Since the beginning, I’ve used Movable Type for my blog. It requires a finicky installation and it’s hard to get it set up right, but, after that, it’s been great. I routinely recommend that new bloggers simply use TypePad, which is what we use for Blawg Channel. It makes it easy to get started.
I’ll either post entries in Movable Type directly (a great way to lose your work if you are simultaneously going to other websites while you write a post) or write them in Word and copy them into Movable Type. There’s a big need for a blog writing tool like Blogjet, but none of them have won me over yet.
For RSS feeds, I’ve long used FeedDemon and consider Nick Bradbury the most under-rated player in the whole blogosphere. I’ve been tempted by other newsreaders, but Nick has consistently done great work and matched his feature list to my wish list. It drives me crazy, though, to hear people say that they don’t want to use FeedDemon because it costs $29.95. That’s a bargain for one of the most-used programs in my software arsenal. There’s probably some inevitability to FeedDemon being purchased and built into another broader software tool, but I’ll probably be following FeedDemon wherever it goes.