45 Free Content material Writing Instruments to Love [for Writing, Editing & Content Creation]

Creating content material is not at all times a stroll within the park. (The truth is, it may possibly typically really feel extra like attempting to swim towards the present.)

Whereas different components of enterprise and advertising have gotten more and more automated, content material creation remains to be a really handbook job.

That being mentioned, there are many instruments on the market to make creating content material a lot simpler.

Under, you will discover a record of 36 implausible instruments and assets that will help you analysis, write, edit, and design content material extra simply. (You will discover there are a whole lot of design instruments in right here — that is as a result of visible content material is usually the a part of the content material creation course of the place individuals get essentially the most nervous and annoyed. So don’t fret, we have got a ton in there for you.)

Let’s get began.

36 Free Instruments & Assets to Make Content material Creation Simpler

For Researchers

1) Google Drive Analysis Software

Google just lately added a device to Drive that permits you to conduct Google searches with out ever leaving your Drive window. All it’s a must to do is click on “Instruments” from the menu bar and select “Analysis” from the dropdown menu.

2) Web site:search

This can be a useful Google hack I exploit each day. Principally, it permits you to do a Google search that is restricted to a selected web site.

For instance, if I needed to go looking HubSpot’s weblog for advertising assets so I can cite one among our outdated weblog posts, I might do a web site:seek for weblog.hubspot.com with the search time period advertising assets. The method for web site search is web site:samplewebsite.com [search query]. So my instance can be web site:weblog.hubspot.com advertising assets.

3) Google Webmaster Instruments

Doing website positioning and key phrase analysis? Your advertising software program ought to be capable of assist. But when it may possibly’t (otherwise you’d like to reinforce your information), Google’s Webmaster Instruments could be a nice assist. You possibly can verify issues just like the variety of listed pages in your web site, submit your web site to Google so that you’re getting crawled and listed, and even disavow unhealthy inbound hyperlinks. It additionally can provide you info on search queries which have a big quantity of impressions however low clickthrough fee.

Inside Google Webmaster Instruments, go to “Your web site on the net” and select “Search queries.” You will see a desk exhibiting a search question, impressions, clicks, and clickthrough fee (CTR). Evaluating this information to your different analytics information may help uncover some alternatives.

4) Proportion Change Calculator

I can not even start to let you know how helpful this little calculator is when in search of and analyzing information. Ever need to know the share change of two values with out having to recollect the method? Merely enter the 2 values into this calculator, and it will spit out the share change. Belief me, you will need to bookmark this one.

Listed below are just a few different useful calculators:

• 3-Method Proportion Calculator – Calculates solutions to those questions: What’s X% of Y? X is what % of Y? X is Y% of what?
• Conversion Price Calculator – Spits out a conversion fee while you enter the entire customer depend throughout a selected time-frame and the variety of instances throughout that time-frame these guests took a selected motion.
• A/B Take a look at Calculator – Works for a primary state of affairs with two teams of individuals (A & B) who get to see one model of your web site and for whom you observe the variety of conversions or objectives (purchases, downloads, clickthroughs, and many others.).
• ROI Calculator – Analyzes your web site’s month-to-month gross sales and lead era efforts to find out methods during which advertising efforts may be optimized.

5) Atlas

Atlas is Quartz‘s information middle, and it is chock-full of graphs, charts, and information visualizations. You possibly can seek for nearly any matter or key phrase, and Atlas could have a graphic primarily based on current analysis information for you. This can be a useful gizmo to get background info on a subject you are researching, or to seek out contemporary information to make use of in a venture you are engaged on. This is a chart primarily based on information from early 2016:

Supply: Atlas

6) Search in a Giphy

You recognize that coworker who at all times appears to seek out the proper animated GIFs to your social posts or inside chat shopper? With the free Giphy Chrome extension, you’ll discover nice GIFs simply as shortly.

To make use of the device, all it’s a must to do is open the extension in Chrome, search, select a GIF, and drag and drop. To this point, the device works in Gmail, Twitter, Fb, and extra — and so they’re always increasing help.

For Writers

7) Evernote

I exploit the free model of Evernote each single day. From to-do lists and analysis notes to writing whole chunks of articles, it is confirmed useful at each step of the writing and modifying course of.

One nice function? Its cell, desktop, and net apps sync robotically so long as you have got an web connection. (And if you happen to work offline, it’s going to sync the subsequent time you have got web.) Plus — and that is tremendous essential for content material creators like us — it is always saving and syncing your work robotically, making it a protected place to jot down and retailer concepts.

Use it to maintain a operating record of concepts, take notes, retailer inspiring articles or ebooks, or plan your editorial and social media publishing calendars.

8) Word2CleanHTML

Should you like drafting weblog posts in applications like Microsoft Phrase, Evernote, or Google Drive as an alternative of your content material administration system (CMS), then this easy device may be your greatest pal. Why? As a result of while you copy a doc from Microsoft Workplace and paste it into your CMS, a number of little, bizarre formatting points can crop up in your HTML.

Word2CleanHTML applies filters to repair all these issues added into the HTML, leading to well-formatted HTML you’ll be able to paste straight into an online web page CMS. Merely paste in your draft, click on one button, after which copy the ensuing HTML straight from the device. If you paste that into your CMS (most could have buttons studying “HTML” or “</>” of their device bar above your draft), it is going to seem good and clear. No hair-pulling or swimming by code required.

9) WordCounter

There is no such thing as a “proper reply” for how lengthy a weblog submit needs to be. So long as it serves its objective — whether or not that is thought management, driving leads, explaining a brand new idea, or one thing else — size would not matter. However though we do not advocate writing weblog posts with a phrase depend in thoughts, typically phrase depend can come in useful. WordCounter works precisely the way in which you assume it does: Paste in your content material and it will spit out precisely what number of phrases you have got.

10) Cofftivity

In keeping with a examine out of the College of Chicago, “A reasonable stage of ambient noise is conducive to inventive cognition.” In different phrases, being the tiniest bit distracted truly helps you be extra inventive. That is why for many individuals, myself included, white noise helps promote focus.

There are a whole lot of white noise mills on the market, however my favourite is Cofftivity. This specific one affords continuous café background sounds at various intensities, from “Morning Murmur” and “College Undertones” to “Lunchtime Lounge” and “Brazil Bistro.” It is obtainable on the net and as an app on iOS and Android.

11) & 12) Zerys & eLance

Want to start out creating content material however haven’t got the bandwidth? We hear about this roadblock rather a lot. One solution to get round it’s by hiring freelancers from respected marketplaces like Zerys or eLance. These assets offer you entry to expert freelance writers who can write weblog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, and different items of written content material for you.

13) HTML Hacks for Entrepreneurs

Whereas this is not strictly a writing useful resource, primary coding data is shortly changing into vital ability for the trendy marketer — bloggers and written content material creators included. However studying from scratch may be daunting. The place on earth do you begin?

Should you’re a complete newbie, begin with HTML Hacks for Entrepreneurs, which my colleagues at HubSpot created with Codeacademy. It will train you fast however helpful hacks anybody — no matter coding data — can use of their advertising. For instance, you will learn to make small modifications to HTML like altering headers and spacing, creating textual content in block-quote type, and inserting social share hyperlinks. My private favourite is the hack to vary font colours.

As soon as you have mastered these primary HTML expertise, transfer on to Codeacademy’s free interactive programs. They discovered a solution to make studying HTML and CSS truly enjoyable — and you’ll undergo every lesson at your individual tempo.

14) Weblog Matter Generator

If it’s essential get to writing weblog posts however aren’t certain of an angle or title to get your creativity shifting, HubSpot’s Weblog Matter Generator can do the be just right for you. Merely enter just a few key phrases that your weblog focuses on, and the Weblog Matter Generator will produce every week’s value of titles and matter concepts for you. It may not produce the ultimate title of your weblog submit, however it helps get you desirous about inventive new angles for subjects you have written about earlier than.

Listed below are the weblog submit titles I obtained once I entered “content material,” “inbound advertising,” and “running a blog”:

15) Weblog Put up Templates

All weblog posts aren’t created equal, however we have discovered that there are steps you’ll be able to take to make your posts complete and shareable. With these weblog submit templates, we’ll stroll you thru an overview to jot down profitable how-to, listicle, newsjack, and curation weblog posts. As an alternative of ranging from scratch, you will save time and, hopefully, nail your weblog objectives.

For Content material Editors

16) Editorial Calendar Template

Making a balanced editorial calendar may be powerful, particularly if you do not have one centralized calendar that you just and your crew can seek advice from. To save lots of you time and headache, we have created editorial calendar templates for Google Calendar, Google Sheets, and Excel that you could fill in and share together with your crew to start out the subsequent month or yr off on the best foot.

17) & 18) Grammarly & Correctica

Whereas human editors will be capable of catch most grammatical errors, modifying instruments like Grammarly and Correctica are nice instruments for triple-checking earlier than you press “publish” or “ship.” Each free instruments verify for grammatical errors — and Grammarly even checks for plagiarism.

19) Hemingway App

Ernest Hemingway, admired for his succinct writing type, is the namesake for this useful modifying app. Wish to make your written content material simpler to learn? Paste your content material into this free net app, and it will assess your writing and establish alternatives to make it less complicated.

My favourite options embody figuring out passive voice and hard-to-read sentences. Try the right-hand facet of the screenshot under, the place the device has summed up how readable my writing is with a grade. (Some room for enchancment right here.) Their suggestion to enhance readability total? Shoot for decrease than a tenth grade studying stage.

20) Headline Analyzer

This is a scary stat for you: Solely 60% of people that click on into an article find yourself studying previous the headline. That makes your headline each the primary and probably the one likelihood so that you can compel readers to maintain studying — so it’s very value it to spend the additional jiffy developing with a very good one.

What does a very good headline seem like? The free device Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule can let you know. It scores your headline high quality and charges its skill to drive social shares, site visitors, and website positioning worth. In my expertise, its power helps you strengthen particular elements of your title. For instance, it experiences on perceived sentiment and commonality of phrase varieties. It will even present you the way it will seem in search outcomes.

So though it is best to take these scores and grades with a grain of salt, you need to use this to present your headlines a “once-over.” (And learn this weblog submit to study extra about writing superior headlines.)

For Designers

21) Nimbus Screenshot

That is one other device I exploit each day. Positive, you’ll be able to seize a screenshot of your whole display screen or a part of your display screen utilizing the outdated keyboard shortcut technique. However what if you would like your screenshot to incorporate stuff that is not seen in your display screen?

Nimbus Screenshot allows you to seize the seen a part of an online web page, a specific space, a specific scroll (my private favourite), your entire web page, or your entire browser window — together with all the pieces under the fold.

As soon as you have taken the screenshot, you’ll be able to crop, edit (like including notes and callouts), and select to print or save to your desktop or Google Drive.

22) Canva

Should you like creating lovely visible content material in a very brief period of time, you will love Canva. The time and assets it takes to study design, pay for design belongings, and/or get impressed to create magnificence from scratch may be actually troublesome while you’re looking at an extended record of to-dos — however Canva affords an enormous library of pre-made templates and belongings that you could manipulate whereas additionally including your individual imagery.

Better of all, they’ve so many belongings and graphics obtainable without cost that you just will not should pay a cent if you happen to do not need to. If you wish to use extra “premium” belongings and graphics discovered by their picture search, they’re going to cost you $1 for every. However there’s loads of worth without cost.

This is an instance of one thing you can make:

23) ThingLink

Ever needed to make a picture (or infographic) clickable? ThingLink allows you to add a picture and add little icons to it that seem when an individual hovers their cursor over the picture. These icons enable customers to go to hyperlinks, watch movies, or learn messages you have written. Plus, it is easy to share: Customers can simply embed ThingLink pictures. (Click on right here for step-by-step directions.)

Under is a part of a a clickable infographic from Thinglink my colleague Ginny Mineo created for one other submit:

 

24) Skitch

Skitch is a free app by Evernote that helps you talk extra visually. It allows you to mark up pictures, digital belongings, PDFs, and different information with arrows, callout bins, textual content, and extra multi function place.

Within the instance under, I opened this system on my desktop and used the “Display Snap” button to take a screenshot of an online web page — which then opened proper in Skitch for modifying and exporting.

Though it is free, it does require you to open an Evernote account — however that is additionally free (see above).

25) Infogram

Whereas much like Canva, Infogram is a visible content material device that focuses on serving to you create infographics, charts, and information visualization. Should you prefer to create charts utilizing Microsoft Excel, you are in luck — it additionally affords compatibility with Excel by Infogram Charts. Additionally, their infographics are responsive with cell units.

26) Infographic Templates

As a content material marketer, you may really feel extra snug creating written content material than visible content material, however that is no excuse to exclude infographics out of your technique. Visible content material is rising in demand out of your viewers, and infographics are significantly shareable. We have created the backbones of 15 totally different templates that you could simply mess around with to customise to your content material and viewers — this is a sneak peek of 1 template, and you’ll seize the remaining right here. 

Supply: 15 Free Infographic Templates in PowerPoint

27) Google Fonts

Wish to spruce up your web site pages, shows, ebooks, and different content material with cool and totally different new fonts? Little-known reality: Google has a listing of 600 free fonts prepared so that you can obtain and use.

Merely discover and choose the fonts you want from their listing, then click on “Use” to get the HTML code you’ll be able to copy and paste onto your web site. Alternatively, you’ll be able to obtain the fonts to your desktop and use them when making new advertising content material by clicking “Add to Assortment.” (Click on right here for step-by-step directions for doing this within the HubSpot software program.)

28) Picture Shade Picker

Do not forget that time you needed to match your call-to-action design to that colour you had been utilizing on all of your occasion swag … however the one one that would know what that colour was did not work at your organization anymore? Subsequent time that occurs, snag an image of that swag and add it to ImageColorPicker.com, or use any picture URL to do the identical factor. Choose any level of the image, and instantly see its corresponding HEX, RGB, and HSV values.

29) PowerPoint Templates

Is there something extra boring than a PowerPoint presentation that includes black textual content on a white background? With the assistance of those templates, you’ll put collectively compelling, visually interesting shows. Whether or not you are driving lead era or reporting in your weblog’s progress to your crew, preserve your viewers’s consideration with these eye-catching shows.

30) SlideShare Templates

SlideShare would not must be daunting. You possibly can simply create shareable, embeddable SlideShare shows in PowerPoint with the assistance of those templates — no want to start out from scratch or rent a freelancer. As soon as you have created your first presentation, try our information to advertising SlideShares efficiently.

31) Haiku Deck

Should you’ve ever needed to create a PowerPoint or SlideShare presentation in a pinch, you will want you knew about Haiku Deck. This device helps you shortly discover easy layouts, lovely pictures, and nice fonts. It is obtainable for the net and for iPad.

Wish to see what one appears to be like like? Under’s an instance I pulled from their record of featured decks. Notice the simplicity of the design — if you wish to create tremendous detailed slides, this will not be the best device for you.

Snowed In? – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software program that conjures up

32) HubSpot’s Free Inventory Images

Trying to find and shopping for inventory imagery could be a ache within the you-know-what — particularly in the case of deciphering legalese for various use circumstances. I’ve a liberal arts diploma, and Nietzsche was simpler to learn than no matter legalese inventory imagery firms tended to present me. All I needed to know is whether or not to quote or not cite a inventory picture of a laptop computer. Why was it so exhausting?

That is why our crew determined to create a library of 550+ free and royalty-free inventory photographs. Whether or not it is a distinctive picture wanted for an book or that excellent photograph you need to add to a weblog submit, that assortment ought to have you ever lined. This is one among our “across the kitchen” inventory photographs — yum.

Supply: The Free Inventory Images You’ve got Been Looking out For

33) PlaceIt

PlaceIt serves a really particular objective: It permits you to add pictures of your web site or product into real-world environments of individuals holding telephones, tablets, and laptops. PlaceIt will robotically alter the picture to make it seem pure with the angle of the telephone’s display screen — which can prevent time studying and/or modifying in additional superior software program to get the angle proper.

You will should pay per picture to get actually giant or high-resolution variations, although I’ve discovered free pictures work simply high-quality for weblog posts and product web page content material. The paid downloads additionally take away that PlaceIt watermark from the underside proper.

34) LICEcap

On the lookout for the proper GIF to incorporate in your weblog submit? If it would not exist already on Giphy, you may make one your self utilizing LICEcap. Movie a screenshot and switch it right into a GIF utilizing this useful, free device — we use LICEcap for our weblog posts, too. 

35) & 36) The Noun Mission & HubSpot’s Resizable Icons Assortment

Like with inventory photographs, one other problem content material creators face is discovering elegant icons that resize with out getting all fuzzy. There are just a few assets on the market for nice, resizable icons.

The Noun Mission is an intensive library of hundreds of icons uploaded by contributors. With a free account, you need to use icons so long as you both give credit score to the creator or buy them royalty-free for $1.99 apiece.

HubSpot has a library of resizeable icons, too, which you’ll be able to obtain without cost and with none licensing or attribution. The equipment comes with a free information for methods to change the colour of the icons utilizing PowerPoint, Photoshop, and Illustrator.

To that, we are saying …

(From HubSpot’s Free Icon Assortment.)