3 Must-Have Blogger Tools

As a professional web blogger, I'm constantly on the lookout for fresh content. I maintain about 10 blogs and people are constantly asking me, "How do you do it? How do you manage all those blogs? Don't you ever run out of ideas?"

Well, thanks to these three blogger tools that I carry around with me wherever I go, I'm never short of inspiration and content for those blogs:

1. A notebook - I literally have a dozen notebooks that I've collected over the course of three years. I always have a notebook nearby in case an idea pops in my head that would make for a great blog post. I could be anywhere - in line at the grocery store, on a train ride overhearing a conversation behind me, or watching a TV show. I'll write down famous quotes, a magazine headline...So many ideas are out there waiting to be discovered if you just pay attention!

Even if you aren't a problogger, but you do have an internet business, I still highly recommend carrying around a notebook because you never know when an idea for your business might strike you!

2. The Trusty Ole Camera - A camera is great to capture anything funny or out of the ordinary that might be related to your blog. You can also take a picture of anything that might further illustrate the points you are making in your blog post. The camera I use is an old version (circa 2002) of the Sony Cybershot.

I almost always add a picture in my blog posts because photos add interest to the post. Besides, pictures slow down the eyes of the reader. From my own personal experience I tend to skim articles that just have text in them, but when blog posts have pictures, my eyes will stop to check out the picture - then I'll continue to read. Plus, I'm just a visual person to begin with, so any post with a picture will catch my attention.

3. Voice recorder - I have a digital voice recorder that has been instrumental in capturing people's words verbatim. I never learned short-hand, so the voice recorder is my tool of choice when interviewing people. You could also use the voice recorder in place of a notebook to record your thoughts, but since my thoughts are so scattered, I find it easier to just keep a notebook. It makes it easier to find information at a minute's notice. I use an Olympus Digital Voice Recorder.

As far as managing all those blogs, I have a three-ring binder that holds all the contracts with partners, pages from ebooks that I find inspiring, and a blogging schedule that I really don't follow. However, it's there for those days that I feel overwhelmed and just need some structure in my work day.

Are you using any of these blogger tools to keep the ideas flowing?