Online Toolbox: Part I

There are lots of online tools out there for political engagement. In this series of diaries, I'll introduce you to some of the many resources out there to help you take advantage of what the Internet has to offer. In the first of this series, I introduce you to a couple of catch-all resources on blogging.

I've found two major resources that can pretty much get you to everything you need to know about blogging from the basic tools to tricks of the trade:

1. Mashable.com is the largest blog on social networking. It contains news and information on the latest tools you can use on virtually any online medium (such as MySpace, Facebook, Wordpress, Blogger, etc.) you choose to publish your material. There's so much cool stuff on Mashable that I could happily spend hours there.

Now, unless you're a bit of a geek like me, I imagine the site is probably a bit overwhelming, so I'll direct you to an article that will be of most use to those of you who want to get started blogging or want to enhance your existing blog: Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers.

2. Problogger.net is a blog dedicated to helping other bloggers, particularly with regards to adding income streams so that you can go from blogging as a hobby to blogging as a career.

Again, this site has a lot going on, so I'll direct you a section called Blogging Tips for Beginners.

The above two sites provide a broad overview of what's out there in order to get started or enhance your existing blog. I'll break it down into more manageable parts as we go throughout the series, but I wanted to direct you to some resources that you can explore now so that you can look up just about anything you need to know.

If there's a particular topic on blogging or other online tools that you'd like to learn more about, send me an email and I may feature it in an upcoming article in this series.