If you’ve ever had to write a post for your company’s blog, you can probably relate:
Though it’s safe to say that writing for the web gets easier over time, it’s reassuring to know there are plenty of free blog writing tools available to help with everything from archiving idea fodder to selecting topics to choosing the right title for your blog post.
Agility PR Solutions has curated five eight of our favorite (and free) blog writing tools that you can use to get your creative juices flowing, and hopefully knock your next blog post out of the park.
AllTop
Scratching your head trying to think of a new blog topic? One of the best ways to find inspiration is by seeing what other people are writing about in your space. AllTop curates the top five stories from all related online sources, allowing you to quickly and easily identify topics to which you can add your own spin.
Grammarly
Nothing beats a second set of eyes on your work, but you can easily minimize potential errors with this powerful productivity app. Grammarly is free to use and has a convenient Chrome plug-in—scouring any editable text box for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. The app will let you know when you’re too wordy, or that you’ve chosen the wrong word altogether. If you’re looking for more functionality, Grammarly will offer alternative suggestions for these errors if you upgrade to a (paid) premium account.
Though it doesn’t work with Google Docs yet, Grammarly is definitely worth a download.
Hemingway App
Find you’re using a lot of flowery language? Have a hard time getting to the point? Once you’ve written your piece, try pasting it into Hemingway App. Like the great writer himself, you too can learn to write precise and concise copy. It just takes a little patience — and a lot of practice.
Use your own judgment with Hemingway App, though. Not all of the changes it suggests are mandatory or necessary.
Coffitivity
Finding motivation to write is all about being in the “right mindset”. Getting there is another story.
Music can either be too loud or too distracting (I won’t lie, I too am guilty of blasting Adele and feeling more sadness than motivation). And if you decide to forego music, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to your surroundings (and that kindhearted coworker who laughs a little too loud).
It’s all about finding a balance.
There’s a reason why some professionals opt to work in a café-like area to keep focused and on-task. Enter Coffitivity: a white noise application that mimics the sounds of a busy café. Users can choose between a variety of settings, depending on their preferences. It’s like being at Starbucks without actually having to spend money at a Starbucks. Pure heaven.
Awesome Titles
The final (or first) piece to any great article — and probably one of the most difficult — is creating a title. Creative writing is a little more lenient this way—you don’t need to consider SEO, length, or any other restrictions typically placed on blog post titles.
Finding a way to concisely summarize the contents of your article, whilst keeping your keywords in mind, can be a difficult task. Creating clickbait is considered a big no-no, and a title that’s too long and technical is…well…unappealing.
Awesome Titles takes your keyword and does all of the thinking for you, producing nearly 700 results to cherry-pick from.
Like any generator there will be ideas that just don’t make sense, but it’s a great starting point when hunting for the perfect headline for your blog post.
Evernote
It’s been described as a digital file cabinet, allowing you to jot down and store your thoughts, notes, tasks, ideas, recipes…whatever.
It’s a universal inbox, where you can store anything and everything in one place. Have an idea for a blog post? Throw it in. Got an intro but nothing else? Throw it in! Nice image that you feel you might use in the future? That’s right – throw it in.
Evernote also integrates with just about everything, meaning there are extensions by which you can save entire web pages and emails.
Evernote allows you to archive anything. And that can be very useful.
(For a more in-depth look at note-taking apps — and a comparison of three top dogs — head over to Cloudwards.)
Draft
Draft is a no-nonsense writing and editing tool. It bills itself as “easy version control and collaboration to improve your writing”.
It’s like Google Docs, only simpler.
It also has a magic “Ask a Professional” button. With a single click, your draft is sent to a staff of reviewers for suggested edits.
And all of us could use a little magic like that.
Instapaper
Like Pinterest for articles and videos.
Instapaper allows you to save, read, mark up, and essentially manage the fabulous things you find on the internet. It automatically syncs these things up with all your devices, so you can access them anytime, even when you’re offline.
It’s a read-it-later bookmarking app that will be invaluable when it comes to tracking all those pieces of blog inspiration. (And — surprise! — it’s actually owned by Pinterest.)
What are your favorite blog writing tools? Do you have any suggestions for the list? Let us know in the comments below.
This post was originally published in October 2015 under the title “Boost your blog writing with these 5 free tools”. Special thanks to Jimmy Daly for inspiring us to add the last three.
