Useful Firefox Extensions for Writing and Promoting Blogs
Since I had decided to embark on full-time freelance ventures, there is only one application that I use most often than any other installed in my computer – Firefox. I just realized that without this beloved browser, I would find it difficult to do freelance work. It is actually the tons of add-ons that are already written for the browser which made my work a lot easier to do.
I have around 25 plugins which I find indispensable in doing web design work and blogging. I don’t plan to discuss all these twenty-five plugins here but I would like to mention those that relate to my blogging work.
useful Firefox plugins for blogging
StumbleUpon
The easiest way to navigate through StumbleUpon is to install and use its add-on toolbar. It makes it easier for me to stumble through friends or even through other news sites. I am not so much of an active user in stumble upon, but stumbling through this site once in a while makes it easier for me to do such stumbling duties.
EasyComment
The EasyComment add-on makes it easier for me to leave comments during a blog hop spree. Using add-on is pretty straightforward: simply enter your name, email and blog URL in its settings then use it to automatically fill out those items in most comment blogs. I find this helpful because it eliminates typographical errors especially when trying to type the blog URL.
Entrecard
I am an active user of Entrecard so I use the toolbar to promote my blog. I just simply have to select the category to which sites I get to visit, drop an Entrecard and perhaps leave a comment or two if I find the site interesting. The Entrecard toolbar also allows me to advertise on the currently visited blog.
coComment
coComment add-on is very useful to me because I get to keep track of blogs that I comment on, particularly blogger blogs. Most of the time, I always love to participate on the blog conversation, not just leave a comment on a blogger blogs, so I need to keep track which blogs I had commented on and read the replies of the author of the post. Although coComment is a good way for me to keep track of comments, it can be used also as a social network to meet other bloggers.
Delicious
I keep Delicious bookmarks primarily to keep track of useful articles and blog posts. I also use these Delicious bookmarks to network with other bloggers who share the same interest. Although it is possible to use this social bookmarking site to promote my own posts, I decided to bookmark posts that I need for my web-related interests.
Power Twitter
Power Twitter is one of the tons of Twitter tools where I get to have an enhanced Twitter web page: shortened links are replaced by actual links to the site, images are displayed and YouTube videos are seen. If you happen to be active on Twitter discussions then this tool is a must-have.
TinyURL creator
Most bloggers are perhaps familiar with the TinyURL service but did you know that such a Firefox add-on exists for that? It saves me from going to the TinyURL website to shorten the URL that I want to promote.
FireShot
FireShot takes a screenshot of the visible or entire part of the browser page then lets the user edit, upload, save, or copy to the clipboard, print email or even edit it in other external editor. Its free version is very powerful indeed for simple jobs, but if you are working on batch images then consider an upgrade.
Google Gears
I’ve installed Google Gears for two reasons: it puts a local cache copy of my WordPress blogs so it is easier for me to update these blogs and this addin is also helpful for me to speed up my Google reader.
SEO for Firefox
SEO for Firefox is a plugin that makes it easier for me to check “nofollow†links as well as those useful statistics like Google pagerank, Alexa ranking, Technorati, Delicious links and other relevant figures that are used in doing SEO. As a newbie in doing SEO work, I really find this plugin very useful.
WordPress Helper
Whether you own a self-hosted WordPress blog or have a WordPress.com blog, the WordPress helper is an optional tool that helps me switch between WordPress blogs. It also provides several shortcuts such as going to the login page, writing a new blog page or post and even managing comments or spam.
Most of the add-ons that I have installed are used for promoting my blogs, including TinyURL. The last four add-ons are the ones that I use when writing content for my blogs. Except in cases where I could not get to run Firefox, I would not prefer to use any other browser to do my blogging work.
blanne
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:23 am #
Useful plugins indeed! I have installed some of them, and the ones I don’t know about are worth checking out.
I dislike coComment though. I used it months ago and I think there was some sort of error when it comes to gathering the information I needed. I’m not so sure now what it was. Hehe.
Calvin
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 am #
wow i never knew about easycomment and that would really be helpful for me. thanks! try ko rin google gears and fireshot. Print screen ako palagi eh. hehehe.
na-try mo na ba livewriter?
Dexter | Tech At Hand Dot Net
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:32 pm #
Full time na talaga ah… Firefox Rocks. that is why I don’t want to transfer to Chrome.. I always use Rank Checker from seobook.com
macobex
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm #
Nice List!
I love to use StumbleUpon, specially when I’m bored or I just want to go to random interesting sites! I will try to read more about coComment, it seems to be a good tool. Thanks for the post.
Gem
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:49 am #
Yung livewriter, not yet. Na-disable ko yung ability na yun, may ginamit akong wordpress security plugin. Can it check grammar and spelling? I’ve been using Word for it, then copy and paste ako dito.
Gem
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:54 am #
Too bad coComment did not work out for you. Manual mo na lang track ang comments mo, hehehe.
Gem
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 am #
Full time? Almost, but not quite. I also find Chrome as a faster and better browser too.
That seobook.com has a lot of tools, I agree. I often find myself using not only one, but several tools to learn SEO.
By the way, just added rank checker to the list. Now I don’t have to go to Google, hehehe.
Gem
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 am #
Thanks, glad to hear that you found coComment an interesting tool.
Blogjoints.com Trackback | Rate this Article
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:21 am #
Useful Firefox Extensions for Writing and Promoting Blogs | The Lady Programmer…
These Firefox Extensions are what I use to write and promote my blogs. I have these installed in my computer….
Calvin
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm #
there’s no grammar check pero it has spellchecker and word count. madali pang gumawa ng table with it.
Jack Clarke
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:16 pm #
Those are fantastic, thanks! I use Birdfeeder to post my articles in Twitter, but as you mentioned it uses a short url. I will check out the Twitter tool for sure.
- Jack
Pastilan
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:56 pm #
whew, daming wala sa akin dito sa list mo ah, I only know one in your list and that’s SEO for firefox. And another one pala, StumbleUpon. What I have now with my Firefox are Google Semantics, KGen, FireFTP, Orbit Downloader Firefox integration, RankQuest SEO, Searchstatus, SEOpen, Seo Quake, Tor Button, KingCrawler, and a number of other stuff not worth mentioning because they are not related to blogging.
Merong kasabihan: Tell me what your Firefox plugins are and I will tell you what kind of internet user you are he he he he
Gem
March 4th, 2009 at 6:54 am #
Lahat ng SEO sa iyo meron hehehe. Buti hindi nagko-conflict ang mga plugins.
blanne
March 4th, 2009 at 7:05 am #
Haha. Oo nga eh. Pero hindi talaga maiiwasan na hindi ko matrack lahat. Ang hirap nun! Hahaha.
But if only disqus ang gamit ng lahat ng blogs, ok lang sana. Kasi makikita mo sa profile mo kung sino ang nagreply sa comments mo..
Pastilan
March 4th, 2009 at 8:52 am #
he he he minsan nagsusuntokan yung mga plugings na pang SEO he he he iba-iba ang sinasabi nila pero meron din namang parepareho.
As of now Chrome ang main browser ko, bilis kasi at lagi akong nagmamadali ngayon.
Louie
March 10th, 2009 at 2:22 pm #
Awesome list Stumbled!!!
zplits | What's the latest?
March 16th, 2009 at 10:51 am #
Hi there Gem,
Good day to you, nice list. I have also a cocomment plugin but don’t know how to use it.
Sheng
March 18th, 2009 at 9:53 pm #
Wow! a great find. lots of useful info that can definitely help now that i’ve decided to venture into blogging. a lot of nice plugins worth checking out. thanks heap!
Gem
March 18th, 2009 at 10:57 pm #
Really? Thanks for sharing this one around!
Bill
March 19th, 2009 at 12:15 pm #
Wow thanks Gem. I knew about one or two of these but you have many great tools here. Your very knowledgeable about this. I will try these out. Thanks again. Have a great one.
jan_geronimo
March 19th, 2009 at 7:22 pm #
Okay, I have SU toolbar, delicious, Fireshot (which I don’t use), SEO for firefox which I uninstalled because I suspect it’s slowing down my pc. But I’d try cocomment and tinyurl – I’m using Tweetdeck but with limited API, I need this utility just the same.
Do you know I have Firezilla, too? For what? Beats me. I just want to see it there.
Bill
March 21st, 2009 at 12:57 pm #
Hi Gem I tried looking for two of your of the plug in you recommended here and could not find them on Fire Fox. Easy comment and co commment. It said they were out dated. I did down load some of the others you put here. Thanks again have a great weekend.
Gem
March 26th, 2009 at 4:16 pm #
I did not have problems on it. You can find easy comment on Firefox’s site itself (not Google) and you have to get coComment from the coComment site itself.
Shine
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 am #
Hi Ms. Gem
Thanks for sharing, I now use easyComment for my freelance work and it saves time.
By the way, what FTP free software can you recommend? Medyo confuse ako with this stuff eh my client asked me to install one. Hope you can help me out.
rob
April 6th, 2009 at 2:34 pm #
Found a very useful looking list of firefox stuff last nite but didn’t save it. Tried to find it on google and wound up here! (Thought you’d like to know.) I have been looking for a good screenshot program and fireshot is just awesome.This is my first attempt but I’m glad I found it – and your site!
A couple questions – if you have the time…
What the heck language is this…?”he he he minsan nagsusuntokan yung mga plugings na pang SEO he he he iba-iba ang sinasabi nila pero meron din namang parepareho.
As of now Chrome ang main browser ko, bilis kasi at lagi akong nagmamadali ngayon.”
and
how can I do that copy thingy that pastes extra content???
Read more: Useful Firefox Extensions for Writing and Promoting Blogs | The Lady Programmer – http://www.theladyprogrammer.com/firefox-extensions-for-writing-and-promoting-blogs/#ixzz0BsOTOind
Rob
Gem
April 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pm #
It’s in Filipino.
I did not notice that extra content before. Can you still remember the circumstances on how you did this?
Goran Blinds
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:23 pm #
I use most of these, Stumbleupon, Delicious and SEO for Firefox I use almost everyday. I have heard about cocomment but have not tried it yet.I think that I am going to give it a go. Thanks for the great tips.
isis
July 18th, 2009 at 1:10 pm #
Hi Gem,
I’ve tried installing the coComment plugin today but the latest version of Firefox doesn’t support it. I’ve been doing a lot of bloghopping lately and I don’t have any way of tracking them coz not all blogs gives you the option to notify you of replies via email.
What should I do? I don’t know how to downgrade my Firefox to an earlier version.
.-= isis´s last blog ..Cebu Pacific P499 seats for adventure destinations! =-.
Gem
July 19th, 2009 at 10:27 pm #
I also tried downloading it and saw the same message that it is not compatible with Firefox. However, I don’t want to downgrade my Firefox just for that: this latest version of FF is faster than the old one. I will let you know of an alternative extension in case I’ve stumbled into one.