Title: Performance Blogging

HomePage: http://performancing.com

Ironically enough i'm not using the blogging extension in question to write this, however, Performancing is what i consider to be a great tool for bloggers. It's one of 2 freeware applications we are promoting on this site to help make blogging easier and more efficient. This is just a brief overview of the tool and what it can do for you.

Performancing is simply an extension for the increasingly popular browser FireFox (my current browser of choice) and one i would recommend to all those currently using Internet Explorer. Once installed, you can then choose to write and publish an article straight from your browser. This means that if you see a page that you want to blog about, or gives you inspiration for a post, with a single right-click you can begin blogging, and all without the hassle of navigating to the admin panel of your blog every time you feel the urge to be creative.

Another great advantage to this extension is that you can login and publish to multiple blogs from one centralised location. If you have more than 1 blog, this tool becomes very useful indeed. It is a real convenience, and can help prevent the situation where you forget to update your blogs as regularly as you would like. And as we all know, lots of good quality content is the best way to get noticed in the world of blogging! If you think a tool like this could be useful to you (and i believe it will be!) then follow the instructions below to download and install it:

• Install FireFox browser.
• Download the Performancing extension.
• Restart your browser, Performancing is now installed!

Right-clicking on any browser page, and selecting the Performancing sub-menu will enable this tool. Many blogs will require you to manually configure them. When using OIOblogger for example, you would select Blog Type as Wordpress and the remote publishing path as follows:

• http://username.oioblogger.com/xmlrcp.php

Now you can begin writing! Once done, you can publish it straight to the blog from your browser, as well as edit any posts already made. If you have any comments about this tool, please leave one below. You can also view a screenshot of the tool here:

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Title: Qumana - Offline Blogging

Homepage: http://www.qumana.com

Have you ever been unable to access the internet, when a flash of inspiration for your latest blog article hits you? Sure, you could write up a draft in MS Word or Notepad, but an even better solution might be to be able to write and format your article for instant publication when you get online. This is exactly what Qumana allows you to do.

You can write, publish and edit posts all without having to login to your blog's web page. You have all the flexibility of the blog admin interface, without ever actually being there! You can even edit posts you've already published. You can choose to use the WYSIWYG editor, so that everything you type is displayed as it will appear when published, or you can switch and view the source. It is not a perfect setup though, and may require some editing of the Source to compensate for a few missing options, such as whether a link will open on the same page, or a new one.

As with Performaning, you also have the ability to keep track of multiple blogs from the application's Blog Manager. It's as simple as clicking on the blog you'd like to publish to, and then writing your post. Adding a new blog to the list requires the following:

• Your blog's homepage
• Your blog username and password
• The type of blogging software being used
• The path to the blog's remote publishing API

The final requirement, when accessing an OIOblogger Blog remotely, is to use a url path in the following format:

• http://username.oioblogger.com/xmlrpc.php

Other features of the tool includes a Spell Checker, and the ability to drop in images, tags, and even Pay-Per-Click ads. The Qumana ads require you to signup here, and then you can use your username in the editor to access the ads and drop them in your article. Obviously this is Qumana's revenue stream, but considering the editor is free, and there are no popups (that i have yet found) encouraging you to use the ads, i have no reservations over it. I signed up myself to have a look, and was pleasantly suprised to find they paid out to Paypal. The ads are not contextual, and require that you add in a keyword phrase related to your article. This should mean however, that the ads can still be used in conjunction with contextual ad services like Adsense.

The keyword phrase used to generate the above ad was "Stock Market".  The ads don't rotate upon refressh, so don't expect too much in the way of choice of ads here. This is no Adsense, but still an extra option some might like to use. I also have to add that initially the ad wouldn't display correctly, and i had to edit the source to remove the alt tag. Think of it as something to experiment with if you wish, otherwise stick with the main providers like Google.

One thing to note, as i found out writing this post, is that when saving a post, it will not always show up as the latest version in the preview section. Don't worry about this, either restart the application, or just press "Refresh Posts" in the blog manager.

Download the latest PC version here, or the latest Mac version here. Note that the download is around 10mb in size, as it is a stand-alone package.

Qumana is very similar in essence to the other tool we looked at, Performancing, and whilst both are easy to use, i personally like having a stand-alone application that can be used offline or online, rather than using a browser extension. Having said that, many people prefer it the other way round. Either way, both tools are free, and well worth a look at for the casual or serious blogger. After a couple of practice runs with them, you may wonder if you will ever log in to your blog again!

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