40 Must-Have Tools for Content Creators
This is a guest post contributed by Chayanika Sen. Chayanika is a freelance writer for B2B Tech and SaaS brands. She also educates new freelancers on how to scale their freelance businesses through her newsletter and consultation calls. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
When I started creating content 16 years ago, my only tool was Microsoft Word and an Oxford dictionary. Luckily, today, we have numerous tools to help make the content creation process easy, fast, and effective.
I know many of you use several tools in your daily content creation process, so I asked my creator community for their favorites. And here’s what I found! These are some of the most popular tools for creators, solopreneurs, and self-employed professionals.
Content Distribution Platforms
#1 Twitter
The little blue bird app is a must-have tool for every creator. It’s a great place to generate leads, network with peers, and discover opportunities you wouldn’t have imagined. Having a strong Twitter presence can catapult your business into new levels of growth. It just takes a little care and attention.
#2 Patreon
Patreon is fantastic for digital creators looking for new income streams. You can share exclusive content like articles and videos, sharing them with your “patrons” — audience members who pay a monthly fee to support you. Patreon helps you add a consistent source of monthly income and monetize the content you’re already creating. If you’re a podcaster, video creator, writer, journalist, non-profit, or gaming creator, I highly recommend it.
#3 Substack
Similar to Patreon, Substack is a subscription-based platform for writers and podcasters. With its clean interface and easy signup options, you can distribute paid content effortlessly.
#4 Medium
Nearly everyone knows Medium at this point. This ubiquitous content platform allows creators to distribute their content seamlessly. You can even use it for blogging and integrate it into your website.
Writing Tools
#5 Content Remix
Have a podcast? Want to increase its reach? Content Remix is a handy service that turns your podcast episodes into complementary blog posts, so you can promote your pod more effectively. Just share your audio and their writers will whip up an article in 3-5 business days.
#6 Copy.ai
Generate high-quality copy in minutes using this AI-powered tool. Copy.ai can help you create short-form and long-form written content efficiently. You just enter a bit of context, generate copy, edit the results, and publish.
#7 Do people say it
Do people say it is a super cool tool that gives you context for the words and phrases you use. It comes in handy for non-native English speakers especially.
#8 Lose the Very
The tool does what the name suggests. It helps you eliminate the word “very” from your vocabulary by giving you a concise adjective. Try Lose the Very yourself! Just plug in an adjective.
Editing Tools
#9 Grammarly
The free version of Grammarly includes spellcheck and readability suggestions, while the premium version helps you edit your content for grammar and syntax. It’s a helpful tool, especially for non-native writers. The tool also offers a plagiarism checker that comes in handy.
#10 Hemingway Editor
A great tool to help you write better, the Hemingway Editor helps you identify passive voice and hard-to-read sentences, offering simpler alternatives to improve each sentence. This is a must-have tool for writers!
#11 Pro Writing Aid
Find fragmented sentences and errors in your writing with the help of Pro Writing Aid, an AI-powered writing tool.
#12 Quillbot
Looking for another way to say that? Quillbot will rephrase what you write, helping you find better words for the same thing. It has a grammar checker, text summarizer, and plagiarism checker too.
#13 Word Tune
If writer’s block is hitting hard, Word Tune‘s AI writing assistant tool can help you rewrite, rephrase, and reword your article.
#14 CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Make your headlines stand out! CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer will score your headlines on a variety of factors, like complexity, clarity, and skimmability, offering simple suggestions that can radically improve them.
Transcription Tools
#15 Otter.ai
Use Otter.ai to transcribe meeting notes and interviews in real time.
#16 Descript
Generate transcriptions automatically and simultaneously edit your audio and video content with Descript‘s brilliant software.
Design Tools
#17 Canva
Canva‘s popular visual editor comes with predesigned templates and drag-and-drop elements to help you create beautiful images and clips for social media and more.
#18 Unsplash
Unsplash is a free stock image site that hosts gorgeous photos from professional photographers that will up-level your visual content instantly.
#19 Pixlr
Like Photoshop but way more intuitive, Pixlr is a browser-based image editor that you should bookmark. Use it to create a logo, a business card, and other key assets.
#20 Supermeme.ai
Want to create some viral memes fast? Use Supermeme.ai to generate memes in more than 110 languages.
SEO Tools
#21 Ubersuggest
Use Ubersuggest‘s keyword discovery tool to optimize your content for search engines and generate more traffic to your site.
#22 Clearscope
This SEO tool helps you optimize your content for search engine bots. It offers plenty of keyword suggestions and tips to improve relevance. Plus, Clearscope integrates with Google Docs and WordPress!
#23 SurferSEO
SurferSEO audits your existing content and gives you clear, actionable steps to ramp up its SEO value. Plus, it shows you performance metrics so you can track improvement over time.
Business Management Tools
#24 Harlow
Get organized, save time, and grow your business with Harlow — the intuitive freelance client management tool. Create proposals and contracts, organize your tasks, track time spent on projects, and invoice your clients automatically. Do it all from one dashboard.
#25 ZenBusiness
Register your LLC and DBA, get your bank accounts set up, and take care of all of the basics you need with ZenBusiness.
Video Tools
#26 Loom
Send a video pitch or share feedback with your team with Loom, the asynchronous video messaging tool. You can record a screenshare and send it to anyone in seconds.
#27 Krisp
Use Krisp to remove all the background noise and echoes during your calls, from the neighbor’s barking dog to the howling baby next door.
#28 Capsule
Collect video testimonials, send pitches, and edit short clips with Capsule — an intuitive, browser-based video tool for creatives.
Social Media Tools
#29 Hootsuite
Build your brand on social media with Hootsuite. Create and schedule all your social media content in advance using this tool.
#30 Buffer
Fill up your weekly social media queue with Buffer‘s easy-to-use social scheduling tools. You can link it up to all your social accounts and monitor engagement in-app.
#31 UTM.io
Generate trackable links in seconds with UTM.io. Create personalized templates for each social platform, then apply them to URLs to automatically append the links with the right parameters.
#32 Bitly
Shorten long links and track clicks easily with Bitly — a must-have social media tool.
Research Tools
#33 Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a helpful social listening tool gives you a clear snapshot of what your intended audience is searching for, so you can create content that answers their questions and ranks well.
#34 HARO
Make your content stand out from the crowd by incorporating expert quotes from the industry. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) lets you connect with experts to source quotes.
#35 Help a B2B Writer
Similar to HARO, Help a B2B Writer connects you with industry experts who you can tap for relevant quotes.
#36 Terkel
Many prominent brands source quotes from Terkel — another good Q&A tool.
Storage and Organization Tools
#37 Glasp
This “social web highlighter” makes it easy to keep tabs on the goodies you find online. Read a poignant quote or article? Glasp to the rescue. Highlight the parts you want to remember and easily save to your favorite note-taking apps.
#38 My Mind
My Mind is like an “extension of your mind” that gives you a space to store all your notes, thoughts, images, quotes, and highlights without burdening your brain.
#39 Notion Web Clipper
Easily save articles, videos, and websites for later with the Notion Web Clipper, an essential Chrome extension for Notion power-users. Just choose your destination database, give the link a title, and save.
#40 Pocket
Create a digital pocket for all that you find online. Save interesting articles and references to return to when you’re ready with Pocket. You can even curate a list based on your interests and read the kind of content you want to read.
What’s your favorite content creation tool?
Shoot us a message if your go-to freelance tools are missing from this list. We’ll be updating it regularly!
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