If you are a new writer or you are tackling blogging or writing online for the first time from more traditional disciplines, these are tools that will help lighten your workload, give your work some pizazz and help you edit.
Grammarly
Grammarly is a tool that you can use as a website or download from your browser. You can pay for add-on features that edit in a very human manner, catching deeper issues with tone. You can also use Grammarly for free and it edits word usage, spelling, the potential emotional outcome of your audience, and a host of other very handy elements that can guide your process in real-time. Grammarly also features.
You can use Grammarly to see engagement potential, delivery mistakes, and other uniquely human elements that you would otherwise need to reach out to an editor for. Grammarly, in that sense, is also handy for editors as well as writers and can be used throughout the creative process. My one complaint with Grammarly is that it insists upon the oxford comma, which is an agent of pretentiousness. You will note that I am using Grammarly and thus victimized by the Oxford comma because my OCD disallows me to leave a red error on the screen.
Hemingway Editor
The Hemingway Editor is a finely tuned web-based editor that uses AI to scale your writing based on audience age, readability, logic, and structure. This editor is more adept at helping you find your voice and understand the impact of your writing on the audience. Hemingway highlights different issues with your piece in a colour-coded system. It also has a handy word count on the side. You can write inside of Hemingway, but as a pro-tip, I suggest writing your work into google docs or your word program first, then copying the work into the website just to avoid crashes where you lose everything.
Copyright Free Pictures
Blogs and online articles need visuals in order to appeal to online audiences. I don’t write the rules. You might find yourself wondering where to find them. As a new writer, it is especially important to save costs until your work serves you financially. Websites like Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash can be especially helpful in this endeavour.
Plenty of stock photo sites exist, some have free elements and others have pay-to-use elements that have rules attached for how they can be used. The website I’ve listed are safe, you can find what you need and you don’t have to be concerned with copyright infringement.
Google Trends
As a search engine optimization tool, Google Trends is hard to beat. The largest search engine keeps a database of what phrases or concepts are being searched by the minute, where they are being searched in the United States, and what is popular. If you are trying to be on trend or catch a popular topic, Google Trends is quite handy. You can also use Google Trends as a kind of passive writing prompt. When you get to the landing page, the site shows you what is currently trending and what has recently trended.
Free traffic is a key player in drawing people to your blog. Driving content is important. Catching the right SEO wave on Medium is challenging and gaining more attention for your work can contribute to your success both on this site and if you host your own blog, YouTube channel or podcast.
Using Pinterest to create pins, duplicate them and then run them at timed intervals of your choosing is a powerful move for visibility. Create a free Pinterest business account that will let you track your stats and see what is working for you and what is not. Most professional bloggers use Pinterest to drive traffic to their sites and many say that is more powerful than paid ads. Grab a copyright-free picture or short video from the sites I’ve listed and get started pinning.
What tools have you used that have helped you write? Any suggestions for new writers as they learn to navigate online work? Let us know in the comments below and feel free to get to know each other!
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