Sure, you can just use the online, web-based tool to post articles, but I specifically like the ability to work up posts and ideas and save them offline until they are ready to be posted. This is the primary reason for a desktop tool.
So, I took a list of available blogging tools and ran them through their paces. Being a Windows user, here’s the list I went through:
- BlogDesk
- BlogJet
- Chrysanth WebStory
- Ecto
- LIPIDr Blog Client
- Post2Blog
- QTM
- Qumana
- RocketPost
- Semagic
- Zoundry Raven
- w.bloggar
- WB Editor
- WordPress Comments notifier
After much deliberation, I finally decided that, for my needs, WebStory is the best solution, and this is what we will be recommending here on myITforum.com for our authors. After using it for a few days, and shaking off the WLW methods of posting, I find it refreshing and just as easy to post. And, it actually does a LOT better than WLW did with formatting. Setup is quick and easy and there’s quite a few options available to enhance posts during the publishing process – like utilizing Tag services to make sure the articles get the best attribution in search engines.
Another cool thing is that is stores your posts in an offline database instead of having to query the web site constantly to retrieve old posts for updating. It also syncs and stores comments posted to articles so you can interact with your posts offline, too.
WebStory is free and can be downloaded from here: http://webstory.my/download/
My next favorite was BlogJet because it’s so very similar to WLW. However, it has a $30 price tag. If you’re looking for a new offline blogging tool, jump through the list I posted. You may find one that you like better – hey, we’re not all the same.
