10 Free Blogging Tools You Can’t Live Without

10 Free Blogging Tools You Can’t Live Without

and today I’m going to share 10 of the free blogging toolsYou can’t live without.  I had a hard time narrowing this list down to just 10 tools, but I think the following offers a diverse group of tools that every blogger should try.

Of course, I also can’t live without Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and many, many more free tools, but the list below includes a more diverse selection than just the most well-known and expected tools that you’d normally find in this type of list.  Note that this list is in no particular order.

So without further ado, here they are — 10 free blogging tools I can’t live without (or at least, that I don’t want to live without):

1. Stock.xchng

I use a variety of sites to find free images that I can legally publish in my blog posts, and stock.xchng is one of my favorites.

2. Paint.net

Need to edit images for your blog?  I have used several free tools to do this in the past, but Paint.net has become my favorite.

3. WordPress.org

This list would not be complete if I didn’t mention my favorite blogging application.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is by far the best and most comprehensive free Web analytics tool.

5. Skype

I was not an early adopter of Skype, but over the past couple of years, it has become an integral part of my life as a blogger for conducting chats, phone conversations, and interviews.

6. PollDaddy

There are a number of free poll sites and tools that bloggers can use, but PollDaddy is still my favorite because of its ease-of-use and streamlined functionality.

7. Google Alerts

I have multiple alerts set up and view them in my email inbox everyday.  Of course, Google Alerts isn’t perfect, but it has helped me to find many conversations and articles that I may have missed otherwise.

8. CoffeeCup

I’m not a Web developer and my HTML and CSS knowledge is limited, but when I do need to look through code to edit a WordPress theme or view the source code for a Web page, the free version of CoffeeCup makes it easier to find what I’m looking for.

9. Core FTP

There are a number of free FTP sites and tools, but Core FTP is easy to use and perfect for a novice.

10. Delicious

I have a private Delicious account that I use to bookmark all of the content I want to research further, write about, and so on.  I can access these bookmarks from any computer and at anytime.  I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to my Delicious account.

What are your favorite free blogging tools?  Leave a comment and share your “can’t live without” tools!