No matter how much general content you write for your blog; it'll feel impossible to reach your targeted readers. To get those readers on to your blog, you'll need to expand the capabilities of your blog on the web. This list features 46 resources to expand your: relationship with the readers, contact capabilities, your blogger blog, your wordpress blog, your tracking and analysis, your blog's 'social factor' and you blog in general.
General
Here are the general resources for any blog. It includes: Contact & communication and tracking your blog's analysis
Contact and Communication
Hotmail - Hotmail is a simple email service that provides you with a Windows Live Account and 2 GBs of free email storage.
Gmail (Google Mail) - Chances are you already have one, if you have a Google Account. It provides more than 4 GBs of free email.
*Microsoft Outlook - If you already have Microsoft Office, you have outlook. Outlook allows you to view, send, tag, and delete email on your desktop. It also controls any other email servies you have (hotmail, gmail, yahoo mail etc.)
*Mozilla Thunderbird - By the same guys that made Firefox, sunbird & Camino. It completes the same tasks as Outlook, but with more 'power'. It provides more support, and a larger collection of extensions.
*Apple Mail - Comes installed on all new Macs. It's nothing new, when looking at both Outlook and Thunderbird, but it's simple to use and gets the job done.
Instant Messengers (IM)
MSN Messenger - If you do have a Windows Live account, you can simply sign in and add contacts, chat with friends and access your hotmail account.
AIM - Another instant messenger. Nothing too special, but many of your viwers will most likely use AIM.
Yahoo! IM - Once again, nothing more to say, but it applies to vast percentage of your viewers...
* Miranda IM - Miranda IM is a open-source IM used to cover; MSN IM, AIM, Yahoo! IM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, & Gadu-Gadu. It's also very lightweight, features 350+ addons & customize able skins.
*Adium - Adium is probably the strongest and useful of all IMs. It supports: MSN, AIM, YIM, Jabber, Google Talk, iChat, Myspace IM, Facebook IM, Lotus Sametime, QQ, Gadu-Gadu and Novell. Sadly it's Mac OsX only.
RSS Feeds
*Feed Burner - I believe FeedBurner is all you'll need for your own RSS feeds. FeedBurner punches you in the face with; statistics of your subscribers, optimization, publication and montization features. This is just kickass!
Google Reader - Not really necessary, but I guess it shows your readers what you read...
The 'Social Factor'
*Twitter - Twitter is microblogging serivce, that just simply asks the question 'What are your doing?'. You know people use it and think it's cool when American President Barack Obama uses it. It's also a powerful tool for businesses; tweet your new posts and products, etc.
*Digg - Submit your new posts unto here and expect the unexpected.
*Facebook - Come on you should know what facebook is...
*StumbleUpon - It's somewhat similar to Digg, only it's not that popular.
*AddThis - Absolutely necessary! It provides a small button that can allow your readers to share your content to hundreds of different sites:
Find a Social Media Service that Suits you! - Those were just the nessescary Social Media services, the only way you can truly expand your blog is by finding a social media service that; is apporiate to your theme, has atleast over 250,000 hits, decent on Search engines and something you find interesting.
Your Blog's Analysis
Tracking Traffic
*Google Analytics - Use Google Analytics to view traffic on your web site by placing an invisible JS code.
SiteMeter - This is an alternative to Google Analytics, although the code isn't invisible (but it is small).
StatCounter - Another free, invisable and easy to install tracker. Not as powerful as Google Analytics or Sitemeter, but it gets the job done.
Search Engine Listings
Alexa Page Rank - Alexa's the largest resource for popular website listings. If your on the top 500, you're doing really good.
*Google Page Rank - This is probably the most important, cause everyone uses google. It tracks your page rank by how many wesbites link to you etc.
Technorati's Top 100 - Technorati is pretty much a directory & popular blog search engine of submitted blogs by users. Try and reach for the top 100!
Wordpress
Wordpress (.org) appears to be one of the most popular, powerful and useful externally hosted blogs out there. All the cool kids use it...
Plugins
Subscribe to Comments - Allows readers to subscribe to a post's comments thread.
Global Translator - Allows readers to translate posts into any language. It's very useful if your target is set to an international crowd.
Wordpress Email - Adds a feature that allows readers to email the author.
Twitter Updates - For every post your publish, this handly plugin tweets it.
Wordpress Mobile - Mobile online surfing is always becoming more and more popular. With this plugin you can change your interface into something more mobile friendly.
Wordpress Security Scan: Scans your wordpress code.
Tutorials and Resources for Wordpress
Wordpress as a CMS - CSS Tricks
Top 50 Wordpress Tutorials - NetTuts
Wordpress SEO - Yoast
*300+ Tools for Enhancing your Wordpress - Mashable
*Wordpress Themes - Wordpress
*Wordpress Plugins - Wordpress
Top Wordpress Themes - Top WP Themes
We Love WP - We Love WP
WP Candy - Wordpress Candy
*Blog Perfume - Blog Perfume
Blogger
Blogger is the most popular free blog hosting sites out there on the web. Infact Mavoxe is powered by Google's Blogger.
Widgets+Page Elements
Widgetbox - One of the largest places out there on the web to get blogger widgets and more.
Simple Blogger Search Widget - I'm not sure why this isn't one of blogger's default widgets...
Popular Posts (by comments) - Another widget that should be a Blogger default.
Recent Comments - Places recent comments and commenters on the side of your blog.
Related Posts - Places related posts underneath your content
Twitter for Blogger - The official Twitter widget for blogger displays your recent tweets.
Also, if this list does get a decent amount of readers; prepare for a part 2 where we'll reach 101...
