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There are a lot of tools, websites and apps out there to help you produce great, well-written blog posts. I could spend hours writing a huge list of all the ones I’ve found over the years but here’s the truth. I use hardly any of them! In fact, after many years of blogging, I’ve finessed my list down to eight tools that I use when writing blog posts. So, I’m going to talk about those today. Because they really are my favourite tools for writing blog posts!
Gathering the ideas
Answer the Public is a website I’ve only discovered in recent months. It’s an ideas generator of massive proportions. Tap in your keyword and, in a few moments, a stack of questions based around that keyword will be generated for you to peruse and choose your favourites. Because we all struggle to find the ideas sometimes, so why not use a tool like this to help?
ClickUp is my new best friend. It’s actually a fab combination of the lists and boards of Trello, and the functionality of Todoist in one beautiful place and I love it so much! I use it for all my business organising stuff. I have a whole space for Content management, which is where I collate all my ideas for blog posts.
Writing the posts
Google Docs is my go-to for keeping any documentation I want to access from everywhere in one place. I write all my blog posts in docs because it means I can write on the move without worrying about if I have my hard drive with me or not. I love that it has the same functionality as Word and autosaves as you’re writing, which is good for forgetful types like me!
Thesaurus.com is a website I utilise a LOT because I am a classic repeater of words. There’s no shame in admitting that. You can’t remember all the words all the time! I sometimes use it because I need a little help finding the perfect word to use or to find an alternative to a well-worn cliche.
Grammarly is an awesome little app with a lot of power and integration abilities, which is why it’s on the list. If it can work for me without having to add an extra step into my workflow, then I am one happy bunny! Grammarly picks up those little grammatical errors you might sometimes miss. It picks up on spelling errors, punctuation problems and much more besides. I love that it syncs to Google Docs as well, and monitors me as I’m writing. There is a paid version which is worth paying for if English is not your strongest subject. But if you’ve got a reasonable command of spelling and grammar and just make the odd mistake, the free version will work fine for you.
Hemingway is perfect for blog post writing because it makes suggestions based on what it considers ‘readable’ text. It definitely has a preference for shorter sentences and a more simplistic approach to writing. This lends itself well to blogs so I tend to only use this app for writing blog posts.
Adding in pictures
As a photographer, I have a lot of thoughts about this subject. But I have come to realise that I cannot take every single photograph for my blog posts, especially now I’m doing a lot more writing! Unsplash provides the perfect little space to get some great images for free to brighten up your blog posts. Be warned though, it’s a popular resource for lots of bloggers and content marketers. So don’t be surprised if you see the same images in multiple places.
Canva is another old friend. It’s an awesome website that allows you to create beautiful headers and images with word overlays that fit in with your branding. It’s a free resource but does have a subscription available, which you might want to consider if you use it a lot.
The bit for Google
Optimising your blog post for Google is an important part of your workflow. You should always spend a bit of time doing this with each of your blog posts. I use Yoast SEO, a free plugin on my WordPress website. It uses a traffic light system to score your blog post and gives you a good idea on how your blog post will rank on Google. I would advise you not to get too hung up on it though. Achieving green-lit posts is not the easiest thing and, in my experience, they don’t typically read well because they are so keyword heavy. As long as you’re not getting red lights, then you’re doing well!
I also use Yoast’s Real-Time Content Analysis which allows you to analyse a post before uploading it to your website. You can run a variety of focus keywords to see what will work best. Just read the assessments below to see what adjustments you need to make to your post to make it sing!
There you go! My favourite tools for writing blog posts after a few years of trial and error. Of course, you don’t have to use all these tools if they don’t work for you. And you may find other tools you prefer to use along the way. If you do, that’s great! After all, one tool does not suit all. Feel free to share your favourite tools in the comments. I’d love to know if there are any out there I haven’t stumbled across yet!