So it took me a while to setup this time after a long blogging holiday and a few repaves. It wasn’t so easy this time. I knew I should choose Metaweblog API but couldn’t work out an address that worked, although older me has as you can see at the bottom of this post.

Turned out that a file in the root site folder with a suspiciously live writer type name, wlwmanifest.xml, was the key. After a little digging I found this documentation indicating that Live Writer will use this file to setup your blog if the following is in the head of your default.aspx document:

<link rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="stuff/wlwmanifest.xml" />

I added this, removed the stuff/ and the setup was automatic, no need to choose the blog type.

If you’re having trouble getting this working, like me four years after I wrote this post, you can choose MetaBlog Api as the blog type and enter http://[blog address]/services/metablogapi.aspx

Hopefully this helps you.