MoneyAscent.com

I still need to add a few more but so far I’ve added the following 10 WordPress plugins:

1. Akismet – a great comment spam plugin. Interestingly I had comment spam on TwiTip that Akismet filtered within minutes of launching the blog on Twitter.
2. All in One SEO Pack – a plugin that helps to optimize a blog for search engines. It gives easy ways to set up title tags, descriptions, keywords (both for home pages but also on individual posts) and a variety of other settings that have an impact upon SEO.
3. cforms – a powerful contact form plugin. It’s a lot more complex than other comment form plugins out there but has a lot more features (some that I’m yet to fully test).
4. Google XML Sitemaps – a plugin to help Google and other search engines to find every page and post on your blog – good for getting a new blog indexed quickly.
5. Simple Tags – extends the built in tags features on WordPress.
6. Subscribe To Comments – a WordPress plugin that allows those leaving comments to check a box and be notified when other people leave a comment on that thread.
7. Tweet This – ads an invitation for readers to Tweet a link to the post they are reading. While I wouldn’t put this on every blog – it seemed a no brainer on a blog about Twitter.
8. WordPress.com Stats – I’m using Google Analytics as my main metrics tool for TwiTip but it doesn’t update in real time so this plugin helps to get a quick update of what’s happening on the blog at any given point in time.
9. WP-Polls – an AJAX polling plugin with some nice features. I’ve previously used the Democracy Plugin but this one seems to be working really nicely so far.
10. WP Ajax Edit Comments – this plugin allows those leaving comments to edit their comments for a short period of time after they leave a comment.

If there is one thing that sets FireFox apart from any other web browser, it would have to be the third party support in the form of themes and extensions. There are so many extensions available for the browser, you can virtually do just about anything. As I become more entrenched as a blogger online, I’ve started to transform FireFox into more than just a browser,  it has become my ultimate blogging toolbox. The following twelve FireFox extensions will give you a head start on turning FireFox into your own personal blogging toolbox.

Many Google Services In One – These days, it seems as though Google has a bazillion services. Having individual buttons for each service in FireFox would not only be cumbersome but it would also take up valuable screen real estate. Thankfully, there is an extension which enables access to all of the Google Services from one button called Gbutts. After installing this extension, you can configure which Google Services show up in the drop down menu, allowing you to only see the ones you actively use.

In Browser Feed Reader – I use FeedDemon as my stand-alone FeedReader of choice, but I also use one within FireFox called SageToo. I use this extension primarily to keep tabs on forums I am a member of. Since I need to have the browser open to reply to a forum post or start a new thread, having quick access to new posts/threads within the browser is a time saver versus reading the feeds in a stand alone feed reader.

Publish Content Right From The Browser – ScribeFire should be of no surprise for longtime readers of Problogger. ScribeFire enables me to have quick access to a blog editor. If the publishing system you use has XML-RPC support, you can configure ScribeFire to connect directly to your blog. I use ScribeFire to quickly publish drafts or full blown posts to my own blog, right from the browser.

See Ranks Without Researching – With the SearchStatus extension, you can easily see a particular URL’s Alexa Ranking as well as its Google Page Rank. Finding this information used to require researching the site by putting the URL through a Page Rank service.

Take Snapshots From The Browser – People are continuously surprised to find out that TechSmith has a FireFox extension (SnagIt Extension) available particularly for those who use their SnagIt software. This software makes it easy as pie to take screen captures. The extension takes things one step further by enabling access to the software through the browser. In my arsenal of tools, this extension is probably used the most as publishing how-to articles or reviews requires an abundant amount of screenshots.

Built In FTP Client – One of the reasons why I used Internet Explorer long after FireFox was released was because of the built in FTP client. Convenience of the client kept me from using alternatives. Once I discovered the FireFTP extension however, I really began to fall in love with FireFox. FireFTP adds an FTP client right into the browser which I have found to work better than any stand alone software alternative I have tried.

Easy to Digest URLs – Thanks to services like Twitter which limits messages to 140 characters or less, we now have a myriad of services online which aims to shrink that mile long URL into something more manageable. Despite the other services that are available, I am been a big fan of TinyURL. So it should be no surprise then that I am recommending the TinyURL Creator. This extension can create tiny URLs from links, page links, and the text that is displayed in the address bar of the browser. On top of that, the TinyURLs that are created are automatically copied to your clipboard leaving you with the only step of pasting the link.

Tweeting From The Browser – Although Twhirl makes for an excellent stand alone application to handle your Twitter needs, having access to Twitter from within FireFox adds a convenience factor not to mention it is one less program running on your machine. When accessing Twitter from the browser, I recommend the  TwitKit extension. When activated, Twitter will load in a sidebar within FireFox with a list of the 10 latest tweets. I typically use TwitKit to publish quick thoughts or links without the distraction of being sucked into the endless stream of information that Twhirl provides. As an alternative, you can use TwitterBar.

Auto Fill Forms -  Most blogs have a commenting section made up of four fields. Name, URL, Email and a text area for your comment. Instead of typing in your Name, URL, and Email over and over again, you can use the AutoFill Forms extension and configure it so that when you press a keyboard shortcut, these fields will automatically be filled in with the configured values. This extension has saved me a ton of time as well as keystrokes. One caveat though, this extension does not work on blogs who use a third party commenting system such as Disqus or CoComment.

Copy Only The Text – Ever copy a section of text from a website and then paste it into a Word Document or into a WYSIWYG Text editor? Generally, not only is the text pasted but so is the formatting. I know at times, this has driven me insane. Thankfully, there is an extension which prevents this from happening called Copy Plain Text. This extension adds an option to your right click context menu that will say, “Copy Plain Text” which does exactly what it advertises.

Sharing Across Multiple Services With One Button – While I tend to stick with using the Delicious Bookmarks extension as that is the only bookmarking service I use, I figured that limiting the bookmarking services to just delicious would be premature. So, introducing Shareaholic. Shareaholic is similar to the GButts extension in that, users have access to multiple social bookmarking/networking sites from one icon.  After configuring the sites for which you have accounts with, sharing a site is as simple as a few clicks of the mouse. At least seventeen different services are supported which should be enough to get you started.

Relevancy In The Browser -  When you’re writing that next blog post, don’t bother spending time using Google to look up related posts, images, etc. Instead, use the Zemanta FireFox Extension. Zemanta presents images, links, articles, tags in a simple interface. It encourages re-use and linking to other content with as little effort as possible. In the world of blogging, being related is usually a good thing.

These extensions are what make up my own toolbox, but why stop there? Perhaps you use an alternate extension to get a chore done versus the one I suggested. This is your chance to tell me which extensions you use to make you a more productive or efficient blogger. Based on your responses, there may be a follow up post filled with reader suggestions.

Source: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/11/05/turn-firefox-3-into-a-blogging-toolbox/

Firefox works great on its own, but it’s the thousands of extensions that make it excel. We’ve pulled together more than 40 add-ons for Firefox that provide quick access to handy blogging tools. But whatever you do, don’t install them all at once.

Blog Publishing

Blogger Bar – Search Blogger, “Blog This” function for any page you’re on.

Clipmarks – Clip any portion of a website to save, email or put on your blog.

Deepest Sender – Blog to multiple platforms from one window.

JustBlogIt – Just right click, and you’re blogging about the page you’re viewing.

LiveJournal Addons – Notifies you of friends updates, messages and more.

LiveJournal Hook – Gives you quick access to many LiveJournal commands and tags.

MySpace Blog Editor – Post directly from Firefox, drag and drop clips from sites.

Scribefire – A blog editor that integrates with your browser and allows you to drag and drop items from a web page into a blog post.

Twitterbar – Post to Twitter directly from the address bar.

WordPress.com Sidebar – Adds a quick access sidebar to get to your WordPress.com account.

Uploading Photos and Media

Fireflix – Sidebar extension to upload, browse, and manage your Flickr photos.

Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery – Upload photos directly to your Kodak EasyShare Gallery.

Firefox Universal Uploader – Universal program for uploading to sites such as Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, and Facebook.

FireFTP – An integrated FTP system that syncs and checks versions.

Flickr Sidebar – View the pictures in your account in a sidebar.

Fotofox – Select, tag, and upload images to popular sites such as Flickr.

ImageBot – Lets you upload photos to ImageShack or Photobucket.

OakFlickr4PFF – Allows uploading to your Flickr account.

Blog Tools

Adsense Notifier – Displays your current earnings from Google Adsense in the status bar.

Copy as HTML Link – Copies the address of a page to the clipboard as an HTML ready link.

Create short URLs – Right click an address, click wrapURL, and create a shortened URL for your use.

Dict – Highlight a word, right click it, select define and get a definition in a pop-up window.

DictionarySearch – Similar to Dict, but the result appears in a new tab.

FastDict – Add quick access to any number of dictionary sites to spruce up your blog entries.

ShrinkThisLink Link Shrinker – Use the ShrinkThisLink service without leaving the page.

Tiny.pl – Shortens an address via the tiny.pl service.

Blog Design, Customization and Development

ColorZilla – Get a color reading from any spot in your browser.

DT Whois – Adds a button for Domaintools.com whois service for the site you are currently viewing.

Firebug – Look under the hood of your favorite websites and take a peak at their code.

Greasemonkey – Allows you to run small java scripts to manipulate the way a page displays to you.

HTML Validator – Checks the validity of a page’s HTML and tells you the results in simple graphics.

IE Tab – Lets you view a webpage in an Internet Explorer tab without leaving Firefox.

iWEBTOOL Webmaster’s Toolbar – Allows you quick access to services and tools from iWEBTOOL.

JavaScript Debugger – In browser Java script debugging.

KGen – Allows you to see the strongest keywords for a given site.

LinkChecker – Checks the validity of all links on a given page.

Load Time Analyzer – Allows developers to measure how long a page takes to load.

MeasureIt – Draws out a ruler to get a pixel dimension of any element on a page.

MetaTags – Checks the meta information of a site and features an automated search engine submission tool.

RankQuest SEO Toolbar – Quick access to over 30 SEO tools.

SearchStatus – Keyword density analyser and checks backlinks.

SEOHAND – Tracks a site’s standings and creates graphs over time.

SEOQuake – Ever wonder why a page gets good search ranking? This will help you figure it out.

Web Developer – A highly regarded debugging tool for designers.