While the compilation is meant to highlight the various types of services available, pricing, and a brief overview of the features that are provided.  If you have any other services to add, please do so in the comments, then the link, image, and description will be placed in the post.  The main goal of this resource list is to provide the most comprehensive look at the services - simply inquire about one and I’ll follow-up with a more in-depth post.  An additional note to add is that older, outdated services haven’t been considered as highly.

In total, there are well over 100 services and plugins (4,319 words) featured.

Additional sites are available at Web Analytics Book and Mashable.

Which services listed below do you use?

Note: Due to the amount of images in this post, it has been broken apart across several pages to help you find the site/software that you are looking for. 

It can be quite daunting with all the new beta programs launching on a daily basis, so you need to sort through the ones that will lead to an increase in productivity and those that are simply a nuisance.  If the site requires you to sign up, you must factor in the long-term usefulness of the service - will you be using it on a daily basis or is it something that just adds another site to your list of sites that require a password?

Here are a few of the new blogging tools and services, found throughout the blogosphere and on Killer Startups.  Many of these build upon other sites - Twitter, FriendFeed, and others, but are all targeted towards webmasters and bloggers alike.  Be sure to check some of them out, most of them can be quite useful or beneficial in your blogging routine.

Note: A few of the services listed below are not new, but have recently been updated or have become renewed resources for bloggers.

1. AddTweets - This free service allows you to add your latest tweets to your blog or website using a small piece of JavaScript code.  Some of the limitations and requirements include that you must use your Twitter nickname and email to use the service, and the maximum tweets displayed on your bog is ten.  The interface is clean, although the site has little purpose other than to ad the widget to your site, which could be done with a widget/plugin.  However, it does save time in the long-run as you won’t need to login to check your feeds nearly as often - just go to your website or blog.

2. Blawg - Blawg is a resource and directory of legal blogs.  You can find information related to terms of blogging and copyright information to general legal terminology.

3. BlogGears - At BlogGears, much like TechCrunch Pitches, allows any blog owner to record a video message to pitch your blog to the world.  It allows readers to become familiar with the messages and motives of the bloggers who feature their pitch on the site as well as discover new blogs.  Videos must be hosted on YouTube or any or blog service, must be under ninety seconds, and only one video per blog per month can be added to the site.  To date, at least ten blog owners have submitted their pitch to the world.  Add yours today!

4. Bust A Blog - A new service that allows members to create a free @.bustablog.com blog, with more than 100 templates to choose from, widgets, and the ability to make an unlimited number of free accounts.  Ads are placed on your blog, which allows you to make money from the unique content that is produced.  Money making tutorials are available and the owners will help you optimize your site for search engines and for others to read.  You can also use your current blog and syndicate your articles, increasing your exposure and allowing you to get 60% profit share.

5. Cubestat - This service is a quick way to check the value and estimation of your site’s worth.  While results may not be as accurate as if you were to sell your blog or website to someone, it provides a quick way to check your blog’s stats from Alexa and Compete, too.

6. Edicy - Edicy is a free/paid service that allows you to quickly build and edit websites or blogs.  Many of the site/blog designs and parts of the interface resemble that of WordPress and Blogger, but it does have a more attractive appearance and interface than those two services.  You can seamlessly use any domain with Edicy.  Other features include a streamlined account area, autosave and archives of every page, easily create news and blogs, quality templates, multiple uploading, drag and drop galleries, and the “best web editor ever built.”

7. Feedly - There are countless Firefox extensions and add-ons available, making it one of the most popular browsers for creating and sharing web content.  However, Feedly is a social magazine start page for Firefox, allowing you to personalize and add content and bookmarks from My Yahoo!, Bloglines, Netvibes, Twitter, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and FriendFeed; add news and popular stories based on your interests, reading patterns, and recommendations from your friends; share articles with friends; use Twitter right from the extension, plus numerous other functions.  In addition, it can take the place of Google Reader as your main feed reader.  

8. FellowReaders - A social network that allows you to access your favorite online media content through a personalized RSS feed subscription that you can create or read that has been created by the site.  You can also keep track of what others are reading and connect with people with the same interest.  You can rate, comment, and share stories that are on the service, and it also displays the time that the story was submitted/aggregated and the source.  The only thing I found negative about the site is the fact that it is bordering on advertisement heavy status - seven different ad areas on the main page, five banners and two Google AdSense blocks.

9. eBizValuations - This service is another website valuation tool based on a large database of real sales, making it “the most accurate” free online website valuation tool.  It requires more input than other services based on your domain name, Technorati ranking, and PageRank, but presents an estimated price if sold at auction and the confidence level that the sale price will be plus or minus 10% of the estimated price.  You can also add your contact information if you want potential buyers to request additional information about your site if they want to purchase it.

10. Hihera - Hihera is a relatively new site that allows you to create and host a free forum.  Although the main page of the site doesn’t appear complete, you can instantly sign up to receive unlimited bandwidth, unlimited size, 99.99% uptime, 24/7 support, custom modifications, and constant upgrades.  Beyond these features, there aren’t many additional resources - no dedicated support forum (contact form/email only), or area to see the additions you can add to your forum.  

11. Mloovi RSS and Blog Translator - The Mloovi RSS blog translator builds into the Google Translate service, which allows you to translate any blog or RSS feed into more than twenty-four languages.  It is useful if you want to reach a wider audience by generating an RSS feed in the language of your choice, so visitors can subscribe to that feed instead of your English (or other language) feed.  The one downside: there are ads in your feed.  ”Mloovi” is Czech for the word ‘to speak.’

12. Monitter - A slick interface for displaying recent tweets from around the world of Twitter.  You can track up to three keywords (displayed on the main page), find tweets within 10-100 km/m of your location, and add the functionality through the use of a widget on your site.  The entire site has been built on the TweetDeck and PopUrls concepts.

13. MyPage - MyPage is (yet) another free service that allows you to create blogs, wikis, websites, socialize with others using the service, or add chat rooms and widgets/applications to your site.  There are numerous additional features, including the ability to promote your site through their own ad network, create your own communities, or monetize your site using AdSense or the Amazon Associates program.

14. MyTextFile - A simple, AJAX-powered online text editor with the ability to edit and view a single text document - no rich formatting or additional editing items.  You are allowed to use up to 256KB per file, save multiple versions, and sign in from your Google Account. This service is ideal for people who prefer to use a different version of their blog editor or simply need a private document where they can store notes.

15. Observu - Observu is an extremely simple, no-frills site that monitors your website and server for free.  You are notified by email if one of them goes down, resulting in immediate notification if your site goes down.  You share little information with the site besides your email and password.  No limit on the sites that can be monitored.  One negative of the site is the fact that it doesn’t even offer a simple tracker of total uptime (in percent) for your site and there is no control over the update interval.  The site is also owned by a fairly large company, Moving Labs, ensuring that the service will be updated.  

16. Plerb - A simple, free micro-blogging service that allows you to share thoughts with friends or new people.  The service is somewhat like Twitter, but displays all thoughts/comments on the front page, leaving little room for control of individual users.  Until the site becomes larger, there aren’t many conversations going on the main page. 

17. Regator - Somewhat like Digg, StumbleUpon, and other social bookmarking and sharing sites, Regator gathers and organzies a few of the best posts and places them on the site.  You can vote on posts, share them, find related articles, and leave your thoughts on the posts.  The site works the way it is supposed to with a rather sleek look to the whole site.  An additional aspect of the site is the ability to search for audio and video results and view “what’s hot.”

18. ShareMeme - This service allows you to stay in touch with people who use services that you use on an everyday basis.  You can send invites, polls and links from a text message or the web through any method via ShareMeme and it’ll get to their inbox, no matter what network or service they happen to be using.  The main advantage of this service for bloggers is that it helps you organize a central inbox or contact area, much like Ping.fm, which helps you keep all your social profiles updated.

19. SocialGO - A free site that allows you to create your own social network.  Many of the features, including custom member profiles, messaging, video chat, sub-groups, events, photo sharing, discussion forums, new aggregators, and blogging tools, are similar to MySpace and Facebook.  You need to upgrade to a Premium account if you want to receive additional bandwidth, monetize your site, remove ads, or use your own domain.  However, given the choice, this network gives you more control over your preferences than the big names, and may add a welcome addition to your blog for growing a community. 

20. StumbleRead - StumbleRead allows you to view your FriendFeed in the left pane and the sites that are mentioned in the right area.  There aren’t many features, but the site doesn’t require an additional sign-up, just your FriendFeed information.  However, there are already browser-side extensions that can do a similar task as this site, however it does a good job at what it’s supposed to.

21. TextFixer - Text Fixer is a website featuring a powerful, yet useful and easy-to-use tools for modifying and converting text for use on the web or on websites.  A few of the tools include the ability to remove line breaks, capitalize sentences, convert line break to the paragraph or break tag, uncompress HTML, or create a JavaScript pop-up window maker.  There could be a few more tools added, but it offers a decent set as of now.

Warning: If you have some sort of hatred towards Twitter or don’t use the service, the following section of new startups may not be worth your time reading.

22. ToAnswer - A Twitter-based mini-application, this service allows you to answer questions.  The service is simple to use - sign into your Twitter account, follow the ToAsk and ToAnswer Twitter accounts, then pose your question in the @ToAsk Question? or answer others’ questions using the @ToAnswer [question id] Answer. Your questions and/or responses will appear on the site for others to read or answer.

23. Twiffid - Twiffid automatically detects the feeds of the websites your Twitter friends have listed in their Twitter profile and aggregates them on this site in a similar format.  Feeds are fetched and cached on their server.  As your Twitter account information isn’t stored on their servers, it is safe to sign in and use the free service.  It makes it easy to stay on top of what your friends are blogging about. 

24. TwitHire - A free job listing service for Twitter, this service is extremely clean and simple to use, simply fill out the “Post a Job Tweet” form using your Twitter ID.  The site is currently monetized using AdSense at the bottom of the main page, but I could see them moving to a free/paid listing allowing employers to get priority over recently posted jobs, especially as the service grows and dozens of job listings are posted each day.  The site caters to design and programming jobs or “other” at the moment, but may also expand.  They have plans of supporting other popular micro-blogging services including Jaiku and Pownce.

25. Twitscoop - This service was built to help you stay on top of Twitter’s hot topics and discussions.  The site will crawl hundreds of tweets every minute and extract the words that are used/mentioned most often.  On the main page, the tag cloud will reflect the most used terms and list hot trends.  For bloggers and news sites, this service will deliver graphs and recent tweets, indicating trends in the amount that each term is referenced.

26. Twitt’d - Twitt’d allows you to receive and send updates using your favorite instant messenger - Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Jabber/Google Talk, or Yahoo! Messenger.  You simply add Twitt’d to your buddy list and say “hi”, then the service will request your Twitter username and password, and you’ll be able to use the service.  It allows you to update your Twitter profile (via Tweets) on a more convenient schedule.

Conclusion

While this is a fairly complete collection of new services and tools that have been created/revised within the past few months, do you have any others that you would like featured in this list that you use?  (They should be recent additions, at that.)  I could also go more in-depth with a select service from the list above if you are the owner of the service and would like to get more word out about it.

Don’t forget to try out any of the services mentioned above.

More productivity applications will likely be launched as blog system developers (remember there are more than 30 I listed in an earlier post) realize the need for mobile communication in the form of blogging.

While there aren’t “proprietary” applications available for Blogger and the smaller systems, the Blog It app. appears to be compatible with many services, so it may be the best choice, besides going with your blog’s application (whether it is WordPress or Typepad).  

Check out a few of the features of each mobile client after the jump.

Note: This post contains a large number of images (mostly thumbnails), allowing you to compare each service directly from this page.

Blog It (Powered by TypePad)

Blog it allows you to use nearly any blog system from the iPhone, including WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad, Vox, and Movable Type.  One of the main benefits is that you are able to blog using multiple blog systems and the app/dedicated site is absolutely free.

Blog It for iPhone

TypePad for iPhone

The TypePad application allows you to blog directly from your iPhone - upload pictures, create and edit posts, or save them in draft, to edit and publish them later.

It provides an optimized interface making it easier to create blog content anywhere.

Alternatively, an optimized login/admin area can be used instead of the stand-alone application for faster and more streamlined post creation and editing.

TypePad for iPhone

WordPress for iPhone

WordPress for iPhone is an Open Source application that allows you to write posts, upload photos, and edit your WordPress blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch.  It supports either WordPress.com or WordPress.org users, as long as you are using version 2.5.1 or higher.

A screencast and gallery have been embedded below.

WordPress for iPhone 

The decision to upgrade or try new things is a popular dilemma that people in the online/blogging community face on an everyday basis.  Some look at upgrading as a good thing - being able to try new features before they are released to the “general” public, while others feel that they should be avoided, as they may risk security, traditional methods for completing daily occurrences, or potentially “break” your blog, or whatever it may be.

Upgrading your blog or trying new features has never been easier, as more people are willing to try them, but hundreds of hours of dedication may mysteriously disappear if you do some small task wrong.

Should I Upgrade?

A few tips to keep in mind when deciding whether it is time to upgrade from an older version of a piece of software to a new version.

1. If you don’t like the particular features that something has, check out a preview of the new features and changes that are coming in the next version, or a version that has just been released.
2. Secondly, if you don’t like the version of the tool or service you are using, search for alternatives.  Just because everyone else is using it doesn’t mean it’ll be the right choice for you.
3. If you encounter bugs or problems in the version that you are currently using, make sure that you have upgraded to the most recent version.
4. Never versions do not always mean that it will work better or be more optimized.  In addition, there hasn’t been as much testing on the code of recently released versions of software (in comparison to older versions).
5. Finally, if you’ve simply grown tired of using a particular version, or it has become outdated with other services, trends, or plugins you need to use for it to work properly. 

Main Advantages and Disadvantages of Upgrading vs. Not Upgrading

• Upgrading, theoretically keeps you more secure than versions that have security vulnerabilities
• Speed improvements and a streamlined experience may come with an updated version
• Bug fixes and general fixes come with new versions, whereas not upgrading can leave you out of these enhancements and fixes
• Data may be lost with either option, although more people are hesitant when upgrading, as overwriting key files can lead to data loss/corruption
• The experience/interface that people are used to may be changed with upgrade versions, sometimes for the better/worse

Why You Shouldn’t Upgrade

After asking others about their experience using the newest version, and you receive a mixed reactions - both negative and positive, you must think about whether there are any true benefits of upgrading.  Whether it may be security, new features, a better experience, or fixes for bugs that you previously needed a work-around to use the program, often you find yourself not upgrading until you really feel the need to do so.

In addition to a few of the points mentioned in the above topic, upgrading can wreak havoc for both yourself, clients, and visitors, who may be depending on the tools, services, and uptime that should be available to them at least 99.9% of the time.  When it causes problems with others, it means that you’ve likely lost money in the downtime.

For example, relating this back to blogging, we all depend on an internet browser (or possibly an offline blog client), and when upgrading, should something go wrong, you must step away from your comfort zone and blog/write from a new “perspective”, which may ultimately affect your performance/creativeness.

Many software developers, including the Automattic (WordPress) team suggest that you upgrade with each new version, although there are still a number, although not a huge percentage, using WordPress 2.3, down to 2.0, for frequently updated blogs.  Open source software is *more* likely to be plagued by viruses, yet these select people have chosen not to upgrade, despite the warnings.  Do they feel there are no benefits to upgrading, or is it such a cumbersome process that it is just easier putting all your work at risk and keeping an outdated version?

Conclusion

No matter what type of business you run, you likely depend on a core set of products, possibly from a certain vendor, unless you produce the software/products yourself.  Although a lot of testing is put into each release, everyone knows the detrimental effects that can cause a standstill in your business life.

The main point to remember is, that while software, whether blog clients, web browsers, etc., isn’t fail-proof, you should try to stay as up-to-date as possible, so that you are aware of the new features, streamlining your time spent working on something that can be cut down in half the time with a different version.  Finally, keep backups of all your important information, so you don’t even have to hesitate when an update fails, as you will always have a recent update on hand.

What other benefits or disadvantages can you name for upgrading software (blogging systems and writing tools)?

One of the big factors to keep in mind is your mindset about stats - do you aim high and won’t stop until you reach those limits, or do you generally aim low and hope for the best?  In this respect, it is important to re-establish your goals.  Did you want to make your blog a small community site or a large, mainly new visitor-driven site?

Once you have set your goals, you need to apply them to your traffic stats (a follow-up post will feature several popular online analytics tools).  In regards to this, are you focusing on getting subscribers - creating a few high quality posts each week, or traffic - producing quite a few posts each day?

Main Areas to Look At

Posts/Content: Within Google Analytics or a similar program, search or order the “Content” to find which posts received the most traffic.

Subscribers: FeedBurner has a charts tool, found on each individual feed page, which you can correlate with the post date to see whether it brought in new subscribers.  Alternately, “Popular Feed Items” provides a brief look at the posts that received the highest click through or read rate.

Social Bookmarking/Sharing Sites: Again, from within your preferred analytics site/software, see what site brought you the most traffic.

Other Stats: You can also take a look at bounce rate, time spent on each site, and traffic source (visitor’s origin) or search engine/keywords to access your content.

Simplified, the posts with a combination of: highest time spent on page, most visitors, a significant increase in subscribers, and a low bounce rate indicate that the post was effectively received by your target audience and visitors enjoyed it.

It is worth noting that social networking sites may create a false sense of accomplishment, as these visitors usually spend less time on your site and do not subscribe, unless there is a true benefit from vsiiting your site everyday.

This post serves simply as a resource list, a collection of some great alternatives to the most popular platforms.  Some do have upgrade options and involve hosting the service yourself (some with more advanced installs than WordPress and competing Movable Type offer).

One of the main reasons that you don’t hear about the other systems more frequently may not be due to the lack of features, but the number of people using them and the larger companies in control, which leads to more community support, features added more frequently, as well as theme and plugin support.

If you know of any additional services, please add them to the list by leaving a comment.

Note: For the most part, I tried avoiding systems that were “paid only” and that simply hosted WordPress or other systems for free. Short details were taken from the welcome statement, FAQ/About, or Install/Download page.

1. Apache Roller - A full-featured, multi-user and group-blog suitable for blog sites large and small. Roller is a Java web application able to run on any Java EE server and any relational database, best supported on Tomcat and MySQL. Other features include three permission levels, support for comment meoderation and comment spam prevention, bloggers have complete control over blog layout and style via templates, built-in search engine indexes weblog entry content, and more.

2. b2evolution - A powerful blog tool you can install on your own website. A few of the features that it includes are AntiSpam Deluxe, multiple blog support, blog skins, multiple users and authors, integrated stats, a plugin framework, localized in several languages, web standards complaint, true workflow, plus easy install and upgrade (MySQL database).

3. Blog.com - Blog.com is a free (and paid - up to $89.50/year) blog hosting service, allowing you to host images, customize your template, and stats, depending on which type of account you have.

4. Blogonize - Blogonize features a more innovative interface than Blogger, and includes access to stats, a WYSIWYG editor, templates, and a text to podcast system.

5. Blosxom - Pronounced “blossom”, this is a lightweight yet feature-packed weblog application designed to be simple, usable, and interoperable. Features include the ability to create, edit, and delete entries on the command-line, via FTP, WebDAV, or other client, a plugin architecture, and a sleek but small core.

6. CMSimple - You can preview this weblog client here. Some of the features and enhancements include easily installation, small size, template driven layout using CSS scripts, contents of site are stored in a single HTML file, many languages available, written in PHP, so it runs on Linux/Apache servers, or Win32 with Apache or IIS, built-in WYSIWYG editor, and easy uploading of files.

7. Drupal - An open source content management platform, with a powerful set of features and is able to support a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.

8. Frog CMS - Frog CMS is a PHP version of Radiant CMS, a well known Ruby on Rails application. The system features an elegant user interface, flexible templating per page, simple user management and permissions, and tools necessary for file management. Requires PHP5, a MySQL database, or SQLite with PDO, and a web server (Apache with mod_rewrite is recommended).

9. Habari - A “next-generation” free software blogging platform which requires a(n) Apache, Lighttpd, or Nginx web server, MySQL 4.1.x and greater or SQLite database. It was written with a firm understanding of the current state of blogging, and specifically for modern web hosting environments, favorign open, standard, and documented protocols.

10. Injader - A content management system with a “difference”. Blog posts, discussions, galleries, and a downloads are can be utilized with one install of the system. It also focuses less on flashy technology, and instead on helping people build great websites. Requires PHP4+, MySQL4+, one MySQL database, and the PHP GD Library (along with a domain and web hosting).

11. InkType - InkType is an easy-to-use blog management system with a powerful and intuitive back-end from which they can manage their blog resources. The system can easily be built upon and extended. Includes dynamic control, static content, blogroll, templates, comments, and visitor tracking.

12. Joomla - Joomla is one of the most powerful open source content management systems, used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Demo Joomla! here.

13. LifeType - LifeType is an open-source blogging platform featuring integrated media management, templates, built-in anti-spam feature, support for trackbacks, multiple users per blog, easy installation, and mobile features, to name just a few.

14. LiveJournal - LiveJournal is a site where you can voice your opinions for free, with an emphasis on user interaction. The system is based on free accounts, while Paid accounts receive access to premium features.

15. LivingDot - LivingDot was formed in 2003 and has established itself as a leader in the blog hosting industry, with options for media industry and corporations, personal use, and blog design and consulting, offering a full range of options. Not Free - Hosts Movable Type and WordPress.

16. Movable Type - Movable Type is considered the closest competitor to WordPress since becoming Open Source. Includes AntiSpam features, built-in stats, and is free for anyone to modify, redistribute, and use for any purpose they choose.

17. Nucleus CMS - A full-featured content management system making it easy to manage multiple weblogs or news sites, multiple authors, permalink management, ability to run it on your own server, plugins, drafts and future posts, bookmarklet and right-click blogging, and more.

18. Open Diary - While this site is based on the “diary blog” concept, it is a great place to begin as you receive unlimited storage and posts, with a six-month subscription charge of $12 for a no advertising,m diary chapters, user blocking, in-diary searching, and more.

19. Peeble - Peeble is a lightweight, open source, Java EE blogging tool. Main features include posting and mangement of content through your web browser, Blogger and MetaWeblog API interface, threaded comments, e-mail notifications, RSS enclosures, navigation options, and multiple user ability.

20. PixelPost - Features of PixelPost include a smooth install assistant, fancy admin area, new template tags, cool feed options, front workspaces, and anti-spam add-ons.

21. Serendipity - A PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to create and maintain an online diary, weblog, or complete homepage. Includes a plugin architecture, templates, web standards compliance, outstanding support, fast, clean PHP code, and a WYSIWYG and HTML editor.

22. Square Space - Square Space allows you to blog with everything built right in to a clean, elegant interface. Note: There are no free options.

23. Subtext - Subtext is a personal blog publishing engine that has evolved from .TEXT and features many of the same abilities as other popular blogging systems.

24. Text Patter - A “flexible, elegant, and easy-to-use content management system”. The platform is both free and open source. Basic requirements are PHP 4.3+ and MySQL 3.23+.

25. Thingamablog - A cross-platform, standalone blogging application that makes authoring and publishing your blog online without the need for a third-party blogging host, CGI/PHP enabled web host, or a MySQL database - just a FTP, SFTP, or network access to a web server. It allows you to setup and maintain multiple blogs, effortlessly manage thousands of entries, write entries offline, and publish to your blog with a single click.

26. Typepad - The “word’s premier blogging service”, which allows you to customize your blog design, easily publish online, doesn’t require you to host your blog, full support, add widgets, build a community, has anti-spam features, and stats. Note: No account option is free.

27. Typo - A “lean engine that makes blogging easy”. Main features include ease of use, usability, and support of web standards. It is open source software, so you can modify it for free. Requires a web host supporting Ruby on Rails. Test drive the system.

28. Vox - Vox was created more as a social network, allowing you to share music, photos, videos, bogs, and more. Options include privacy controls, friend and family pages, and is also a part of Six Apart, Ltd.

29. Windows Live Spaces - Windows Live Spaces doesn’t feature many options, but allows you to create a “space” on the Internet. In my opinion, it’s a sorry attempt on Microsoft’s part to create a blogging service - there isn’t even an FAQ or help page available without having to sign in.

30. Xanga - Although Xanga is more of a social networking site, it also features the ability to blog right on the system, much like the side-feature of MySpace.

Other: PivotX was recommended in a comment, which is also a powerful blog system, similar to WordPress in some ways, bringing the list to 31.

In my opinion, many of these are great services, however if you are on WordPress.org, it is better if you can use a plugin for gaining a brief insight to what your readers are looking for or think.  Otherwise, this is simply a collection of the most decent ones.  

Please add any poll site you have used in the comments. 

1. Free Poll

2. ALX Net Poll

3. Ballot Box

4. Basic Poll

5. Blog Flux Polls

6. Blog Polls

7. Bravenet Web Polls

8. Buzz Dash

9. Constant Contact Polls

10. Cool Surveys

11. Easy Poll

12. EZ Polls

13. Flash Relief Polls

14. Flexi Poll

15. Form Site

16. Free Poll Kit

17. Free Polls

18. Free Website Polls

19. JS Kit Polls

20. Majik Widget

21. Micro Poll

22. Mister Poll

23. Neomyz Web Polls

24. Nupolls

25. Poll Cat

26. Poll Daddy

27. Poll Monkey

28. Poll Pro

29. Polling Booth Manager

30. Poll Boutique

31. Pollverize

32. Quimble Polls

33. Rate It All Widgets

34. Simple Polls

35. Soda Head Free Polls

36. Sparklit Web Polls

37. Survey Monkey

38. Survey Popups

39. Tezaa Web Polls

40. Viewlet Poll

41. Vizu Power Polls

42. Votations

43. Zoho Polls

I want to provide a brief introduction into tools that do not involve adding plugins directly to your blog, instead sites that have been created to help make the process simpler, that allow you some control over the often grueling process of downloading all your files.  

Blog Backup Online

The first tool is Blog Backup Online (invalid security certificate in Firefox 3?), which was created and is now maintained Techrigy, Inc. since 2006.  As per the homepage, the steps are fairly simple to use the service: 1) Sign up, 2) Register your blog, 3) Your blogs are automatically backed up daily.

In addition to the clean and organized look of the site, the process of adding a blog to the site is fairly painless, and was done in about as many steps as the main page stated.  The service provides full support for Blogger (Blogspot) and WordPress (both the self-hosted and managed versions).  Limited support is provided for other platforms such as TypePad, LiveJournal, Serendipity, Windows Live Spaces, Movable Type, Friendster, Terapad, and Vox.

Pricing: “Freemium”: Backup unlimited number of blogs, run backups daily, 5MB storage
“Professional”: $4.17 per month or $49.95 per year, restore your blog, backup images linked from blog, 250MB storage
“Enterprise”: $8.30 per month or $99.95 per year, restore your blogs, bakckup images linked from blog, 1GB storage 

Backups: Posts, comments, categories, and tags.  Does not backup user accounts, the database, or posts not publicly available.

Additional Features: 128-bit security encryption key for physical and electronic security.

Additional Links: Pricing | Terms of Service | User Guide | Blog | Privacy Policy | About

Blog Backupr

Blog Backupr is a newer service, with a domain registered in January of this year.  The service works by using the RSS feed of your blog and full posts, comments, pages, and categories, as well as media files such as JPEG, ZIP, etc. if you are using WordPress (.com or .org) and Blogger (Blogspot).  Other blog systems can use it, but must use the “Export” function, with word on more support for other systems in the future.

Additional Links: Blog | FAQ | Privacy Policy 

Specific Information

Below are some useful links if you have never backed up your blog before and are using one of the popular blog systems.

• Blogger - How do I create a backup of my entire blog?
• WordPress.org Backups
• TypePad - Backing Up Your Content
• WordPress.com - use Export to XML file
• Movable Type - Backup/restore your MySQL database

Conclusion

While these appear to be good services (each requires a RSS feed as the standard), it is always recommended that you keep backups of your data in multiple places, on your computer, removable media, and alternative secure online storage services.  Your time and effort put into your sites is more important than money can buy, in many cases, and you don’t want to lose that time.

This is a reminder that this is a short look at automatic backup solutions, as some people may prefer the manual methods, but a majority of people would rather use a service or plugin that can automatically gather all information in a few simple steps rather than lengthy methods that require backing up each individual SQL database table.

Polls and surveys can provide a crucial part of your knowledge about what your readers truly want.  Instead of trying to decipher what they want through the comments that have been left, polls allow direct input, usually to a high degree of accuracy.  No matter how specific you decide to make the poll, the feedback can be an invaluable tool in the direction that you take your blog.  Readers’ input can be referred to as your driving force for delivering the posts that bring high traffic spikes - all leading to an increase in readership and traffic levels.

Generally speaking, polls and surveys have more pros than conns, although some people have different opinions on each depending on how they are used.

Benefits

• Polls and surveys bring a direct form of communication between you and your readers/visitors.
• Many polls are easy to create and can be customized to fit the needs or specific visitor targets of your blog.
• A majority of services that provide the polling widgets are free.
• It is more likely that a reader will answer a simple poll question than email or post a comment.

Disadvantages

• Many people hate taking surveys, as they feel they’re a waste of time.
• Not everyone will answer your question(s) accurately, so results may be swayed, especially if ridiculous answers have been selected.
• It is often a tiresome process finding and customizing a poll that integrates well into your blog.
• You need a fairly significant number of visitors for the polls to provide relevant information.

Steps to Add a Poll Widget/Plugin on Your Blog

1. Find a poll that you want to use.  Be sure that it suits your blog appropriately.
2. Locate the instructions on the creator’s page so that you can perform the steps correctly. 
3. If the poll is a WordPress plugin, extract the files, locate the sub folder with the plugin files, and upload it to your blog server under the Plugins folder.  From here, activate it through the Plugins page.
4. For WordPress and other blog systems, you can also use regular HTML polls, which can be added through widgets or by editing the template file.  To perform this operation, locate the HTML code, place it in the correct location in your template files, and save the changes, making some modifications along the way.

Creating a poll is a great idea, especially at points when you don’t have much to write about on your blog.  There are several approaches to take when running polls.

1. Polls should be run for long enough so that a good portion of your readers can respond to the questions that you have presented.  To keep it simple for readers, only ask one question at a time and keep it up for at least a week.
2. Be sure that the poll is easily seen.  It shouldn’t blend too well into your theme, but shouldn’t stand out or be in the form of a pop-up message.  Polls are intended to help both parties in the end, not hinder either from moving forward.
3. Location, location, location.  Choose the location wisely that the poll is placed at.  If you have click tracking installed, find the area with the most clicks and place the poll there.  Locations near the top to middle-top of the page do the best for polls, as it can be seen above the fold and is near the content/other popular areas.  
4. Be sure to tell readers that you have included a new poll.  Don’t make it a quick, one line post, since that creates an excuse for a proper post.  Include readers by recapping the results of the poll, sharing what the trends are of the readers that visit your blog.
5. Finally, remember to vary the category/topic of each question, the poll widget, and location to determine which areas see the highest action rate or usage of the poll.  The main idea is to get as many readers to take the poll as possible.

WordPress Plugins

1. Democracy - This poll plugin, by Andrew Sutherland, is easy to use, install, and manage.  It utilizes AJAX to load data, which also makes it quick to use.  
2. WP-Polls - Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan created this plugin as an extremely customizable widget, editable through templates and CSS styles, which allow you to run it the way you want to.  In the recent release version, you can now select multiple answers in each poll.  Requires WordPress Version 2.5.0 or higher.
3. PoWPoll - This poll plugin features an AJAX-powered admin interface, IP-logging, permissions, user options, inline/static polls, and a poll archive page.  Requires WordPress Version 2.1.0 or higher.
4. MEMEdex Polls - The MEMEdex WP plugin allows you to add MEMEdex polls (a polling and survey site) to your WordPress posts simply by adding a short tag to where you want the poll to appear.  Users can vote on polls you create form within your site without leaving your blog.  Requires WordPress Version 2.0 or higher.
5. KB Survey - This plugin was created for administering multi-item surveys, useful for market research or similar categories.  Results can be viewed in summary form or may be exported as a spreadsheet.  (Demo)  Requires WordPress Version 2.0 or higher.
6. SodaHead Polls - Using the SodaHead polls will allow you to create a free poll for your blog with images and a fully customizable look in seconds.  The polls were created to help engage your readers with non-boring looking polls.  The plugin features dozens of options.  Requires WordPress Version 2.3 or higher.

Blogger/Blogspot

The Blogger blog service allows you to use a Poll Widget from the list of widgets available.  For instructions on adding a poll through Blogger, see this post.  (with video screen cast)

Even More Polling Widgets and Plugins (HTML, Flash, and AJAX)

1. 99 Polls - Account required (free) to use polls.  The main services that the site targets are MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, Tagged, Live Journal, and Blogger, but others may be used.  Examples can be found here.  The website is available in multiple languages, and offers a fairly solid service.

2.  Add Poll - Add Poll features a fairly clean layout and caters towards the MySpace, Blogger, and Xanga crowd.  Although an account is required, the service is fairly top-notch with Flash polls and customization options.

These announcements can be found with follow-up on the Entrecard Blog.

This update consists of several announcements, mostly concerning the crediting system, and the ability to earn credits with one goal: help you succeed as a blogger and meet your goals.  

Purchasing Credits

Previously, members of Entrecard had to go through third party “vendors” of credits, individuals that had earned them through various methods, and were willing to sell them, at unregulated prices.  With this new rollout (Phase 1), you can purchase credits directly from Entrecard.  These credits have been purchased from members that are considered as trusted in their earning methods.  The quantities are somewhat limited, with only 20,000 to 40,000 available per day.  Primarily, this limit has been enforced to help ensure the quality of the credit network and the value of the credits.  

Current Prices: 1,000 for USD $9.50 / 5,000 for USD $47.50 / 10,000 for $95.00

These prices may seem higher than purchasing through independent sellers, however you have to take into account the level of trustworthiness that Entrecard has shown to its members, and purchasing directly from the company is always a more wise decision than through other sellers.

Note: The Credit prices have sold out extremely quickly, and they needed to purchase more to replenish the supply - showing the true demand for credits.

On the aspect of credit pricing vs. advertising on other blogs, the rate isn’t ideal.  High traffic and popular blogs on Entrecard with a daily advertising rate will cost you in excess of 8,192 credits, or the equivalent of $78 for one day of advertising.

Earn Through Posting

As long as you meet the requirement of posting one new post every three days, you will 25 credits.  The system will pick up the new post through the RSS feed.  For users that didn’t like surfing other blogs or don’t have the cash to spend on credits, this is a simple way to earn a few extra credits on a regular basis - more than 3,000 per year.

Writing on the Blog

The Entrecard team consisting of the creator, Graham, want to help you showcase your blogging skills by allowing you to post on their blog as a guest poster.  Depending on the quality of your post, you will be awarded points, which you will be able to convert into cash.

How to begin the process of posting:

Step 1.) Get your post idea approved.

If you have an idea for a post, send Graham a message by emailing graham@entrecard.com with the subject “Post idea”. Tell him about your idea. If it sounds good, he’ll give you the ok. He’ll also set up your account on the Entrecard blog so you can log in and start writing it. Even if you’ve written for the blog before, you now have to get each post idea approved before you start writing.

Step 2.) Submit your post for review

Once your post is complete, and the best you can make it, submit it for review but clicking the “Submit for Review” button. The post will be reviewed by Graham and Phirate, at which time we will decide how much EC to pay for it. If it is a stellar post that is going to help people be better bloggers, build the community, etc. we will pay up to 2000 credits for your post. If it is just a simple update, or announcement, we may only pay a few hundred.

Step 3.) We pay!

We will send you payment and publish your article. The better the article, the more we pay!

Subscribe to the Entrecard Blog via E-mail

Simply by subscribing to the blog, you can earn 50 credits (one-time bonus).  It’s simple and easy to do any you’ll stay updated with new announcements.

Future

With the new rollout, Entrecard still does not show signs of slowing down in terms of traffic and member growth.  In a Phase 2 of the “Credit Exchange”, members will be able to sell their credits to other members/back to the system directly through their dashboard.

What are your opinions of the new features (if you are a member)?