The Fastest Way to Blog Better, Apture. Here's Why

Relevant to: Bloggers!

Read Time: 4 minutes.

There are a few companies that come immediately to mind when you think of certain aspects or topics in life. For example: Internet, Google. Computer, Apple (or Micro$oft). Athletic Gear, Nike. Car, BMW, Toyota, Ford, etc. When it comes to blogging, I think of WordPress. When it comes to blogging plugins, I think of Apture.

In the standing effort to help freelancers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and other business people with technology here at IT Arsenal, I’d like to introduce Apture. Apture is a free plugin for blogs, but it’s much more. It does what great products do, it becomes more than just it’s description, it becomes a must have tool. Here’s why.

Apture is all around, you may not notice it, or know what it is, or in fact know that it’s available to you for free, and easily installed. Time, Newsweek, and Reuters are just a few companies who use Apture regularly.

Apture is what you see when you highlight a word on this blog, Apture is the bar you see when you scroll a bit down, Apture is what you see when you click on a link with a small icon next to it,  Like this. At it’s very basic, Apture is an immersive tool for engaging your readers. On the content creation level, the one you don’t get to see unless you’ve actually installed it, is where Apture becomes an invaluable tool.

How many times have you wanted to reference someone elses webpage quickly (www.cnn.com), or provide a quick reference for that fancy place (Galapagos) you just learned about? In the “New Post” window of WordPress (or the various blog platforms supported), Apture seamlessly integrates as a editing button. When you click it, you’re presented with a window to enter pretty much anything you want to search for, categorized into various types (audio, video, wikipedia, etc). Search for your word, person, blog, etc, and then find various ways to insert that content into your website. It might be easier to just show you. See the video below.

Apture integrates with countless other services like Drupal, Blogger, TypePad and more.

Impressive, But…

It’s impressive, but the tricks and real world use I’ve found have been the staying factors. I constantly want to reference something when I’m writing but forget where I heard about a particular concept, or who wrote it. Pop open Apture, do a quick search and you’ll have enough content to reference the exact thought you had clearly. Another added bonus of Apture is how it self educates. I can honestly say as my writing has progressed, Apture has often taught me more about specific content I chose to research than I knew before starting an article. Apture makes writing easier, and the end result more informed, and more engaging.

Some of the Features Include:

1. Instant and hand picked information pop-ups that retain users.
2. Tracking on usage.
3. Site Bar with easy to see sharing features to Facebook and Twitter.

Favorite Uses:

• Don’t guess at names, reference them and include their latest social media content. Like this, Jonathan Mead.
• Embed content into your page using Apture’s built in hosting features. Upload a PDF, image or text document and offload the bandwidth usage on your own site.
• Embed a YouTube video, but go a step further using Apture’s trim features to start and end the video exactly where you want to.

I’m using Apture on a few websites now and I can easily say it’s the first thing I grab when setting up a blog. An invaluable tool for displaying content, writing content, and entertaining your readers that much more.

Check out www.apture.com for the full breakdown on how to implement Apture into your website, or of course, just drop us a line and we’ll create you a custom workflow!