I have been using windows livewriter to post to this blog and my other blogs for a short time and actually I am loving it. The Best thing I like about using livewriter as blog editing tool is how quickly we can start working on the blog post idea.

Big bloggers always give an advice that as soon as you conceive an idea in your brain you should start working on it. You should first write an idea as a draft after which you can do all your research and later you can turn that draft post into a master copy by editing it and putting all the useful information in it to publish on your blog. With livewriter following this advice of masters become so easy.

If you use wordpress inbuilt blog editing tool you will have to wait to complete the following steps to start working on your idea:

1. Open your web browser.

2. Enter the URL of your blog’s login page.

3. Fill the login details.

4. Enter blog dashboard.

5. Click on the “New Post” link

6. Wait for the editing window to load fully.

7. Start writing blog post.

Only after completing all these steps you will be able to start putting your blog post idea into action. Like most of the bloggers you may be a part time or hobby blogger and if you are tired enough you wont feel comfortable doing all these steps and let the idea go without putting it into action or keep the idea for acting on later ( and later forget).

If you are using windows live writer here is what you have to do to start writing your blog post:

1. Start the livewriter.

2. Start writing.

that’s it.  See how easy it is to put your idea into action with livewriter.

Another useful feature of livewriter is it downloads all the theme files from your blog and store them locally and present to you a look that gives you a feeling as you are writing post directly on your home page or your blog post page. It relieves the tension a bit that we have about the blog that how is the blog post going to look on the blog. Repetitive previewing and editing is not required so it saves your valuable time too.

Windows live writers have a lots of plugins that you can download and install for free and use them to give more life to your posts.

If you want to use windows live writer here is the link where you can download windows livewriter free.

Like most of the new bloggers I also struggle with writer’s block. We always think of writing when we are not in position of writing a post, new ideas continuously flows in, we gets very excited about the post ideas but as soon as we sit in front of monitor and put our hands on the keyboard, somehow, all the ideas vaporise and whatever we have thought previously looks very idiotic. Looks familiar situation! no?

Only solution to this situation is to start writing a post and not to think about the idea. If it seems foolish let it be, just write it. I promise even if the idea is really an idiotic one you will definitely feel good that you have finished writing it. And second and more important thing that will happen to you writing that post is that you will definitely get another idea about something that is really a good one and you will enjoy  writing the other post. Try it.

For few days I have been looking at the various newsletter services to decide which one to signup for. Most of them are too costly for any starting blogger. I collected the price charts of some services to compare them all at one place. That makes deciding which one is right for us. I am putting them here so it can help someone in search of something like this.

I know there are many other services too but I am listing only those from where I get regular emails as most of my favourite bloggers and marketers use them.

Aweber: Aweber is the most renowned of all the email newsletter services. Its known for its by far the best delivery rates. Its plans starts from 19$ per month. Here is the price chart for aweber:

iContact: iContact claims that they have most number of email templates but I dont think anyone with a solid business in mind care much about flashy designs. Simple and sober designs are most liked ones.

iContact have a serious drawback. On basic plans they allow to send a limited amount of emails. The number of email that we can send per month is calculated as six times the number of subscribers. For example if you have 600 subscribers then you can only send 6*600 ie 3600 emails per month. I dont think that  restriction is good for any business.

Here is the price chart for icontact:

Vertical Response: Vertical response has 2 types of payment plans. First one is monthly plan like all other newsletter services. Here is the chart for monthly plans:

Second type of plan from vertical response is “Pay as you go” plan. In pay as you go plan you only have to pay for the emails you have sent. Its on per email basis or per 1000 email calculation. If you have sent 0 email in a month then you dont have to pay anything. It may be good for few but not for most marketers. The craedits you have purchased must be consumed in 12 month period or it will expire. Here is the chart for cost per email in this plan:

Constant contact: If you look at the front page of constant contact you won’t feel like signing up for their service. The site look so old that it gives a feeling as no one works around there. And one thing more to look at. They have small line written below the price list that says ” Taxes extra”.  Here is the price chart:

Prosender: This service is little unknown. I came to know about it when I recieved emails from johncow.com without signing up for their newsletter and still recieving those emails even after I have unsubscribed. People at comment kahuna also uses this service. Their prices are exact copy of aweber so I dont think their is any benefit in signig up to this service if they are not giving you some special benefit like allowing you to spam as they have given to johncow.com ( read carefully, its not Johnchow.com).

Here is the price chart:

If I have to decide I would definitely go for aweber simply because they have made such a great reputation,  are tested by many and it gives more value for money.

Most of you have seen my this blog, my other blogs, my youngistaan forums but not many of you know, while making all of those I never had a computer. I build, published, marketed them all from mobile phone or cafe computers. I always believed that there is no excuse for not doing something or failure. There is always a reason after it and most of the time the reason is incapability from your side. This incapability can be either physical or mental.

OK! We were not supposed to be talking about all that boring idealistic and other geeky things i this post. But I was telling you that I finally got a computer. Its an 16″ laptop from Toshiba. To be precise it’s Toshiba Satellite L500 model with foolowing main features:

• Intel core 2 duo processor ticking at 2.1 GHz
• Intel Chipset,
• 3GB DDR2 RAM,
• 320 GB of hard disk space,
• 16″ TFT screen,
• Bluetooth,
• WiFi,
• DVD RW,
• Genuine Windows Vista preinstalled,

and lot more..

So as I have told in my previous post I can be found on this blog regularly (almost daily). Keep on following me here and also on twitter. Here is the twitter link to my stream: @rajv.

WordPress has released its newer version thats wordpress 2.6.5. Its an security fix and everyone using wordpress as their blog engine (most of you are) should upgrade to it immediately.
WordPress has skipped version 2.6.4 as few “not so good” people had released a fake version of wordpress by this name. WordPress says “there had never been a wordpress 2.6.4 and there wont be any by that name”.
To download new version go to wordpress.org.

WordPress development team today released newer version of wordpress. Its wordpress 2.6.3. It can be downloaded from wordpress.org. Although this blog is hosted on blogger and not wordpress, my other blog crackedbybinpda.com is running on wordpress. I just updated it from wordpress 2.6.2 to 2.6.3. You should also update wordpress using the usual procedure. Its a security fix and only 2 files are changed. So if you dont like to change the whole wordpress installation you can change these 2 files and your blog is updated. For more information you should refer wordpress development blog or wordpress.org site.

Myself and most of the new blogger have problem when they start a blog. What to write? How to start? This problem solves by itself after writing few entries. But for new bloggers its a big problem. They find themselves sitting on their chair blankly staring at the screen and wondering what to write. The only solution for this problem is to just start writing without thinking much or you will get confused and will not be able to write a single word. If you have something in mind to write on, thats very good. But if you are not decided in mind about the topic them best thing would be to read something on your favourite blogger and then find out what you think about whatever he/she has written. Now you are set to write your blog entry. Just write down your thoughts in your own blog in your own words but remember not to copy. It will affect your own capability. Just believe in yourself is the key to write good content. No one is perfect at first but with practice improvement in your work will be seen.
If you are not able to type your words fast enough then it would be better you write your content on a paper and then type it. This helps because if you speed in typing is not in pace with your thinking than flow of your thoughts will be disturbed and you will not be able to write properly what you are thinking.
Happy blogging.
Raj..