Content Writing Tools and Resources
Every freelance writer needs an arsenal of content writing tools to help them produce top-notch work. Here are some of my faves, from free images to invoicing tools and a whole lot more. Get in!
Ready to take your writing game to the next level? Well, this little lineup of content writing tools will help you slay. From catching pesky typos or grammatical errors to checking for plagiarism and scoring your headlines, these content writing tools are designed to make your life as a freelance writer so much easier.
Don’t let poor grammar hold you back. Use Grammarly for a quick fix to any copy. Not only does it highlight and offer solutions for grammar and spelling errors, but it provides explanations for grammar rules, so you can correct your errors, and learn from them.
You can improve your writing with The Hemingway App. It doesn’t focus on spelling and grammatical errors, rather it looks at sentence structure and readability.
A popular alternative to Grammarly that lets you edit faster, fix style issues, correct errors, and learn grammar rules as you go. Plus, it integrates into Microsoft Word, Google chrome, Google Docs, and some others.
WTH does this BS mean? LOL. Clueless as to the meaning of an acronym? No worries with this resource of more than 5 million acronyms and abbreviations. BRB, off to investigate!
OneLook has 5 million words gathered from over 900 online dictionaries in its search engine of words and phrases. Need a definition or related words? Look no further. A great feature is that if you’re not sure how to spell something, give it a go and OneLook will offer suggestions to help you find the correct spelling.
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
A headline that magnetically attracts readers’ eyes is critical. Use Headline Analyzer to check your headline’s score, and see if it needs any tweaks. You’ll see how many common, uncommon, powerful, and emotional words you’ve crammed into the title and it provides tips for improvement.
Plagiarism is a huge no-no. You’d also be surprised how easy it is to accidently write the same thing as someone else, especially on a common topic that’s been covered a thousand times. So check your work with Copyscape and feel confident that it’s original and unique.
Make your website look sexy and add value to client work with profesh photos. Here are some of my fave options for free images.
A freelance writer without a website (and the right content writing tools!) is like a ninja without a sword. Sure, you might be skilled and talented, but without a digital presence, no one will know how awesome you are.
A website is your chance to showcase your skills and personality and stand out in a sea of freelancers. Not only does a website make you look like a total pro, but it’s also a killer marketing tool. You can use it to attract potential clients, build your brand, and showcase your badassery. And you can build a website for FREE with these platforms:
| GoDaddy | Yola | Wix | Mailchimp | Weebly |
| WordPress | Webflow | Ucraft | SITE123 | Jimdo |
| Canva | Strikingly | Webnode | Render Forest | Carrd |
Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, the following freelancing platforms and job boards can help you connect with clients and make some serious cash.
Now, some — Upwork and Fiverr I’m looking at you — might feature some piss poor paying projects, but others are more realistic. Remember, with these options, you’re competing against countless other freelancers, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t strike gold immediately. There are opportunities to be had, but you may have more success with other approaches like LinkedIn marketing and cold emailing. But I landed my first gigs through sites like these, so it’s completely possible!
As a freelance writer, you’re not just a wordsmith, you’re also a business owner. That’s why you need the right tools. And not just content writing tools. Nope. You need tools to help you manage your finances, invoicing, communication, hunting down email addresses, and more.
So I’ve gathered some valuable tools to help you slay this business-bossing lark and focus on what you do best — writing.
There’s a hella lot to deal with when you start your new biz, right? Thankfully, with tools like Freshbooks, dealing with the financial side of things is a whole lot easier. You get a sexy dashboard that makes invoicing and managing your biz finances super easy.
HoneyBook is a client management tool that’s ideal for freelancers to manage and process payments, bookings, contracts, and tons of other stuff. And it’s cheaper than Freshbooks.
Need a face to face chat without needing to leave the house? Zoom’s here to help with its highly-rated video meeting platform that lets you bring up to 1,000 people into the same space. Cool huh?
Whenever you need to find an email, Hunter can search through millions of web pages to find the biz info you need. Plus, they categorise material that isn’t in any other database.
I seriously don’t know what I would do without Canva. I freaking love this tool. I make all my social graphics, website images, blog piccies and more with this epic tool. Even for peeps with zero design skills, it’s a breeze.
Calendly makes scheduling a breeze. With Calendly, you can cut the BS and get straight to business. Just send your clients a unique scheduling link, and let them pick a meeting time that works for both of you. No more back and forth, just pure productivity.
Voila Norbert is a super accurate email finder that’s helpful for sending LOIs, pitches, etc.
You should ask every new client to sign a contract. And that’s much easier with Xodosign, an electronic signature platform. You can sign documents from any device, anytime, anywhere to help streamline your signing process. Plus, it’s free for up to 5 documents each month.
Prospero helps you create profesh looking proposals and helps you price out the project as you go. So, it’s great for new newbies learning how to navigate pricing.
You need to navigate the wonderful world of SEO if you want to take the websites you work on to the top of the search engine ranking pages. There are kazillions of tools out there, and often they cost a pretty penny. So here are a few lower-priced options to help you crush the competition and boost your online presence.
WooRank SEO Analysis & Website Review
SEO Analysis & Website Review by WooRank is a free Google Chrome extension that allows you to evaluate websites from your browser. It looks at stuff like keyword optimization, level of traffic, backlinks from other sites, and the website’s strengths and weaknesses.
Neil Patel provides all sorts of marketing tools, including Ubersuggest. You can type in a keyword and see ideas for free. Or upgrade for more deets.
AnswerThePublic is a fab and free SEO tool for finding content ideas. Type in a keyword and see a detailed list of related search terms in a funky visual map.
Google loves fresh content, so you need to update old content to appease the SEO gods. Animalz Revive simplifies the process by emailing you a list of posts that need a refresher.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool helps you find website issues like broken links, blocked URLs, and errors. It also helps analyse SEO data like page titles and redirects.
Seobility is a free SEO tool that can crawl a site for issues and provide tips on optimising your content. It also shows your top-ranking keywords and helps you analyse the competition.
The Ahrefs Backlink Checker lets you see which websites link to yours. It also shows your highest-performing posts and pages. You’ll need to upgrade to see all the deets, but you’ll get a taster for free.
The Reddit Keyword Research Tool
The Reddit Keyword Research Tool allows you to extract keywords from subreddits and view their context to understand them better. You can also export the data. And it’s free!
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that scans for readability and any SEO issues. It’s user-friendly, and the free version is pretty powerful.
A popular WordPress plugin, Rank Math helps boost SEO as you write. It works in the WordPress editor, making suggestions for improvements.
Tired of feeling like a hot mess express when it comes to organisation? Fear not! I’ve got your back with a killer section of tools to help you get life together.
As a freelancer, you need both content writing tools to create click-worthy articles and blogs and organisational tools to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine. So try out these bad boys:
Evernote helps you and arrange the ideas that are filling your noggin. It’s designed for note taking, organising, task management, and archiving. You can fill it with words, drawings, photographs, audio, or stuff you’ve saved from the web.
Need tons of space to save and organise all your important docs? Using Dropbox means you can get your hands on all of your documents from any device and collaborate with others.
Writing a novel or short stories? Then this free writing software let’s you organise your plot and character development with zero hassle. You can organise by scenes, and drag and drop those bad boys to rearrange your writing any way you want. Plus, there’s all sort of stats and data.
Free writing software brainstorming and expanding your ideas. No matter the project, you can capture your ideas and think up new ones by triggering associations. MindMeister offers the flexibility to organise and share ideas too.
Unclutter your mind, organise your life, and have fun while you do it. Well maybe not that much fun, but this is a great alternative to plain ‘ole pen and paper. And it means you can stifle overwhelm by getting all those tasks out of your head and onto your list .
Trello is a visual collaboration tool that allows you to create boards and lists to keep track of projects and tasks. And you can drag and drop, which is super handy. It’s free to use, but if you want to upgrade for some extra pizzazz, go ahead!
Asana is your project management bestie. It helps teams (meaning you and your bevvy of clients) to stay organized and on track. And the best part? You don’t have to spend a dime for the basic version.
Google Drive is a cloud-based storage solution that allows you to store and share files, collaborate on docs, and access your files from anywhere (swim up bar, anyone?)
Slack is a communication hub. With real-time channels and direct messages, you’ll never miss a beat. It’s the opposite of being slack, IMHO!
RescueTime is a time-tracking tool that helps you understand how you spend your time on your computer or mobile device.
Notion is an all-in-one workspace that allows you to organize your notes, tasks, projects, and more. It offers a variety of templates and customizable layouts to fit your needs.
Monday.com is a project management tool that helps you streamline your work formaximum productivity. There are a shit ton of templates. And it’s free.
ClickUp is another project management tool with various views to manage your projects with ease. With a calendar view and Gantt chart view, you’ll be a productivity ninja in no time.