Try these affordable content writing resources to speed up your researching, writing, and editing process.
Let me guess, you’re here because you’ve been told ‘content is king’ but, despite having the same 24 hours as Molly Mae, you’re struggling to find the time to write and publish regularly.
Fortunately, there are plenty of content writing resources out there. These 10 will make brainstorming, researching, and editing your blog post quicker and easier.
(Ps. I haven’t included AI content writing tools – check out this post for my opinion on robot writers)
What is content writing?
Content writing is creating the words for blogs, email newsletters, or social media captions, with a particular audience in mind.
The purpose of content – particularly blog content – is to boost search engine optimisation (SEO). That means researching what people are looking for online, and writing content that addresses these keywords and questions, so it’s valuable for your audience and picked up by google.
The goal with content writing is to produce content that leaves the reader with a greater knowledge of your brand and related topics. It needs to be enjoyable and, more importantly, easy to read.
10 best content writing resources
3. UberSuggest
8. Canva
10. Grammarly
Let’s take a closer look at what’s earned them a spot on my list.
1. Google Trends ~ Best for brainstorming
There are two ways I like to use google trends: either to look at what relevant topics that are trending and brainstorm content based on them, or to see the interest in my potential keywords over time.
The ‘related queries’ feature is also useful, for spotting topics and keywords that are growing in popularity so you can get ahead of your competitors.
Time saving superpower: less time staring at a blank page with no ideas.
2. Keywords Everywhere ~ Best for easy ideas
If you’re a fan of passive research (ie. generating ideas even when you’re not intending to), then you’ll love Keywords Everywhere. This Google Chrome extension gives you keyword insights and ideas for whatever you’re searching on Google and other compatible websites.
It sits on the side of your screen, perfect for a quick glance when you’re searching anything remotely relevant to your brand.
Time saving superpower: researching even when you’re not intentionally researching.
3. Uber Suggest ~ Best for SEO keywords
There are so many different SEO tools out there, but my favourite cost-effective option is Ubersuggest.
It has loads of useful features for finding the best content topics and words to include, and it lets you know what SEO keyword difficulty you should be aiming for based on your website.
Time saving superpower: Less time wasted writing about keywords you won’t rank for.
4. Answer the Public ~ Best for content planning
Once you’ve picked your target keyword, type it into answerthepublic.com and you’ll get a web of search engine queries. I like to pick a few to use as sub-headings, and plan sections of my content around answering the questions.
Time saving superpower: create an easy Q & A content structure.
5. Power thesaurus ~ Best for power words
If you’ve rushed your content (no judgement – we’ve all had to do it), the big tell-tale sign is it lacks personality.
Creativity takes time. If you don’t have the mental or physical capacity to produce you’re your magnus opus, check out Power Thesaurus. You can quickly find new words, phrases, and idioms to spice up your dull and repeated ones.
Time saving superpower: Quick way to boost the quality of your writing.
6. Co-schedule headline analyser ~ Best for headlines
This is a fun (if you’re weird like me) and simple way to supercharge your headlines.
Once you’ve come up with a couple of headline options, run them through this analyser and see which one scores the highest. I always aim for at least 85% or above.
Take your best one and apply the suggestions it gives to make your headline irresistible. After all, it’s the part of your content that’ll be read by the most people.
Time saving superpower: less time second-guessing your headline.
7. Mangools SERP simulator ~ Best for meta-tags
If you don’t know what meta-tags are, it’s the title, brief description, and URL slug that appears on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It’s the preview people need to click on to be taken to your content.
You want your meta-tags to the right length, so they’re shown in full, built around your target keyword, and engaging for consumers. This tool lets you preview how yours will look on Google.
Time saving superpower: simple way to see how your content will appear on Google.
8. Canva ~ Best for design
Canva and marketers have long been best friends; the free and fun tool provides design templates for all of your marketing needs, which are super easy to customize.
You might not think of Canva as a writing resource, but once you content is written, it’s the perfect way to break up chunks by pulling quotes from the main body and present them in a visually appealing way.
Time saving superpower: a cheaters way to add design elements to your post.
9. Email tool tester ~ Best for newsletters
So far, these resources have mainly looked at blog content, but email newsletters are an effective part of content marketing too.
Subject lines and preview texts and the make-or-break of your email efforts, and this tool let’s you see how they’ll look when received on laptops and different phone sizes – top tip: always make sure it fits in the smallest phone size!
Time saving superpower: No time wasted writing email subject lines too long to be seen.
10. Grammarly ~ Best for editing
More than just a spell-checker, Grammarly picks up on grammatical mistakes, tone of voice, and editorial issues like using more words than you need to. It’s especially useful if (like me!) you switch between spelling conventions depending on who you’re writing for (US vs UK, etc.)
Time saving superpower: catches mistakes before you’ve even finished writing.
Final Thoughts: why hire a content writer?
Now I’ve handed you my best resources on a shiny silver tray you might think that’s job done.. but, unfortunately, that’s not quite the case.
It’s easy fall victim to shiny object syndrome and want to use every single content writing resource. They might speed up the process, but leaning too heavily on tools and tools alone will not make your content particularly effective.
They’re a wand, not the wizard. The best tool is always expertise and creativity. That’s why I recommend hiring a content writer.
Firstly, we’ll take the content process off your hands completely, which will inevitably speed up the process, and secondly, we know how to use the tools to effectively complement our own content marketing knowledge and strategies.
For my content writing examples, feel free to check out my content portfolio page, and if you’d like to learn more about how I can help you get in touch today.
What’s your favourite resource? Share in the comments.
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