wrapping it up. Restate the reason the reader needs to know this information, maybe add one other small point, and you’re done.

Tell Your Readers What to do Now with a Call to Action

If you’re marketing a product, this is a no brainer. Just tell your reader what to do next. “Click here to learn more about my new ebook” or “Download my latest video to see how I turned my dog into a leash walking superstar.” If you’re not marketing a product, you still need a call to action. It might be a subtle as “leave a comment with your leash training tips” but it’s still a call to action.

If you’ve been blogging on the same topic for a while, this whole excercise should take no more than 30 minutes. But if you find you’re easily distracted by all that the Internet has to offer, try setting a timer. I’m experimenting with that right now, and I tell you, it really helps me keep my focus.

One other tip I’ll pass on is to keep an idea file. I use Evernote to keep idea files for all my blogs. Whenever I think of a topic I might want to write about, I add it to my list. Then when I sit down to write, I don’t ever waste time wondering what to write about. I just pick something, set my timer, and go.

Do you have a post building system? Share what works for you in the comments!