As a freelance writer, you’ll have constant access to your computer. That means you can leverage its power to assist you in becoming more productive and streamlining your workflow. There are many apps geared toward freelancers that will help you stay organized, manage projects and keep track of invoices. You’ll also find software that lets you store information about prospective clients so that you won’t forget to follow up with them after the first meeting.
I have been a freelance writer for more than a year now and throughout the year. I have accumulated essential tools that I simply cannot live without when it comes to writing the best content. With that, here are the 14 apps for freelance writers to improve efficiency and keep your business humming along nicely.
What you need to know First
All the tools that I have provided are mostly free so literally, anyone can start from scratch to become a freelance writer. So if you like what you read here, be sure to subscribe to us at HustleVentureSG to get more valuable content on helping people achieve financial independence through side enterprises.
Content Header
First and foremost, content writers need to be able to find a good content heading that draws in readers. I failed to do this at the start when I realise that I have been writing content that people just aren’t interested in.
A great content header needs to have some traits of the following. They can be evergreen, which is search-optimized content that is continually relevant and stays “fresh” for readers over a long period. Or trendy content, which is typically based on short-term hype of an event or scenario.
It’s no surprise that seasonal content writers take about 40% of their time finding good proper content headings. So if you are planning to find powerful tools that can produce good headlines, here they are:
Headline Title Generator
The headline title generator allows users to fill in the information they need to get the perfect title. They will ask for a keyword-relevant, desired outcome, industry problem, and name to get a clear picture of what you would like. After generating the headline, the headline title generator will provide up to 5 different headlines for you to choose from.
This software is great for you if you already have the idea in your head but would like to have it pieced together for you in multiple different ways.
Content Row
Content Row is a platform for content writers to get inspiration from. If you are having a mind block from having too many ideas or trouble in your head. Content Row can help create highly searched headlines based on the keyword that you would like to have. They will share headline that is categorized under an evergreen, clickbait, tropical or seasonal so you can choose what headline is right for you.
This software is great for you if you only have the keyword that you would like to write about but isn’t sure how to form it into a good headline where readers will click.
Headline Analyzer Tool
The headline analyzer tool grades the headline that you write based on readability, SEO, and sentiment. Your headline aims to reach a grade above 80 to rank well on Google. Once you have achieved above 80 for the grade, the platform has a tool to help you capitalize on specific words to make the headline more prominent.
Keyword Research
Before you even begin writing the content, the content writers need to know that keyword research is fundamental knowledge for them to help businesses to rank well online, I have tried multiple keyword research tools which cost a lot of money, and ended up canceling them because it wasn’t worth it. So here are some tools that I would recommend:
Google Research
The simplest thing you can do for free right now is type in the content you want to write. Scroll to the middle portion of the page and they will provide you with questions and answers. Find ways you can better explain the question and provide more Q&A to beat the Google algorithm.
After that, scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see suggested searches. These are keywords that are highly searched or requested to know more about. You as the content writer need to be able to capture all these keyword phrases and bulk them into your article. That way, you can improve your Google ranking.
Keyword Everywhere
KeywordEverywhere is a Google extension that allows its user to get real-time data on Google searches information on what keywords are being looked out for. If you are a beginner content writer, you have to install this extension because it is free. You get to have information on short-form and long-form keyword details. The most powerful part of all is getting to know more about the SEO difficulty and how you can change up and find better headlines to write on.
Ahrefs
The holy grail of keyword research, Ahrefs is the most powerful keyword research tool there is on the market that I know of. It not only allows you to find all sorts of keywords, but it also ranks your competitor for you and suggests keywords that you can use that can level up above your competitors. And to add caviar on top, Ahrefs constantly help scan through your entire website to find any errors or potential problems that you can fix on the spot.
In my opinion, if you plan to get Ahrefs; which is quite a large sum to commit to. Your content writing business needs to be making a free cash flow of easily over 4 figures a month. There are plenty of other ways you can get free keywords with the other tools I have mentioned.
Content Writing
They are many tools out there online to help you with content writing. So what I found may only work for me and not for you. Testing each of these tools is critical for you to understand what works for you.
Grammarly
If you have not heard of Grammarly, you are missing out on the most important digital tool on the Internet. Grammarly helps its users correct and suggest the correct wording or sentence structure for the content to flow nicely. With the help of Grammarly, I no longer have to worry about grammar errors on my pages and check each page for spelling and vocabulary faults.
You can download Grammarly for free on IOS and Windows to run on your browser extension. That way, any text you type can be analyzed and corrected by Grammarly. With the premium function, Grammarly can provide even more suggestions for you to get the best content structure.
Quilt
Got a nice quote or sentence from another source and wish to use it on your site? Well, you can do that by having it scan through Quilbot, which is an AI tool that helps to paraphrase sentences for you. It has features that allow the sentences to be less or more similar so that the sentences do not sound the same.
YEO SEO
YEO SEO tool is used to focus on getting your content to rank well on Google as well as possible. They have a list of requirements that you need to fulfill for the content to be given a green light approval. This tool is great as they show what is the missing information I need in my article and warns if there are any potential errors or lacking information that may cause the article to not do well on Google.
There is also a premium service for YEO SEO. It allows users to get an automatic internal linking to previously written documents and get visitors from Google and other social media platform.
Content Writing AI
Content writing AI has recently blown up all over multiple channels. The most famous and one of the earliest creators of it is Jasper.ai which allows users to get content fully written for them once a headline or keyword is provided for them. However, for my automation of content writing, I use Writesonic because I love how there are multiple features for me to get a lot of my work automated.
Do note that all content writing AI does cost quite a hefty price to have. So if you are in the content writing business. Make sure that your company is making enough profits first before investing in these tools for your work.
Money-Making Tools
The best content writer in the world knows how they can maximize their earnings and profit from the content that they have written. And the crazy part about this is that there are multiple ways for content writers to be making money. So here are the tools that you can use right now to make money as a content writer:
Honorable Mentions
The honorable mentions are tools that I use once in a while to help me with my work.
Canva
Canva is a free online tool for graphic design. You can use it to make logos, presentations, posters, videos, social media posts, and more. If you plan to provide more value to your customer as I do, I always provide a great image thumbnail at the top of the article to showcase what this article is all about. It works well in drawing people’s attention and getting readers curious about it.
Conclusion
There are many apps out there that can help you be a more efficient and productive freelance writer. If you use these tools, you’ll be able to complete more work in less time and spend less energy doing it. You can also help your clients get more done by letting them access your work and editing it from afar.
As a freelancer, you don’t have set hours or a boss to tell you when to get stuff done. You have the freedom to work whenever you want. However, that also means you have to be dedicated enough to work on your dreams to stick to work on your content to avoid a 9-to-5 lifestyle.
