Mark Ashcroft is the creator of the WriteToMyBlog project. He has worked in multimedia development, web development, Windows application development and as a Perl programmer. He lives in Melbourne, Australia. Visit the projects blog here.

What is WriteToMyBlog and how did it get started?

WriteToMyBlog is a free web based blog client. It has an advanced word processor which gives bloggers much greater functionality in posting entries to their blogs. WriteToMyBlog can also publish post entries to multiple blogs at one time as well as being able to view, preview, edit (right from within WriteToMyBlog) and delete posts.

WriteToMyBlog was started through necessity, ‘necessity being the mother of invention’ sort of thing. I had developed a Content Management System with a MetaWeblog API server (boring technical stuff). I thought it would be cool if those users could publish content (web pages) using the many blog clients out there. But when I wanted to add a simple table to a web page I was surprised that no blog client could do this, so I thought I’d develop one. Then it was only a few extra steps to make this tool available for all my blogging friends, so WriteToMyBlog was born.

What is the technology behind the service, and why did you choose them?

WriteToMyBlog makes use of the APIs (Application Programming Interface) that blog programs have. These tools make it possible to publish and manage posts from outside your blog program. WriteToMyBlog was developed using the L.A.M.P. (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) principal of development. WriteToMyBlog uses the TinyMCE word processor written in JavaScript and the Site itself is written in the Perl programming language.

One of the principal reasons for using these technologies was to be able to create a system that stores nothing. We don’t view or store any posts nor do we store any of our users blog access details we simple act as an interface gateway between our users and their blog programs.

WriteToMyBlog is still under Beta development.

What is your business model and future plans for growth?

I guess the short answer is there isn’t a business model. I figure a business model is only valid if you have something people want, so I’m working hard to do that.

The future excites me. There are so many cool and empowering web tools out there. We will soon be launching WriteToMySite which will be focused on publishing content to CMS’s. We’re also looking into doing mashups (integrations) with other ’Web 2.0’ services, like photo and file storage.

We get loads of feedback and love to hear from our users. In the end it’s the users that will define WriteToMyBlog’s future; I see our job as just to create an environment that lets them direct us.