In this post I thought I’d share a few tools that have become part of my blogging arsenal. One is a tool that I’ve been using for years, and the others are tools that I’ve just started playing with that hold a lot of promise.

1. Windows Live Writer

I run this blog on Google’s Blogger/Blogspot platform. There’s a lot that I love about this platform, but one thing that I don’t like very much is the post composition interface. Quite frankly, I hate composing posts in my web browser, and I’ve found the Blogger post composition interface to be particularly cumbersome (I particularly hate when my formatting gets stripped as I alternate between the WYSIWYG and HTML editors!). A few years ago I started playing around with Windows Live Writer, and it has become my primary tool for posting material to Runblogger.

Live Writer is a desktop blogging client that is somewhat like a blogging-specific version of Microsoft Word. It allows you to compose posts, insert and edit photos, tweak HTML, and post directly to WordPress, Blogger, etc. You can also save posts in progress and come back to them at a future time, as well as post drafts to your blog. Below is an early draft of this post in Live Writer:

I’d estimate that 95% or more of the posts I’ve written in the past two years were composed and edited using Live Writer. I like the program because it pulls the template of your blog once you configure it and let’s you see exactly what your posts will look like. The ease of adding and editing photos is also a huge plus. It does crash on occasion, but in my experience is pretty good a recovering posts when that happens and I don’t think I’ve lost anything major since I’ve started using it.

If you blog on a PC, I highly recommend giving Windows Live Writer a try. You can download the program from the Microsoft website.

2. Buffer

One of the things I’ve learned as a blogger is that there are certain times of the day when people are more likely to see posts on Facebook, Twitter, and the blog. My experience is that the time block from lunch to the end of the workday is a good time to post material (we all know what people are really doing at their work desks!), and from about 7:00 to 8:30 at night is a good time (ignoring the whole time zone thing…).

Unfortunately, it’s not always the case that I’m free to post material to my social media accounts during high traffic times of the day. Enter Buffer. Buffer is an app I’ve been using for a few weeks that allows you to schedule Tweets, Facebook Page posts, etc. If I read an article that I like at midnight, it might not be all that effective to share it at that time. Rather than shooting it right to Twitter/FB, I can instead send it to Buffer and it will post it at a time I can specify in the app settings. It’s also a great tool for spreading posts out throughout the day rather than in a short bursts.

Below is a screen capture from my Buffer account page:

Buffer has a free plan that let’s you configure a few accounts (as you can see in the above screen capture, I had originally configured one Twitter account, and one Facebook Page). You can also pay for a pro plan which offers the ability to include additional accounts as well as add a collaborator. I’ve been liking it enough that I just upgraded to the Pro plan yesterday.

You can check out Buffer here.

3. Feedly

Google announced a few weeks ago that they would be retiring Google Reader this July. I use Google Reader as an RSS feed aggregator to power my blogroll, but generally did not use it to read content. After the news of Reader’s impending demise came out I started looking for alternatives with similar functionality. Feedly came to the rescue with an announcement that they would be duplicating the Google Reader experience.

I set up a Feedly account and it immediately pulled in all of my Google Reader feeds and category groupings. I’ve since been using Feedly a ton to read posts from blogs submitted to Run Radar, and have been using it to Tweet links and add them to my Facebook page (via Buffer, which works great in tandem with Feedly). The interface is highly customizable and works great on my iPad Mini and in Chrome via a plugin (there’s also one for Firefox) . In the few weeks that I’ve been playing with Feedly I’ve probably read more posts on other running blogs than in the past six months combined!

Here’s a screen capture of my Feedly interface in Chrome:

Feedly is free, I highly recommend giving it a try!

How about you, any blogging or writing tools that you find indispensible?

In the background, I’ve also done a huge amount of research on the art of blogging, how to leverage social media, web design, etc. I taught myself basic HTML, I understand a bit about CSS, and I can make modifications to the backend of Runblogger without too much difficulty at this point. Early on in the life of Runblogger, I used to write about some of the things I figured out (you can see my “blogging” stream here), but running sort of took over and I left most of that behind.

In the four years since I launched Runblogger, I’ve developed a modicum of success as a blogger. This site now reaches 120,000 unique visitors, and receives 600,000+ pageviews per month. I’m blessed by this success, and it’s made it possible for me to realistically consider giving up my day job (I’m taking a leave of absence from my academic position starting in May).

The reality, however, is that I started from absolutely nothing. For a good six months my only readers were probably members of my family. I don’t think my wife even read much of what I wrote (she still doesn’t!). However, I stuck with it, kept plugging away at the computer, and readers slowly appeared. In other words, it took good, old-fashioned, hard work. I’m still fascinated by the art of blogging, and more often than not the books I read are on topics related to blogging, not running.

My interest in blogging is part of what drove me to get involved in the development of Run Radar, a site with a mission to support independent content producers in the running niche. We’re still working on it, but I’m excited about where we are headed. Last week I spent a good amount of time on Google Reader subscribing to the 100+ feeds that have been submitted to Run Radar so far (sadly, the announcement of Google Reader’s impending demise came the day after I finished…I’m now using Feedly). In cleaning up some old feeds I noticed how many of the running blogs I subscribe to had apparently ceased posting years ago, and I wondered in each case why?

Attrition is huge in the blogging world. People start out with great intentions, then lack of time, lack of content ideas, or perhaps a lack of perceived personal benefit lead to a dwindling of the initial motivation that led to the creation of the blog. So why is it that some blogs stick around and grow, whereas others fade away? Quite simply, I think it’s because growing a blog takes an immense amount of work, and the benefits can take a long time to realize themselves.

So what do I think is the secret to blogging success? Obviously hard work is critical, but I think the even bigger factor is perseverance. Even with an incredible amount of effort, it takes time for a site to catch on. It may take months, it may take years, it can be hard to predict. The key is you have to stick with it. To use a running cliché (this is a running blog after all!), building a blog is more like a marathon than a sprint. Keep providing good content on a consistent basis and good things will follow.

If proper pacing is the key to finishing a marathon without hitting the wall, what’s the best way to last for the long haul in the blogging world? I’m going to turn to another running blogger, Zak Branigan, for help with this.

Recently I read a post by Zak titled “On the Meaningful Running Blog.” In his post Zak discusses something most of us in this niche learn very quickly – reviews bring the traffic. But, writing a blog consisting solely of shoe reviews would get tiring fast (believe it or not!), and we each need to have that other “something,” that hook that defines who we are as writers and keeps us coming back to the keyboard. In other words, you need to have an angle that allows you to be creative in a way that keeps you motivated to write.

Here’s how Zak puts it:

“I want this blog to be more and more a reflection of who I am as a person and a writer. I want to evoke my readers to get outside, to embrace life, and to challenge themselves. While I am no saint, and even now I struggle with training and weight and the work/life balance, I hope that I am perceptive enough to provide meaningful content…my Nebraska…that truly strikes a chord with you and helps you feel like you are not alone out there.”

I boil it down to this – if you want to persevere, write about your passions, share what you love, and success will follow. I love running, science, writing, and the social web. And yes, I still love my shoes! In fact, I’m obsessed with these topics, and I’ve heard it said that obsession trumps passion when it comes to blogging. Identify your passion and write about it obsessively. And then write some more.

For me, I’ve focused mostly on the running side of this blog for the past several years, but I’ve been feeling a strong tug lately to write more often about blogging, hence this post. This tug has come in part from the fact that I’ve recently received a lot of questions about blogging from readers, and I simply don’t have the ability to answer them all to the extent that I would like (my inbox is my nemesis). As a result, I’ve contemplated adding a “Runblogging” column to resurrect that end of this blog. The goal would be to provide thoughts and tips on things I’ve learned as I’ve navigated my way through the development of this site over the past 4 years.

I’d love to be able to give something back to the community that has given me so much, so if you have any questions or topics that you think would be a good fit, fire away a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer in a future post!