Leveraging content writer tools are critical for making a successful freelance career as a long-form writer.
Here are the essential pieces of writing software you need in your arsenal:
- AI writing software has made it possible for writers to create 500-word blogs in a matter of minutes. That’s not an exaggeration.
- SEO tools guide writers in producing search-engine-optimized written content that ranks on search engines to put you and your client in front of your target audience on Google.
- Writing assistants like Grammarly Premium are like having a virtual proofreader and editor looking over your shoulder. These tools have taken my error rate down to virtually 1%.
- Dictation and Transcription Services have allowed writers to speak their words into being instead of writing them. This makes writing 10x easier for new writers, especially because we all speak more than we write –– therefore, its way easier to speak our work than write it.
- Curation and note-taking software like Evernote so you can capture and organize your writing ideas, resources, references, links, and notes –– the moment they cross your mind.
In my professional career, these tools:
- Cut the time it takes me to write a long-form piece of content by 50-80%. What used to take 8-12 hours without pre-software, I can now generate thousands of well-composed words in around 1-4 hours.
- Get mine and my clients’ content to rank on page one of Google. Which has resulted in tons of new traffic, leads, and clients for them and myself.
- Word-smith up and edit my writing at a fraction of the cost of hiring a proofreader or editor.
- Expedite, streamline, simplify, and organize every aspect of my entire content writing process.
TLDR: If you just want the links to the tools, skip to the end of this post. My feelings will be everso slightly singed, but I’ll survive. 😉
FAQs about Content Writer Tools
If you’re new to writing, you’re probably wondering
- Isn’t using software and AI cheating?
- Are AI writers really that good?
- Will leaning on these tools stunt my growth as a writer?
- Shouldn’t I just start with a blank page like other writers start?
To answer your questions in order: No, a resounding “YES,” no, and no.
The truth is, you can’t hack great writing skills. You have to build them.
However, most new writers don’t know is you can forge all the skills you need and start making good money writing in a fraction of the time most writers do.
It took me around 7-8 years, a lot of trial, error, undercharging, and mistakes to get here.
These tools (along with my book, courses, and the rest of the content this site, hint hint) will get you confidently writing and closing clients in 3-4 months.
Remember, the primary goal of this website is to get you good enough at writing so you can start making money as soon as possible. That’s the catalyst and momentum you’ll need to incentivize you to continue to learn, grow, and sharpen your skills as a writer.
Writing is a lifelong learning journey, but we all need money to exist. Our goal is to
- Level up your writing skills quickly over 3-4 months. 6 on the long end.
- Leverage these tools to produce the best, performance writing of your life.
- Close your first clients to put some money in your pocket.
- Continue to sharpen the pencil, refine the process, and make more money.
These tools will give you the skills and results you need to start closing clients and charging for your writing as soon as humanly possible.
Check out this list of top content writer tools to help launch or grow your freelance writing career.
1) Top AI Writing Software for Content Writers
If you’ve been on this blog long enough, you already know I’m a HUGE fan of these.
AI writing software is changing the landscape of content writer tools. With the help of artificial intelligence, these tools can do everything from generating topic ideas for your next article to full social posts, sales copy, email headlines, blog titles, blog outlines, introduction paragraphs, conclusive statements, bulleted lists of benefits, rewriting existing content, condensing large blocks or texts, and even writing totally unique, plagiarism free fiction.
Can you believe that?
I couldn’t until I started using them.
Here are a few of the top AI content writer tools on the market:
Jasper.AI is an AI content writing tool that helps you write everything from introductory hooks and catchy blog or content titles to full paragraphs and pages of content in just minutes. It has too many benefits and use cases to list here, so you’ll just have to check them out yourself.
Copy.AI is another AI content writing tool that is another all-inclusive AI writing suite like Jasper. Check out their use cases at the end of this blog for more information.
PepperType.AI is another great ai content writing tool that uses AI leverages AI to help you write impeccable long and short-form content. It can also create everything from blog topic ideas to SEO meta information for your content, along with full paragraphs of AI writing.
Rytr.Me is a budget-friendly AI content writing tool that helps you with every imaginable aspect of long-form content and blog writing. They also have a handy Google Chrome extension, so you can take your writing AI into Google Docs, Gmail, and more.
See my Top 10: AI Writing Generator Software blog for more information.
2) Best Writing Assistant Software
Writing assistant software is designed to help you with writing mechanics, such as grammar, style, and spelling. They are essential when it comes to correcting and minimizing mistakes in terms of grammar, punctuation, phrasing, plagiarism, and much more.
Here are a few of the top content writer tools in this category:
Grammarly’s free version offers basic grammar and spelling checking. However, for more advanced features, you’ll need to upgrade to Grammarly Premium.
Grammarly Premium is a grammar checker that can help you with everything from finding typos to fixing grammatical errors. Grammarly Premium also offers a plagiarism checker to help you ensure that your content is original. Even if you aren’t using sources in your writing, it’s wild how frequently you can unintentionally plagiarize content. In this case, it’s not your fault. It’s just due to the pure depth and vastness of content on the internet. Try the free version first and see what you think, but in my experience, paid has been worth every penny and way more.
Pro Writing Aid is a writing assistant that helps you with grammar, style, and spelling. It’s very similar to Grammarly, but based on their ratings online, some writers say that it is more robust (and less expensive) than Grammarly premium. It also provides you with 20 reports that help you analyze, understand, and improve your writing.
Hemingway Editor is a writing assistant that helps you with grammar, style, and readability. Hemingway Editor also offers you tips on how to make your writing as easy to read as possible.
Word Tune is a free writing assistant and Google Chrome Extension that helps rewrite and rephrase words and sentences to improve the clarity and power of your writing.
3) SEO Content Writer Tools
SEO tools are essential software on the content writer tools list. With the help of these tools, you can optimize your content for search engines so that it’s more likely to rank on Google.
Here are a few of the top content writer SEO tools:
Google Trends is a basic tool that shows how certain keywords and topics are trending online over the long and short term. It’s a super helpful tool for spotting popular topics before you dive deep into keyword research.
Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool that can help you find keyword and content ideas and optimize your content for search engines. It is a keyword research tool that helps you find keywords that are relevant to your content, and gauges the competition around those keywords.
Screaming Frog is a full-suite SEO auditing tool that mostly helps you find and fix on-page SEO issues. If you couldn’t tell already, I highly recommend you pick up some SEO and marketing skills as a freelance writer. It’s a total skill and income multiplier.
SEMrush is an all-in-one marketing toolkit that offers everything from keyword research to competitive analysis and content optimization. SEMrush also offers a content analyzer to help you make sure your content is optimized for search engines.
Ahrefs is an all-in-one marketing toolkit that offers everything from keyword research to competitive analysis and content optimization. Like SEMrush, Ahrefs also offers a content analyzer to help you make sure your content is optimized for search engines. Ahrefs and SEMrush are the industry leaders in comprehensive SEO software.
WordPress Content Writer Tools for SEO
Between 30-40% of all websites online are built on WordPress. That being said, these are essential content writer tools you should familiarize yourself with.
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that helps you with everything from keyword research to content optimization. Yoast SEO also offers a content analyzer to help you make sure your content is easy to find online. It is a WordPress plugin that helps you with on-page SEO, such as title tags and meta descriptions. Yoast offers both free and paid versions, both of which are industry-leading.
Rank Math is another helpful SEO plugin for WordPress that offers features like content analysis, keyword research, and SERP tracking. Rank Math, like Yoast, also offers a content analyzer to help you optimize your content for search engines.
All in One SEO (AIO SEO) is another WordPress plugin that assists writers with all aspects of on-page and written SEO. AIO SEO, Rank Math, and Yoast all offer the same core features, with some unique value propositions. I got my start on Yoast, but have since moved to AIO SEO and have been loving it.
4) Dictation and Transcription Services for Writers
Why are dictation and transcription software critical content writer tools?
What do we do way more often than we write? We speak.
It’s way easier for most of us (myself included) to speak our words than to write them.
We may write one or two thousand words a day, but most of us speak between 7,000 to 15,000 words per day. For most of us, speaking is more natural than writing, which is why it often produces a better end result
So why speak to a dictation and transcription software and let it write for you?
Here are some helpful dictation and transcription software you can start using today:
Google Docs Dictation is a free online dictation tool that can be used to transcribe your content right into Google Docs. No installs necessary. All you have to do is open a Google Doc and go to “Tools” –> “Voice Typing” and you’re good to go.
Otter.AI is a dictation and transcription service that helps content writers save time by transcribing their audio files. With Otter.AI, content writers can transcribe their interviews, podcasts, voice recordings, and more.
Loom is a screen and voice recording tool that content writers can use to create video tutorials, how-to guides, and so much more. With Loom, content writers can easily create engaging content that is easy to follow and understand. Most importantly, Loom has a stellar transcription service, so instead of writing, you can literally just speak your words into the mic on your headset or computer and let Loom record your words for you.
Temi is another reliable dictation and transcription service that content writers can use to save time.
Rev.com is very similar to Temi. It is a full transcription service that content writers can use to transcribe their audio files. With Rev.com, content writers can transcribe their audio recordings, audio files, interviews, podcast recordings, and more.
Noota is a newer dictation and transcription service I came across on AppSumo. It helps content writers save time by transcribing their audio files, but has a ton of other valuable features like recording video meetings and generating live subtitles in different languages.
Bonus: Want to level up your freelance writing business and value offering to your clients right now? Why not use these tools and pitch yourself as an interview-based blog writer?
You can even use these tools to level up your business and create a unique value proposition for your clients by offering interview-based blogs and content writing.
- Get a free account on Otter.AI.
- Have your client email you the top 10 to 20+ FAQs they get from their clients.
- Schedule a call with them in which you record your questions and their answers in a Q and A style interview session.
Congrats! You just potentially just created 10 to 20 or more blogs or content pieces in your clients voice that you just need to clean up, edit, and publish to their website.
5) Content Curation Tools
Content curation tools help writers capture and organize thoughts, ideas, content, and research from around the web. Here are a few of the top content writer tools in this category.
Since all of these are fairly similar yet bring their own unique value to the table as well, I’ll leave these here for you to investigate:
- Evernote
- Google Keep
I use Evernote the most by far. The free version comes with plenty of cloud storage, and they have a chrome extension so you can clip websites, articles, emails, and pages from the web, straight to your Evernote. I also have it on my phone, so I can clip there as well.
Any time I have an idea or stumble across a quote, article, concept, ad, ad copy, video, or anything writing or marketing related that catches my eye –– I clip it to my marketing and writing notepad in Evernote.
If you stick to this process for 6-12 months, you can have a world-class toolkit for writing, and you’ll never forget any of your great ideas!
6) Social Media Tools for Content Writer Tools
As a content writer, you need to be active on social media to promote your work, build your brand, attract clients, and grow your business. It’s also a great way to connect with other writers and build your professional network.
Furthermore, social media writing jobs are some of the most abundantly available solid paying, and lowest barrier to entry contract, part-time, or full-time jobs in today’s job market. Look into them on Indeed, LinkedIn, Fiverr, Glassdoor, Upwork, and other freelance networks.
Here are a few standard content writer tools to help you pick up some social media skills and boost your own social media presence:
- Hootsuite
- Buffer
- Sprout Social
I also find a lot of great social media scheduling, automation, and analytics tools on AppSumo.com.
At any given time, they’ll have a handful of unbelievably low-priced, lifetime-access social media tools. I snatched up PromoRepublic, Radaar, and Sociamonials –– each of which were the equilvant of one month’s subscription price to any of the above three pieces of software. I think I paid between $49-$69, one-time (not monthly) for lifetime access to each of these.
Recommendations for Content Writers at Every Budget
So, where do I go from here?
If you are just learning how to write and want or need to get your writing to a place where it’s getting you clients and making you money as fast as possible, I totally get it. to become an elite content writer or blog writer with all the software you need to creat performance, long-form writing, here’s what I recommend:
- AI Writing: Test out free trials of all the AI writing software I mentioned in this article. See which one you like best and/or fits your budget, subscribe, pay, and practice writing with it every day.
- Writing Assistant: If you’re on a budget, use Grammarly’s free version plus Hemingway editor to spot-check your writing. I’d highly recommend either upgrading to Grammarly Premium, or investing in Pro Writing Aid to minimize mistakes and maximize your writing quality.
- SEO Tools: Use all the free tools you can from this article. Your future clients will likely have WordPress sites, so get comfortable using those SEO plug-ins and tools as well. If you can, invest in the less expensive plans for SEMrush or Ahrefs. Start learning how to use all of these by reading tutorials online (there are tons of great ones) and by watching videos on YouTube. You can learn anything on YouTube.
- Transcription and Dictation Software: If you’re new to writing and more comfortable speaking than writing, get a free account on Otter.AI and Loom. Right now, Otter.AI gives free account users get up to 600 minutes per month transcribed for free. Try dictating your blogs and long-form content to see how you like it.
- Research and Curation: Get a free account on Evernote. Use it for capturing research and ideas for your blogs. Use the Evernote Chrome extension to clip any kind of writing online that you like, is unique, or gets your attention. In 6 months, you’ll have a world-class reference library and repertoire of writing templates you can start using in your own writing.
In Closing
These are a few of the top content writer tools to help you with your content writing. Do you have any content writer tools that you would recommend? Please share in the comments below.
And if you’re ready to kickstart your content writing career, be sure to download my free ebook of the 20 Highest Paying Jobs for Freelance Writers.
References:
Best Writing Assistant Software
- https://www.grammarly.com/
- https://prowritingaid.com/en/App/Desktop
- https://hemingwayapp.com/
- https://www.wordtune.com/
AI Writing Software
SEO Tools
- https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US
- https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/
- https://ahrefs.com/
- https://www.semrush.com/
- https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
- https://yoast.com/
- https://rankmath.com/
- https://aioseo.com/
Content Curation Software
Social Media Software
Dictation and Transcription Software for Writers