Take Calepin, DropBox, Disqus, and a new service called IFTTT, and you have a powerful set of blogging tools that are easy to use.

Blogging Tools You Can Really Use

By that I mean tools that are easy to use, and encourage you to write because of their simplicity. Simplicity that conceals their underlying power to allow you to focus just on writing.

Don’t get me wrong here. WordPress is a brilliant tool and I would happily recommend it to anyone that has the blogging itch.

Sometimes though, you just want to write. I know I do; me, and the 26 letters of the alphabet. WordPress has a lot of menus and features for you to play with. They can sometimes get in the way of the writing, or even inhibit the writing process because you are worrying about keywords, and everything else that goes with the dark art of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Calepin is the blogging tool

Calepin provides you with a simple, attractive blog and an increasing number of tools to get things done. Most of those tools are hidden from view. Calepin is based on the premise that you just want to write, so it does all the technical stuff in the background.

There is a little bit of setting up to do, and I do mean a little bit. Once that’s done, you just start writing. Remember to click the publish button once in a while, and Calepin does the rest.

DropBox

Calepin uses DropBox to store your files. Yes, you create files, remember those? Actual files that reside in a special folder that Calepin will create for you. That means that if you decide Calepin is not for you, you work will still be preserved in the DropBox folder.

I’m assuming everyone knows what DropBox is at this stage. But in case you don’t, you can start here to learn more.

Disqus

Disqus is a comment system that is effectively a portable service. You can use it with WordPress, and Calepin supports it too. It provides a sort of “plugin” for a fully featured reader commenting system, and is free of charge.

IFTTT

ifttt is a new service that allows you to create tasks that will run automatically. For example, I have one set up, that will check the RSS feed that Calepin creates automatically for this blog, and post any new entries I write to my main web site – automatically.

Finally…

Technology is supposed to make life easier, right? The tools I have described above are examples of that in my opinion.

Don’t be afraid of Markdown. It will quickly feel like a very natural way to mark up your writing. And because Calepin looks after pretty much everything else, you really can just write.

So get yourself a new place to write, and then come back and share your experiences on the comment system below.

Tags: Blogging, Calepin, Dropbox, ifttt