Making the most of ecto

At first sight, ecto seems to be a simple desktop client that allows you to author content for your blog. There are a couple of advantages desktop blog tools offer over control panels... You can write entries while offline, keep a local searchable cache of published entries and drafts, use spell-check, manipulate images and movies before uploading, to name just a few. But ecto for MacOSX (and soon also the Windows version) does even more than that, it can help you to raise your blog's visibility in the blogosphere and even make a bit of profit. This blog entry will show you how to make the most of ecto. Benefit from Amazon's affiliate scheme If you haven't done so already, register yourself as an "Who Let the Blogs Out?" (Biz Stone) Please make sure you have entered your associate ID or you will miss out on credits. In the Amazon Tool window, click on "Options" in the toolbar and fill in the "Associate ID" field. To find out how well your Amazon links work, log in to the Get indexed The easiest way get some publicity for your blog is to get indexed. There are a few services that track which blogs were recently updated. One such service is Technorati, which has just upgraded its services significantly and has given its website a thorough makeover. The first thing to do is to let blo.gs and Technorati know when you have updated your blog. Go to Weblog ▸ Edit Settings and reveal the "Pings" tab. Click on the "+" button to add a new URL (if there are no addresses listed, ecto automatically inserts a default list). Enter the following URLs: http://ping.blo.gs/ http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping Next, open a new draft window. In the Options sidebar, make sure that the "Ping" checkbox is checked (to make this setting persistent, click on the "Make Default" button). You should also tell Technorati that your blog is yours, which requires that you claim your blog. One of the best features of Technorati is that it can show you your blog's so-called cosmos, i.e. who is linking to your blog. It is an excellent barometer for your blog's visibility and it can also show which blog entries are the most popular. Use tags In addition to pinging Technorati so that it indexes your blog, I highly recommend to append Flickr, and the social bookmarking site, bookmarked URLs and . Finding information could not be easier thanks to tags. Of course, ecto also has support for Flickr and del.icio.us. You can insert your del.icio.us bookmarks in a draft or add new bookmarks to del.icio.us using ecto's URL Assistant, which is accessible via the Edit ▸ Create Link ▸ URL Assistant menu item (or just press the command-U key combo). Support for Flickr occurs via another application, . With 1001 you can upload images to Flickr or browse Flickr streams. Blogging about an image on Flickr requires just one click on the "Blog This" toolbar button in 1001 and it will provide ecto with the necessary data to start a new blog entry. In addition, ecto also lists the tags you have used with del.icio.us and Flickr, so that you can reuse them for your blog entries. Guest Writer Reader Comments... Darren Rowse is the founder of Digital Photography Blog and Breaking News Blog Collective.