In a world of constant content creation and consumption, how can you ensure the content you write gets its best possible shot at readers engaging with it? From conception, inspiration, and writing to editing and giving your content the push it needs, here are a few tools that can help content writers level up their content every step of the way!
1. Ideaflip
Whether you’re working in a group or writing solo, brainstorming is essential to coming up with good ideas. Instead of simply making note of your ideas , try Ideaflip. The visual, interactive interface allows you to develop your ideas in an organised manner. There are multiple templates, ranging from simple grid layouts that help you arrange your thoughts and structure your content better to templates that facilitate streamlined conversations when brainstorming in a group.
Turn the vague ideas in your head into comprehensive points using this tool!
Free or paid: The ‘Personal plan’ for individuals is free (you can invite upto 2 people onto a brainstorm board), and you can upgrade to paid plans.
Check out the website here.
2. ‘Trending’ Topics On Social Media
Make use of social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. to keep up with what is of interest to people at the moment.
The most accessible, easy, and quick way to keep up with world news, political interests, and other trends, is Twitter. The ‘Trending’ section on the Twitter explore page, includes wide-ranging information on trending topics and hashtags. By filtering the setting based on location, you can keep yourself up-to-date with both national and international trends. Reading tweets on popular topics will give you an idea of the kind of content that can spark people’s interest. The different points of view can spark inspiration in you as well.
Similarly, Instagram is a great place to see what is trending when it comes to entertainment, lifestyle, and more lighthearted content. LinkedIn as a platform can help you explore what is trending in the space of jobs, careers, business, and other professional matters.
Look for inspiration and popular topics on these platforms, while taking into account the kind of content you want to write, and who your target audience is.
3. StayFocusd
The most dangerous foe to a content writer’s productivity, especially when working from home? Easy access to other websites. One minute you’re researching what’s trending on Twitter for a new blog, and next thing you know, you’ve spent the next five hours wasting your time on every social media and online streaming platform.
StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you focus on your work by allowing you to restrict the amount of time you spend on certain websites. The extension is customisable. You can block “entire sites, specific subdomains, specific paths, specific pages, even specific in-page content (videos, games, images, forms, etc)”, the extension’s description reads.
So, add this extension into your daily time online and stay focused on your writing!
Free or paid: Free!
Check out the website here.
4. Power Thesaurus
If you’re someone like me who constantly struggles with grasping at that word you’re looking for, Power Thesaurus is the tool that can instantly come to your rescue.
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The interface is extremely user-friendly and suggests an extensive list of synonyms, antonyms, and definitions for any word. It also provides examples of the word being used in a sentence, along with phrases and idioms related to it.
This means – no more brain farts when it comes to finding the right words!
Bonus: I don’t know about you, but in an online world filled with ads (I’m looking at you, YouTube and Spotify) a useful platform free of ads is a huge bonus. Since Power Thesaurus is crowdsourced, it doesn’t feature any ads!
Free or paid: Free!
Check out the website here.
5. Hemingway Editor
The Hemingway Editor is a great text editing system that makes your articles as readable as they can be. The tool identifies phrases that are too complex and suggests improvisations. It helps you eliminate excessive adverbs, turn sentences in passive voice into active voice, and suggests better synonyms. The tool also assigns an overall readability score to your text, with actionable recommendations on how you can make it more readable. These are all extremely important in optimising your content to ensure higher readership and engagement.
Free or paid: Free to use, but if you want to use it offline as well you can make a one-time purchase and buy the app.
Check out the website here.
6. Grammarly
You may the ‘grammar Nazi’ of your friend group, but you are, at the end of the day, human – and humans make mistakes! Avoid these mistakes that may slip by you when proofreading your article by using online grammar-check platforms. There’s no better tool to do just that than Grammarly.
Grammarly is a quick, automated way to check your article for basic grammatical errors like incorrect punctuations, spelling errors, excessive adjectives, etc. It can also help improve the overall tone and structure of your content. So, make it a habit to run what you write through Grammarly.
Free or paid: Free to use but you can upgrade to a paid version.
Check out the website here.
7. Yoast WordPress Plugin
If you want to increase the reach of your content, you need to factor in the keywords your readers search for. Everyone acknowledges the power of Search Engine Optimisation in pushing the performance of your written content. It’s a good idea to always keep yourself accountable for how optimised your article is by using a plugin like Yoast.
Yoast gives you a keyword and key phrases analysis, as well as an analysis of the page content, with suggestions on how you can optimise everything.
Free or paid: The most important functionalities of this plugin are free, but you can upgrade to premium for more options.
Check out the website here.
8. Duplichecker
Plagiarism is one of the biggest no-nos when you’re a content writer. There are multiple free online plagiarism checkers, and one of the most in-depth and easy-to-use ones is Duplichecker.
It allows you to check for plagiarism for up to 10,000 words at a time, with the promise of deep searches and accurate reports.
Run your text through a plagiarism checker to make sure your content is original and stands out!
Free or paid: Free!
Check out the website here.
9. Canva
Today, well-researched and informative text isn’t enough. What you need to catch the reader’s eye and keep them engaged is visual appeal as well. However, you’re just a content writer. How are you supposed to do a good job with design as well?
Canva is the best tool for beginners trying their hand at design. Its wide range of free templates allows you to create amazing visual content, including infographics, blog banners, quotes, posters, and social media posts.
Free or paid: You can join for free, but there is a paid upgrade that will allow you to access more graphics, fonts, templates, tools, etc.
Check out the website here.
10. Hootsuite
Finally, you’ve written an excellent piece of content, and now you need to get the word out. You need to share your content, promote it, and increase traffic to the content you’ve worked so hard on! The best way to do this – social media!
You need to not only post your content on social media, but make sure it goes out regularly, promote it, and monitor how well it’s doing to truly reap the rewards. Social media management tools like Hootsuite can make this a piece of cake! You can manage posting across various social media platforms simultaneously.
This automation will spare you a lot of time and energy spent on marketing your content, that you can now spend on writing it!
Free or paid: You can get a 30-day free trial, but Hootsuite premium is a paid tool.
Check out the website here.
What are the tools that you swear by as a content writer? Share your favourite tools in the comments below!
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