Top 5 Free Online Blogging Platforms

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is perhaps the most feature-rich blogging service out there. It uses the popular open source web software WordPress, and offers many features in its free version — traffic stats, anti-spam filters, SEO, gorgeous themes and more.

Blog.com

Blog.com is another popular WordPress-powered blogging platform.

Just like other services, it has its own share of pros and cons. For a start, it offers many beautiful premium themes in its free accounts, as well as advanced plugins that one can expect only on a self-hosted blog. However, on the downside, the free service displays more ads as compared to WordPress.com. (But you can opt for paid upgrades to remove the advertisements.)

The free storage space offered on Blog.com is 2GB in the basic plan, which is less compared to 3GB that WordPress.com gives its users.

Microsoft .NET development tools (contd)

SharpDevelop – If you don’t want to use Visual Studio Express editions then you can give a try to SharpDevelop.

CoffeeScript Compiler – If you are building Web Applications and are not familiar/used to writing JavaScript (or jQuery), you should give a try to CoffeeScript.  You can create complex JavaScript files easily using CoffeeScript and its compiler.

Storm – Other than SoapUI, Storm is a perfect tool to test cross-platform Web Services.

CruiseControl – There are several continuous integration software available in the market, but truly CruiseControl is the leader due to some obvious reasons (read: free, no-cost, no-royalty).  You can download the CCTray to get real-time build status of your projects.

Microsoft .NET developer tools

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions – Unless you have MSDN license or a authorised copy of Visual Studio 2010, these express editions are really MUST-TO-HAVE products.

Notepad++ – A great text-editor with Explorer context-menu and a IDE-like experience.  If you are using TextPad or Notepad, I would highly recommend downloading this.

FileZilla – A fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and graphical user interface.

WebMatrix – A free web development tool from Microsoft that includes platforms such as WordPress, Razor (ASP.NET MVC3) and other open-source blogging, wiki tools.

Online Meetings, Webinars and Collaboration

AnyMeeting – Hold large or small meetings and web conferences.  This is one of my favourites allowing me schedule and manage my webinars.  You can pay $17pm if you want an Ad-free version, else it’s free.

TeamViewer – A very handy tool for Remote Access and Support over Internet.  You can hold conferences for up to 25 participants, or conduct training sessions.

Skype – One of the most used video conferencing tools across globe does not need any introduction.

Windows Tools

Fences – helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use.  You can resize your fences (read areas) to keep your desktop clean and organized.

Dell Dock – bring greater organization, personalization and productivity to Dell customers around the globe.  You can use it not just on Dell laptops/desktops, but on any make.

7-Zip – An Open-Source file archiver with high compression ratio.  There is a commercial license for organizations but you don’t need to pay anything for that too.

Paint.NET – free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. This program is a very good alternative to Photoshop for developers (if not for professionals).

Raj Web Solutions - Los Angeles, CA (California) | 949-608-0531

Raj Web Solutions - Los Angeles, CA (California) | 949-608-0531

Don'ts for Website Designing

1. Don't use meaningless words: Do you have a cool site with hot subjects? Or a hot site with cool subjects?
On some hype-sensitive sites these kind of words might be useful but on most sites you'd better refrain from meaningless words.
2. Don't write technical: Don't write technical. Your visitors don't care how you created your site and that you prefer Perl over TCL/TK (or the other way around). Instead write about your subject.
3. Don't split topics: Try to write one topic at one page. If your page gets too large, try to rewrite the text in two minor topics. Avoid using pages that force people to read sequential. In that situation the links only interrupt the process of reading.
4. Don't show any page under construction: Don't publish a page that's under construction. People will hate you if you do. If the page isn't finished, it's not ready to be published. In a sense most pages are always under construction because they are updated (more or less) frequently.
5. Don't use jargon: Avoid jargon. That goes for Internet jargon but also for jargon for any other subject. Only if your site is focused on a selective group of specialists jargon might make sense.