Blog and Website Editors

• BlogJet ( www.codingrobots.com/blogjet/ ) – BlogJet is another really nice blog editor for Windows. They offer a stripped-down version for free, but the full version comes at a cost.
• IllumineX Ecto ( illuminex.com/ecto/ ) – Provides the essential word processing features that have become common in programs such as Word, but they also make it easy to integrate images, videos, maps, and more into your website.
• Kompozer ( kompozer.net ) – Kompozer is a website creation and editing program that WYSIWYG website editing that allows you to create an HTML website without the need to know any code.  Kompozer is a completely free program that allows you to manage your files and author website content. Review: http://download.cnet.com/KompoZer/3000-10247_4-10655200.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1d#editorsreview
• MacJournal ( www.marinersoftware.com/products/macjournal/ ) – MacJournal is an full featured editor that has the ability to post to blogs. You can also record podcasts and videos from inside the app and attach them to your blog posts.
• MarsEdit ( www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/ ) – MarsEdit is great currently my personal favorite for the Mac, and what I’m currently using to type this very post. As of version 3, it now has rich text editing (aka WYSIWYG).
• MyBlogEdit ( createlivelove.com/applications/myblogedit/myblogedit.html ) – MyBlogEdit is another editor, however you have to write your post in HTML.
• RocketPosts ( www.anconia.com/rocketpost/ ) – RocketPost looks to be a pretty nice editor with some pretty handy features for saving time. In several ways, it actually outshines Windows Live Writer. IT comes in at $49 for the multi-blog license, however.
• Windows Live Writer ( explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-other-programs?T1=t5 ) – Windows Live Writer is an offline website tool that can be used to manage the content on your website.  Windows Live Writer also allows you to edit any pictures or videos that you may feature on your website.  With its free price tag, it’s tough to beat WLW. The only downside is that it’s only designed for PC’s at the moment (see the Mac options). If you own a PC and run a blog, then there’s no reason to skip the convenience and power of WLW. Review:  http://techcrunch.com/2006/08/13/windows-live-writer/

Graphic Design Tools

• Graphics for Internet Marketers ( Mega Graphic Pack ) - This graphics pack for Internet marketers includes 21 modules of graphics all professionally designed. This package is VERY newbie friendly, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to use these. Training is included showing you how to edit these graphics in Sumo Paint, Gimp, or Pixler. (PhotoShop is not required)
• Graphic Creator Wizard ( www.diywebsitetools.com/graphic-creator/ ) – This is a free tool that allows anyone to create professional sales page graphics without any PhotoShop skills. The Graphic Creator Wizard gives you the following four graphic creator options: Headline Creator; Buy Now Creator; Belcher Button Creator; Guarantee Creator.

Photo and Image Editing

• Gimp.org ( www.gimp.org ) – GIMP  is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

Website Design Reference

• Web Design Library ( www.webdesign.org ) – Web Design Library is an internationally refereed resource that provides a platform for the dissemination of design thinking and research. It covers all theoretical and practice-oriented aspects of the effective, efficient and attractive presentation of information on-line. Read more: http://www.webdesign.org/about.php#ixzz1mkc5KNHw

Website Testing, Optimization

• Browsershots.com ( browsershots.org ) – This service is free and simple to use. Once you input your website url into the search box, it will return nearly 100 different screen shots showing you how others see your site. This is a very useful tool for trouble shooting problems that end users might report when coming to visit your site.
• WebsiteOptimization.com ( www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ ) – This tool tells you how long it takes your site to load at various speeds, it will also suggest areas you can change to improve your site loading time. Page load time is important to conversion.  Pages that take longer than 10 seconds to load more often than not lose their visitor.