Content writing is at the heart of SEO. It’s hard to optimize your website without content that can be linked to. However, you don’t have to spend a fortune on professional writers when you can use free tools to make your own content. By using these free tools, everyone can create great content in less time and for less cost.
Title writing tools
Title Case
Not sure which letters should be capitalized in your title? Simply copy and paste your headline into this tool and it will convert it into perfect title case.
Headline analyzer
CoSchedule’s headline analyzer breaks down your headline, segmenting different types of words, and giving you hints on how to improve it. It gives you a score each time so you can try various combinations and pick the winner.
Writing productivity tools
Focus Writer
This writing app focuses on an uncluttered interface and has a hidden menu that you access by moving your mouse to the edge of your screen. Over 20 languages are supported, it features daily goals, timers and alarms, customizable themes, spellcheck and autosave.
Calmly Writer
Does too much clutter distract you? Maximize this writing tool and you are faced with a sea of white and a blinking cursor. Hidden in the menu is a nice feature which estimates reading time. Available as a browser extension or online.
StayFocusd
Sometimes it’s not the clutter that distracts you, but the lure of lolz on Twitter. This highly customizable browser extension increases your productivity by allowing you to limit the amount of time that you can spend on certain websites.
The Most Dangerous Writing App
Even its creators call this app sadistic. If you stop typing for more than about 3 seconds it deletes everything you have written up to that point. It could force you into completing your work before that looming deadline, or it might just make you destroy your laptop in a fit of rage.
Ilys
A unique take on a writing tool that will help anyone who is too precious over their first draft. You set a word limit at the start. When you start typing, the screen flashes up one letter at a time. You can only see what you have written, and edit that copy, once you have exceeded your set number of words.
Otranscribe
Anyone who has had to transcribe some audio will know how painful it can be, especially when you have to switch between an audio player and a word processor. This tool allows you to upload your audio or video file and features a word processor with controls for the audio on the same page.
Style and grammar tools
Hemingway editor
The Hemingway editor allows you to paste your content into the tool and it will analyze it sentence by sentence.
The point is to make your writing bold and clear. It’s like a spellchecker, but for your style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on your message, not struggle through your complex prose.
ProWritingAid
This writing tool features a large number of checks on your writing, from vague words to sentence length and overused words.
Grammar girl
Don’t know if you should be using effect or affect? Struggle with semicolons? Grammar girl has your back, with a library of clearly worded tips that will help clear things up.YOU MIGHT LIKE30 Free Social Media Marketing Tools to Cover Every NeedRead the article
UK vs US spelling
For anyone educated in the UK but writing for the US market, here is a comprehensive list of the variations between the two versions of the English language.
Wordcounter
This tool ranks the most frequently used words in any given body of text. You can use it to discover words you overuse or to extract the keywords from a great piece of content you’ve found.
Thesaurus.com
If Wordcounter has revealed you are overusing the same words, head over to Thesaurus.com to find alternatives.
Grammarly
Basically a very good spelling and grammar checker. Grammarly says it corrects over 250 types of grammatical mistakes. It also covers contextual spelling errors and poor vocabulary usage.
Cliche Finder
Enter a body of text and this tool will find a cliché faster than a speeding bullet.
SEO writing tools
Yoast WordPress Plugin
If you are writing content optimized for search engines, this WordPress plug-in will score your efforts based on several factors and ensure you don’t forget any vital components of SEO.
SERP title tool
Enter your title tag, meta description, and URL to see how they’ll appear in a Google search result.
Collaborative writing tools
Google Docs
You can choose who to share your documents with, both inside and outside your organization, and decide on their level of access to allow editing or comment only input.
Research & Idea generation
Alchemy Text
If you want to extract the important topics from a great piece of content, this is the tool for you. AlchemyLanguage is a collection of APIs that offer text analysis through natural language processing. It can analyze text to help you understand its concepts, entities, keywords, sentiment, and more.
Google Trends
Discover trends and see if the subject you are thinking of writing about is taking off or fading into obscurity.
Portent’s Content Idea Generator
A writing tool for when you’re stuck staring at a blank page. Simply enter a topic and it will suggest a title, and provide some resources for further reading.
HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator
Another tool to help when you’ve got writer’s block. Add three nouns to this tool and HubSpot will return 5 blog headline ideas.
Brandwatch
Excuse us for blowing our own trumpet, but Brandwatch has several useful functions for a content marketer. Discover relevant trending content, research your audience and what they are talking about and unearth influencers to amplify your content. We’ve written a free SEO and content guide if you’d like to know more.
Miscellaneous writing tools
Read-O-Meter
Want to give your readers an estimated reading time? Simply copy and paste your text into this tool for an estimate.
A Soft Murmur
If you find the noise of the office too distracting and wish you were on a beach instead, this tool has a variety of ambient sounds out to help with distraction free writing. You can mix your own sounds, so if you find a burning coffee shop relaxing, they’ve got you covered.
A proofreading tool
Natalie Meehan
Our blog editor, who reads everything before it is published. Having a second pair of human eyes is invaluable. You will probably have to get your own human, as Natalie is very busy and doesn’t have time to read your content as well.
Content marketing resources
To end this list in the most helpful way possible, we thought we’d leave you with some further reading to brush up your content marketing knowledge.
Content Idea Generation
When I started working as a Content Strategist for Spiralytics and having worked as an editor for magazines before, I thought that my main task to create blog topics for various clients in different industries would be an easy task. I was dead wrong. It might have been easy on the first time, but if you do it on a weekly basis, you will definitely run out of ideas. Thank God for these tools, I will never run out of topic ideas and content inspiration:
Ever wondered which articles or contents are getting the most shares for a specific topic? That’s what Buzzsumo can help you with. Just input a keyword or phrase then it will show you a list of top content. You get to decide if the content that they will show you are from the past year, month, week, or in the recent 24 hours. You can also exclude specific types of content like videos or giveaways. What does the list mean? If these topics got a ton of shares, then you should create a better version of them.
Hubspot’s tool is one of the easiest topic generators that you can use. Just input a couple of nouns that you want to write about and voila, it will give you a list of topics that you can work with. It’s not perfect though and you still need to tweak the titles that it gives you, nevertheless, it’s a fast and easy way to create topics out of a single or two word ideas.
Now don’t get intimidated by this one. Though it has the word “AdWords” in it, you don’t need to have knowledge on it to be able to use this one. This tool is used mainly by our Paid Ads and SEO teams but it’s a great tool for us in the content team as well because it shows us a list of keyword groups that are getting a high volume of search. Neat huh? Here’s how you can use Google AdWords Keyword Planner for your topic generation.
- Click on “Search for new keyword and ad group ideas”.
- Type in a word or keyword that you want to write about. If for example you want to only view the keyword searches in a specific country, you can select it under Country in targeting. Then click on Get Ideas.
- It will show you a list of keyword ideas. Sort it by Avg. monthly searches to find out which keywords have the highest searches. In this example, “wedding invitation” get the most number of searches in the Philippines so work on article variations about wedding invitations.
Research
While Google search is the more obvious free tool for research, I find these two tools convenient for keeping myself updated with topics that interest me, as well as bookmarking and taking down notes especially when I’m not in front of my laptop. And if you’re a writer, you know that our best ideas usually come to us at the most inconvenient time, like when we’re on a bus and we only have our smartphone with us.
If you’re following a lot of blogs and subscribed to a ton of email newsletters that are piling up in your email, I suggest you sign up for a Feedly account and download the app in your phone. Feedly is a better version of the now discontinued Google Reader and I’m a BIG fan of it. All of the work (and non-work) blogs that I follow are in my Feedly account and are organized into their own categories. Because it has an app, I can also read my feed while on the go. If you’re researching for an article you’re working on, just add them to your Feedly in its own category and read them whenever, wherever.
Evernote allows you to take down ideas, write a blog when inspiration strikes, and even take snapshots for your notes whenever you need to, even if you’re on the road or stuck in traffic. Unlike paper notes that will get lost, your notes taken with Evernote will be synchronized in all of your devices like your phone and laptop.
Writing (and focusing on it)
Though the Internet offers us a lot of information to help us with our research, it’s also full of distractions. While writing is already tough for us, Facebook and other websites eat up a lot of our time that we should have been using instead to write.
Those who write for a living have deadlines to meet so we can’t afford to be distracted every now and then. Some writers need peace and quiet to do their work. While plugging in your earphones to listen to soft tunes can do that trick, writers will also need a clutterless screen to avoid the temptation of doing other things aside from writing. FocusWriter is a great tool that lets you do just that with its clean interface to get you immersed on your writing.
This little organizational tool acts like a board to keep all your writing ideas, resources, and references in check. Whether you’re writing a book, shooting a video, or running an ad campaign, you’ll be sure to appreciate how it lets you structure your creatives in an organized manner. As a bonus, if you’re collaborating with others on any sort of project, Milanote offers a convenient platform for all contributing members to share their input, no matter where they are.
I recently discovered Dayboard with the help of our resident designer Jevie. In the Spiralytics team, we use Asana to keep track of our daily tasks, but when you’re swamped with tons of tasks, it can get confusing as to which tasks you need to prioritize for the day. Dayboard is a to-do list that shows up everytime you open a new tab, so you will always be reminded of your tasks. I love that Dayboard only lets you list down 5 tasks a day. Because of that feature, you’ll be able to quickly reorganize your long list and decide which ones are the most important. It lessens the stress too compared to looking at a long to-do list.
Design
I know, I know, this is a list for writers so why include design? Adding visuals to your content is a great way to increase the page views, engagement and shares of your work. Investing in good quality images help to make your article more readable, easier to scan, and make it stand out from the tons of content produced on a daily basis.
I love Canva! It’s an easy to use browser-based graphic designing tool that is also user-friendly to non-designers or those that don’t have or don’t know how to use Adobe Photoshop. With Canva, you can produce social media images, infographics, blog headers/banners, and more by dragging and dropping design elements that are built-in in Canva. You can also upload your own design elements if you want to use a photo that you have for example. They also have a blog called Design School where they teach tips and tricks on graphic design to non-professional designers.
Editing
Last but not the least is editing your work. Though you might have an editor, you should still check your own work for spelling and grammar mistakes, including plagiarism.
Okay, so maybe it’s tempting to immediately submit your work after you’ve spent hours (or even days!) on it, it doesn’t hurt to check for mistakes. After all, your work has your name in it. I understand that you might just depend on Microsoft Word’s spelling checker, but it’s not as accurate and doesn’t have a plagiarism checker, unlike Grammarly. Editing is as simple as clicking on the underlined and highlighted words, a suggested correction will appear in the sidebar and clicking on it will automatically make the corrections. It will also explain why it thinks there’s a mistake. For plagiarism checking, it will show the link to the original source of the said plagiarized sentences or paragraph. Grammarly also has a browser extension so I use it when I directly write in WordPress or in my social media accounts.
Bonus Productivity Hacks for Writers
1. Have a note taking device ready all the time.
Inspiration often strikes when you’re taking a walk, while in transit, taking a shower, or in bed just before you fall asleep. In short, they usually happen when you’re away from your computer—which, come to think of it, is exactly the reason why you should step away from your computer when inspiration is running dry. That said, you should be ready to take down notes anytime inspiration strikes.
If you’re someone who likes taking notes by way of paper and pen, by all means, bring a pocket notebook with you wherever you go! I suggest you read this article about various forms of analog note taking.
In most cases, however, like when you’re inside a train, in the shower (unless you have this cool water proof note pad!), or in the darkness of your bedroom, writing on paper may be impossible. In this case, a note-taking app in your mobile phone or tablet spells wonders. Not only are you able to type down notes wherever you are, it’s also easy to transfer your notes digitally.
Here are some recommended note-taking apps:
- Whatever built-in note app you have on your phone or tablet. IOS has one, and it’s the one I normally use. It’s very basic, uncomplicated, and connects to the cloud (although I rarely use this option). Most times, when I’m done typing notes, I just copy-paste my text and email it to myself. Tada!
- Evernote. Many people would swear by Evernote as it brings to the table more than you can ask for from a simple note-taking app. It has the ability to clip articles, save photos, collaborate and create presentations, among others. What can I say, Evernote is not the best note-taking app for nothing.
- Simplenote. This one is available for ios and android and syncs to a web-based platform. I love everything simple, and this app took out a lot of the unnecessary stuff from its screen. If you like all of your digital scratch papers in one place, Simplenote is a good option to consider.
2. Plug in some white noise.
Plugging in your ear phones while you write is good for two things: (1) It helps eliminate the noise around you and lets you to get “in the zone”; (2) It implicitly sends a “Do Not Disturb” message to others. (Hint: I sometimes wear earphones while working, even if I’m not listening to anything, for this very reason—to shoo people away!)
The thing is, listening to songs while writing can be really distracting. Song lyrics will most likely interfere with your line of thought and would delay your content creation process more than help you.
White noise and creativity
On the other hand, I have found that listening to white noise (or lyric-less music!) not only blocks out outside noises as well as people from disturbing you, it also increases creativity and productivity. One study proves that the right amount of ambient noise positively affects creative cognition. This is most likely the reason why we feel more productive inside coffee shops or school libraries instead of being locked inside a quiet room. And this is probably the reason why we feel creative when rain is pouring down (I do!).
My most favorite ambient sound, in fact, is the sound of rain.
Try this:
- Rainymood. This one is web-based, therefore no need to download to your gadget or computer. You only need to open the web page in one of your browser tabs and the sound of rain will instantly play in the background. I’ve been using Rainymood for years, way back when there still wasn’t a myriad of ambient sound apps available around. Oh, and try Rainymood with this! You’re welcome.
- Noisli. This app lets you mix your own ambient noise. I.e., Combine the sound of chatter inside a coffee shop with the sound of rain. Or the sound of the ocean waves with the wind and the cracking woods around the bonfire. The options are endless. If you’re a writer, you seriously need this app in your life.
- Coffivity. If hanging out in coffee shops to get some work done is your thing, you’ll love Coffivity. It offers a selection of ambient noise not just of coffee shops, but also bistros, university cafeterias, and tea houses. Something about the sound of people chatting in the background and the tinker of coffee cups enhances creativity, yeah? Now if only someone can create an app that exudes the smell of coffee.
3. Use an egg timer.
The kitchen is not the only place where an egg timer is an essential tool. You need it on your work desk too! There’s so much to be done in a day and you need to be strict with managing your time, or else you could be spending an entire day completing just one task without noticing the time.
An egg timer boosts your productivity in various ways. First, as I mentioned, it divides your schedule into smaller chunks, which allows you to manage your time better. Second, it pressures you to complete the task within the time frame that you’ve set, and maybe even remind you to take a break in between.
For example. You can set the egg timer to alarm after the first hour of your day, a time which you dedicate to reading other blogs. We all know how time consuming and distracting reading other blogs is. While reading is good pre-content creation, excessive reading can become overwhelming, and can sometimes make you feel inferior to other bloggers in comparison.
So be strict with yourself. Time your reading, and once the timer stops ticking, whether or not you’re done with reading, move on to the next task in your list.
Egg timer and free writing
For me, I set my egg timer while I do some free-writing. Free writing is a technique where the writer continuously writes for a period of time without regard to spelling or grammar or the flow of thought. This is particularly helpful when you’re writing blog content, where you just let your thoughts flow, producing raw material that you can just edit and improve later on.
The sound of a ticking clock may be distracting at first, but when you get used to it, you’ll find that it gives you rhythm and serves as some form of a white noise too.
Try this:
- A real egg timer. I say, if you’re not sharing your work space or your office with anyone, buy yourself a real egg timer. Get a cute one!
- Egg Timer by Filibaba (IOS). I use this on my iPhone and I love how simple and straightforward it is. It sounds just like a real egg timer too. Other egg timer apps are designed for use in, well, cooking eggs, and therefore include egg recipes and other kitchen-specific functionalities. This Filibaba Egg Timer is as simple as it can get, with a few options to customize the look of your egg timer, nothing more. It works just right for this specific purpose (of adding pressure to your writing process!).
- E.ggtimer. If you don’t like the ticking sound of an egg timer, E.ggtimer is a web-based timer that beeps only when your time is up.
I hope you’ll find these tools useful!
Conclusion
Content is the single most important aspect of blogging. If you have poorly written content then your blog will never get off the ground. To have a successful blog, you must have great content. Great content comes from a strong content strategy and a lot of hard work.