I’ve been using Window Live Writer for all of my blogging over the past year or so and really, really like this application. Sure, there are a few areas where it could be improved (especially in HTML table design – I mean, should I really have to go into the source to change a row’s background color?), but it should meet the needs of just about any blogger.

One of the nicest aspects of Writer is the ability to add functionality via plug-ins. While upgrading some of my machines to Windows 7 this week, I happened upon a new version of Writer (well, it was new to me, anyway) as well as some very cool plug-ins that you may not know about. So, since Fridays are perfect for trying out new software, here is a list of what I think are the best tools for blogging with Writer.

Windows Live Writer Wave 3
First, you’ll need to grab yourself a copy of Writer itself from here. The installer is actually for a set of Windows Live applications, so you can select or deselect to fit what you need. Once Writer is installed, it will walk you through the process of creating a profile for you blog. Writer will work with a wide variety of blog software, including Windows Live, Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, Das Blog, BlogEngine .NET and more.

Twitter Notify
I am a pretty avid Twitter-er, or Tweeter, or whatever you call it – I use the Twitter service a lot! Anyway, when I publish a new post to my blog, I generally post something to Twitter as well to help build awareness of it. The Twitter Notify plug-in makes this simple.When you publish your post, you’ll see a dialog box come up asking if you want to add a notice to your Twitter feed about it. It will even get you shortened URL from tinyurl.com to make sure you stay within the 140 character limit for Twitter posts.

Digg This
Another way to amplify your post and get more readers is to add a Digg badge to each post. The Digg This plug-in adds this badge automatically to any new post to your blog. You can even change the look for the badge to fit in with your blog’s look and feel.

FacebookPhotos
Facebook is my favorite social networking site – I use is on a daily basis. I’ve also the primary place I upload photos, both personal and professional. The FacebookPhotos plug-in allows me to access my photo albums on Facebook and automatically add them to my blog post.

Silverlight Streaming
Silverlight Streaming is free service from Microsoft that provides you with 10GB of storage to upload videos and other rich digital media and stream them to web sites via Silverlight. When you install the Silverlight Streaming plug-in for Writer, you can access all the content in your Silverlight Streaming account and automatically embed your video into your blog post. I use all the time on another blog that I write for, DrummBlog.com. Like the old saying goes, “Show me, don’t tell me.” Nothing can positively impact a post like video or audio clip to drive your point home. The Silverlight Streaming service with the plug-in for Writer makes this brain dead simple to do.

These are my favorite plug-ins for Windows Live Writer, but there are many, many more available. Have a look for yourself at the Live Gallery for Writer. Blog on!