A computer is the bare necessity for blogging

Yes, a computer is the bare necessity for blogging, only thing is, I forgot to add the need for a modem, for you need to be connected to the Internet, even if only for brief periods if you do most of your preparations offline. However, with the possibility of publishing via mobile phone, perhaps the title is a bit inaccurate, but it is true for the majority of us.

So if you plan to start blogging, get a computer (plus a modem and subscription for dial-up or broadband access to the Internet), even if only a very basic one. If you already have one, it may start giving problems (like what my son is experiencing now) or you may need to upgrade (like me who no currently have 4 browsers (one in 2 windows) and many tabs opened simultaneously, plus 31 Notepad files, 4 Excel files, Irfanview photo editor, Paint (comes with Windows) and a calculator. I have just upgraded to a dual core processor computer with a wide LCD screen and I no longer faced the problems of programs hanging, etc which I experienced with the old computer).

I need to clip back the webcam onto the new wide screen LCD monitor to enable me to make video to upload to Youtube, then embed into my posts. You may need something like this too, or maybe even a webcam to take outdoor videos to embed into your posts.

Whatever it is, Coupon Chief says they can help you save some money when you need to purchase tools you need for blogging or whatever other things you may need for your daily life. Let us look at what they have for computers and accessories. On their home page and most of their other pages, there is a left sidebar with 2 sections - "Coupons by Store" and "..By Category". I can see Dell Home, Computers and Software and Wireless and Internet there.

If you are the bargain hunter type, you can try your luck at Best Buy. I saw some printers, laptops, scanners, digital cameras, graphic cards, flash drives, computer accessories with Personal Computer or Personal Computer packages, camcorders, monitors, etc. That sure is a long list. I am sure this is a dynamic page, and when you visit that site, you may see something different, perhaps a gem of a bargain.

Tools for Bloggers

Every endeavour require some kind of tools, and blogging is no exception. What kind of tools depend on what kind of blog or blogs you create and what you want to put on your blog. Let us go through some of them. The items mentioned are by no means exhaustive, and I may have left out some. If a reader points it out or I realise or discover what is missing, I hope not to forget to update the post. Here we go:

Basic minimum for blogging

The very basic minimum to blog is a computer and access to the Internet, and that means a modem. Google Blogger I think provides for publishing post from hand phone, but I am not sure if you can publish to your regular blog, or you have to start a special blog. Their Help Page has this to say: "Blogger Mobile (that is, sending messages from mobile devices to go@blogger.com) will automatically create a blog for you the first time you use it, so you can get started blogging even if you aren't near a computer." go@blogger.com is a general email address, not one specific to your blog.

I know you can publish posts via email. See Schedule posts to be published at future dates. I don't have a hand phone, but I have been told you can send email from hand phone. If true, you can publish posts from hand phone without a computer or modem. If so, the basic tool for blogging is either a computer plus modem or a hand phone. My children have been pestering me to get a hand phone as my son-in-law works in Digi and all of them have a hand phone number with which they can call each other for free (within the Digi network) but I don't known if that is still available as I heard it had been stopped because of abuse. If I do get it, I would try publishing from hand phone and I can be a roving reporter and can start a news blog with breaking news as I can report things as they happen without having to wait till I get home to my computer.

Basic computer or higher end computer?

For those who are not as active as I am online, a basic computer will probably will do. I am online almost all my waking hours and do multitasking. I have simultaneously a few browsers opened, many tabs in the browsers, man Notepad files, 2 photo editors, 2 Excel files, etc. If you want to know why I have so many browsers in my computer, see Why you should be using more than one browser. My son says I should get a computer with a dual core or a duo core processor. For heavy usage like this, a larger RAM (Random Access Memory) will also be good.

Software

You may want to include photos in your posts. You can always upload your photos direct, but some may want to do some editing like cropping, sharpening, rotating, etc. In this case, you will need some kind of photo editor. I make do with Irfanview and Paint that comes with Windows. I use them together (Irfanview more) to make screenshots and edit photos. You (and perhaps I too sometime in the future) may want something more sophisticated like Photoshop.

I also have a webcam and a headset with microphone for making video. I use the Windows Movie Maker that comes with Windows. I don't make much video for uploading to Youtube, then embedding in my posts, so I am not too picky. But if you are embedding video into your posts extensively, you may want to consider getting more sophisticated video editor software.

Computer accessories

Two computer accessories have already been mentioned in the section above - webcam and headset with microphone. If you have to make videos outdoor, you may need a hand phone with video capabilities or a webcam. My son have a compact digital camera which I use to get digital photos to add to my posts. However, I am not too happy with the camera and in three recent incidents, I could not finish taking the photos I wanted because of low battery even though I charged the battery before I went. I may need to get one for myself.

However, if you are shopping for a camera for blogging purposes, please do not get trapped into the mega pixels trap. You do not need huge mega pixel digital cameras. Those are for people who wants to print poster size photos. Putting a photo on the computer screen only requires a low resolution image, so any camera is sufficient (well below 1 mega pixel). However, there may be other considerations like zoom capability and dual usage, for example, to be used also for printing photos. For printing photos, let the size of the photos you intend to print guide you in your choice. You may also require certain features, etc. Each person have their own requirements and preferences, but please don't go chasing huge mega pixel cameras for only putting photos on the web. I wouldn't be printing photos (I am environmentally conscious) so I will probably purchase a simple camera.

If the digital camera does not come with facilities for transferring your photos from the camera to the computer, you may need a card reader which is what I am using now because the cable for transferring photos from the existing digital camera to the computer somehow went missing.

You may perhaps want to put printed materials on your blog. You can use a digital camera for that or use a scanner. There may be other accessories you may need that I cannot think of at the moment.

Where to get the tools you need for blogging?

There are many possibilities. One is to physically go to a mortar and brick stores to purchase what you need. That will mean driving there (burn up precious and depleting fossil fuel and contribute to global warming, hunt for perhaps scarce parking space, pay for parking, walk to the shop, etc. If you want to do comparison shopping, you may have to drive from place to place. Compare that to online shopping. All you need is to sit in front of you computer which should be connected to the Internet. Then you can do all the comparison shopping in the comfort of your home.

Coupon Chief is a site that offers discount coupons for shopping for items online. There is a search box on that site, and since I am looking for digital camera, I typed "digital camera" into the search box and click and the resulting page is Search Coupon Chief for digital camera result page.

There was a long list, and one attracted my eye - "Coupon Chief - RitzCamera.com Coupons". I clicked that link and was taken to Ritz Camera. Some pretty high end cameras were listed, but this one - "$32 Off a Canon Sure Shot 65 - 35mm Point & Shoot Camera" sounds like what I might be looking for, so I clicked on the link. It says "35mm Point & Shoot Camera - Clearance! - $69.95 Now $32. Off Original Price! Our Stock # CLR541163085. $37.95". Well I am prepared to pay $37.95 but was worried about the shipping charges, so tested clicking of "Add to Cart". Paypal was included in many payment options and I have a large Paypal balance. So I chose Paypal to pay. It turned out that the shipping charges was "Ground, 3 - 7 Business Days, $16.90". $16.90 is 45% of $37.95, almost half of the cost of the item. Another worrying item was the statement "Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, military APO/FPO and PO Box orders are shipped via USPS only. Please note, not all items can be shipped via USPS to these locations, and in some instances, we may be unable to fulfill your order, based upon these restrictions". Because of all these, I did not proceed with the order as I stay half way around the globe from United States of America.

However, for US residents and neighbours, Coupon Chief may be a viable means for getting your tools for blogging, as there are a "Coupons by Store" section and "..By Category" section in the sidebar as well as other options. One store you may be interested in may be Dell Home. Clicking on that link at the time of publishing (may change when you visit that page) produced only a few items, but one that may contain what I seek may be "Save big on Dell Systems or Electronics and Accessories" and clicking on that showed a computer system complete with a picture frame, a digital camera and something else I am not familiar with. It says "A different deal everyday" so I wouldn't know what you will get when you try them out. But be prepared for surprises, sometimes pleasant surprises in form of a great deal.

PPC (Pay per Click) tools

People blog for all kinds of reasons. I started blogging to help increase environmental awareness with an environmental blog Enviroman Says, then started a blog Blogger for Dummies to provide help for bloggers using the Google Blogger platform for their blogs. I was alerted to the face that "for Dummies" is a trademark of Wiley Publications and thus changed that blog title to "Dummies' Guide to Blogger" and started a new blog Blogger Tips and Tricks which turned out to be hugely popular with bloggers.

However, I am a pensioner and had to support my two sons through collegue with my pension. I had to find a way to supplement my pension and it is a great thing that Google came up with AdSense which provides an easy way for bloggers like us to earn through contextual ads (ads relevant to the content of the blog and thus not irritating to visitors as they may find information or things they are interested in via the ads. In fact, I see may ads I am interested in on my own blog but cannot click on them as that can lead to my account being suspended), referrals for useful things like FireFox with Google toolbar, Google Pack which have products which can make your computer more useful, etc., and from adding Google search box (especially sitesearch box) to our blogs. I find the sitesearch box extremely useful as it helps my blog visitors to search for topics they are seeking.

However, earnings from participating in Google AdSense is directly proportional to the traffic to your site or sites (number of visitors) and some publishers uses Google AdWord to help increase traffic to their site or sites. They uses what is referred to as arbitrage, that is find keywords that people are likely to search for which can result in getting their ads displayed and placing a low bid (the amount an advertiser have to pay when someone click on the ad) to get the ads displayed. This is called PPC (pay per click) ads. By using various means like putting content taht attract high paying ads, they hope to make more from visitors clicking on their ads than the amount they have to pay for their AdWord (PPC) advertising campaingn. Google Adword the the leader in PPC but now Yahoo and MSN is also trying hard to catch up.

Now if you have to spend on PPC advertising campaigns, you will obviously want to try your best to maximise your returns. It will be good to have some tools to help you. This site PPC Tools try to give you everything you need for PPC advertising. This site has some links to some free tools like "Overture Keywords" which will help you find the keywords that people are using to search for information related to your content, and the "free keyword combination tool". It is easy to use the first one, but I still haven't figured out how the second tool works.

There are also some PPC tools for which you will have to pay like the "Google Money Pro E-Book" and "Keywords Elite".

You can also try to get organic traffic (visits from search engines) for which you don't need to pay, and the site Search Engine Marketing Hints also has a post SEO Tools to help you with that.

There are also other topics like "Blog Marketing Hints" and "Social Networking Hints" which can be helpful.