Today’s prompt from Blogger, May I? is a topic that I’ve never really blogged about: the more technical side of blogging.

1. WordPress
I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been blogging for over a decade. For those years, I’ve primarily used WordPress, but I’ve published via Blogger, TypePad, and if you want to call it blogging, Tumblr. WordPress is far-and-beyond my platform of choice. I do have a little experience with design and coding, so its capabilities are natural for me. I got frustrated with some of the limitations of other platforms.

2. Diptic
I have some serious aggravation with iPhone pictures and WordPress and WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SHOW SIDEWAYS?! I have to fix all of my photos in the Diptic mobile app prior to uploading. This app has the capability of making collages, resizing, and adding borders or text to photos too.

3. P-metrics
I use Performancing P-metrics for my site tracking and blog stats, since it’s easy to understand, puts the important information up front, simple tabs to gain more insight about traffic, and is relatively inexpensive at $9.99/month. Google Analytics are overly-complicated; WordPress stats are inaccurate. I wish I could even remember how I came upon P-metrics, but it’s one of those things that just worked for me and I kept using it.

4. Related Posts plug-in
You want people to read your content, then stay and read some more right? This is why I love the Related Posts plug-in; it’s easy to install on your WordPress blog, and the thumbnails from similar entries are populated right from the posts (I know, I should post more pictures). There are different customizations and settings to fit the elements of your blog and its design.

I can’t wait to read everyone else’s blogging tools (I already learned something new today.) What are your favorite tools?