Here’s a great big pile of colorful (and free!) tools I’ve raked up just for you!

Happy Fall Blogging!

Screenr – Create Free Screencasts
Fabulous for making tutorials, these 5 minute screencasts can be instantly shared as they are or uploaded to YouTube. Check out 3 Tips for Creating a Successful Screencast for Your Blog.

Screenshots: ScreenHunter 5 OR Windows Snipping Tool
These two tools rock my world. They’re both created for taking pictures of your screen, but I use them differently. The Windows Snipping tool is great for snipping anything! Screenhunter is one I use to find the size of an area since it displays the height and width as you select… great for finding out how big your photo or video can be and still fit inside your post!

Picasa – Bulk Image Resizing
While Picasa is made to organize, edit and upload photos I generally skip all that and just use it to do bulk image resizing. Once I put my photos onto my computer I import them to Picasa, select the ones I want and hit export. I can then select the size and quality I want and even add a watermark before exporting them all to a new folder. Smaller images = faster uploads for web sharing!

Picnik – Photo Editing Software
By far the most popular free photo editing software on the web, Picnik is fabulous because you don’t have to download or install anything! If the free version doesn’t satisfy you, you can upgrade to premium for even more options!

Web Background Generators
Need a new background for your blog? Here’s a compilation of free background generators you’ll love!

Favicon Generator
That tiny square icon in your browser’s address bar is called a favicon. It’s easy to make and easy to change! Since it requires a special file extension you’ll need a favicon generator to make it!

Wordle – Create Unique Images for Your Posts
This fun little tool will let you make your own word cloud! You pick the colors, fonts and even the orientation of the layout. Put in a post or a bunch of random text and create a unique image for your post, just like I did for this one!

filezilla Desktop FTP Client
Most bloggers know how to login to their cpanel to mess with their files, but that’s not always an economical way to edit large amounts of files at once. Being able to FTP is a skill every blogger should learn. And, it’s easy to use filezilla to access your server via ftp.

Pixie Color Picker
My Favorite Color Picker for Graphic and Web Design and Photo Editing? Pixie from Nattyware. I’ve been told it doesn’t work for Mac users (sorry) but it really should… it’s AMAZING!