30+ FREE Desktop Applications for Bloggers

Bloggers, there are lots of things you’ve to keep an eye on, and most of the time, you’ll need the help of different programs for different needs. Sure, there are more web tools for the job, but nothing can get to give you the convenience and speed that desktop applications offer. So, here goes a list of over 30 handpicked application, that can possibly increase a blogger’s productivity.

Desktop Blogging Clients

Post to your blog straigth from the desktop.

Free Blogging Clients

Windows Live Writer – One of the best. Plugins can be added to increase its power. Check out our review here.
w.bloggar (Windows only) – Available as a full and portable version (can run from USB thumbdrive).
AIRPress (Windows, Mac) – Adobe AIR based blog editor for WordPress blogs. AIRPress requires Adobe AIR beta 2 to work. If it’s not installed already, it will be auto installed with AIRPress.
Thingamablog (Window, Mac, Linux)
Qumana (Windows, Mac)
BlogDesk (Windows) – Optimized for WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine.

Statistics Tools

Monitor websites traffic and other stats.

Free Traffic Analytics Tools for Bloggers

Google Analytics (AIR) – Check detailed traffic stats from the desktop. Works both on Mac and Windows PCs. Google Analytics account required.
Snoop (Mac, Win) – Track website visitors in real time staight from the desktop. Stats provided by reinvigorate.net
SERPs Finder (Win) – Find where your page lists for a particular keyword on Google, Live and Yahoo! Search.

Screen Capturing Tools

Snippy (Windows) – System Tray Tool for screen capturing. Mark out the region of the screen that you want to copy “” and Snipp it.
Clip2Net (Windows) – Take screenshots, add notes and arrows, and save them online.
WebShot (Windows) – One more screesnhot grabber, free version is quite limited, but still does the job.
Camstudio (Windows) – Capture screen activity (vide+audio) and save it in AVI or SWF format.
Windows Media Encoder – Capture audio and video content and encode video captures to WMV format.
SnagIt 7 (Windows) – Powerful screenshot capture and editing tool. Normally it costs $29 but version 7 is available for free. Unfortunately, the promotion period is over.

Image Editing Programs

Free Image Editing Tools for Bloggers

GIMP (Win, Linux) – Free Photoshop alternative. Also see Gimpshop which even looks like Photopshop.
Paint.NET (Win) – Another open source software tool for your image editing needs.
IrfanView (Win) – Worth a mention here, it’s an image viewer with a few editing capabilities.

FTP Programs

Filezilla (Win, Mac, Linux) – Open Source FTP Client. Read MakeUseOf review here.
FireFTP (Win, Mac, Linux) – FTP extension for your Firefox browser.

Keyword Research

Good Keywords (Win) – Excellent too for finding suitable keywords for your article titles. MakeUseOf review: Get Your Keywords Right.

Microblogging Tools

Pwytter (Win, Mac, Linux) – Cross-platofrm Twitter client.
Twitbin – Firefox Extension for Twittering
OutTwit – Twitter client for Outlook. If you’re interested check out more Outlook addons here.
Pownce Client – Official Pownce clients for Mac and Windows. [What is Pownce ?]

Task Management

Rainlendar (Win) – One of the best desktop calendar apps for Windows.
Essential PIM (Win) – A free personal information manager.

Offline HTML editors

Free HTML editor for offline use.

First Page (Win) – Two paned windows HTML editor.
KomPozer (Win, Mac, Linux) – Extremely easy to use and ideal for non-technical users.

Miscellaneous

WordPress Comment Moderation Notifier – Get notifications when there are comments that need to be moderated.

That’s about it. Do you have a must-see program that’s not on the above list? Let us know in comments.


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Shankar Ganesh

A 16 year old Techie, High School Student, Blogger and Part Time Freelance Writer from India. He writes about computers and software at Killer Tech Tips

The comments were closed because the article is more than 180 days old.

If you have any questions related to stuff mentioned in the article or need help with any computer issue, just ask it on MakeUseOf Answers.

Hide 23 Comments

  • Paulo Brabo January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    You forgot to mention Adobe’s Bee, which is in many ways more polished than AIRPress:

    labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/samples/

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    • Shankar Ganesh January 14, 2008
      0 likes

      Thanks for the add! We’ll update the post soon with that tool.

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  • kuros January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    what about scribefire?
    scribefire.com/

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    • Shankar Ganesh January 14, 2008
      0 likes

      I didn’t bother to include Firefox Extensions, but ScribeFire is a nice tool nonetheless.

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  • Alisha January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    For an FTP program, I actually use SmartFTP, because I couldn’t stand FileZilla. SmartFTP lets me edit a file from the server and then upload when I’m done (must-have feature). I don’t remember if FileZilla has that feature or not, but SmartFTP is another good one.

    smartftp.com

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    • Shankar Ganesh January 14, 2008
      0 likes

      My bad.. I missed this program…. I’ve heard of it before.

      Will add it as well :) Thanks for the heads-up.

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  • Troy January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    Hi, I thought I would add another screen capture application – Screen shot captor (http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/screenshotcaptor/index.html). I use it and find it remarkable full featured. It is free but the author asks for a donation which entitles you to a life time license to it and many other pieces of software on that site.

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  • Adrian January 14, 2008
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    You forgot about a good backup tool. I’ve already lost my work once and I learned my lesson. I use site-vault.com.

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    • Shankar Ganesh January 14, 2008
      0 likes

      Oh! That’s an important thing that every serious blogger should consider.

      Thanks for informing us about that very useful service.

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  • 7leads January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    good stuff and I am gaining some great information.

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  • Rick January 13, 2008
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    Is GimpShop stable now? I downloaded it and tried to use it a couple of years ago, but it kept crashing on me. I have just been using Gimp since then and I’m quite happy with it.

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    • Shankar Ganesh January 14, 2008
      0 likes

      Well, nobody can say that it’s cent percent stable, but sure OSS is getting better by the day. :)

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  • 禾草唐楷 January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    非常好的文章,对我使用blogger和wordpress中有很大的帮助作用~~~

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  • lankapo January 13, 2008
    0 likes

    thanks my friend,
    a lot of info here

    | Like
  • kip January 14, 2008
    0 likes

    Snagit offer is no longer available.

    | Like
    • Shankar Ganesh January 14, 2008
      0 likes

      Uh Oh! If that’s the case, I’ll update the post. This article was drafted sometime ago so missed it.

      | Like
  • Chris Christensen January 14, 2008
    0 likes

    As a Mac blogger I would also recommend ImageWell, Cyberduck and maybe Flock.

    Chris Christensen
    Amateur Traveler podcast – AmateurTraveler.com
    Tripinator – Travel 2.0 – tripinator.com

    | Like
  • udi January 14, 2008
    0 likes

    Great post, and great tools not just for bloggers but for all around web geeks.
    I’d love to see see Drupal related tools.
    - Udi

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  • Syahid A. January 14, 2008
    0 likes

    Nice one Shankar. Take a look at Photoscape and Alleycode HTML Editor. Two good freewares too.

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  • Gareth January 16, 2008
    0 likes

    SnagIT offer has expired….!!

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  • fadern January 17, 2008
    0 likes

    Thanks

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  • MK February 4, 2008
    0 likes

    Thanks for the share. Windows Live Writer is my favorite one.

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  • ramesh November 10, 2009
    0 likes

    SnagIT offer has expired….!!

    | Like