Since I started working as a freelance SEO copywriter, I have been using various online collaborative tools. I am constantly amazed by how many such tools exist and how few of them I’d heard of prior to starting my new career.

This guest post by Thomas Glare includes some content creation tools you may be interested in. Thomas has just started a content creation business and is looking for tools to help him elevate his enterprise. The ones listed below did the trick and have enabled him to amass a large following to his business.

Online Tools Everyone in the Content Creation Industry Should Be Using

Content creation | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

The Internet is the hub of everything. Whether you are looking for recipes, tips on fashion, hair, business, or anything else, you will find everything there.

But if take a step back, you’ll wonder how the creators of all that content got to the point of offering their products online! The answer is simple: with a lot of hard work—and help from online tools, many of which are free.

Before we mention some specific tools, let’s check what content creators look for in the tools they choose to use.

Criteria for Exceptional Content Creation Tools

When it comes to content creation tools, businesses are in search of the following features:

User-Friendliness

A content creator writing promotional content for an online slot game like the Book of Ra, for instance, has to match the game’s unique style. To do so, they need easy-to-use tools. The interface must be straightforward, and the features easy to operate. Otherwise, it takes away all the fun and discourages visitors, forcing them to find something more user-friendly.

Functionality

In essence, a content creator will always go for a utility that has all the building blocks for a masterpiece. Content curation tools must fulfill the required tasks, as well as provide a smooth experience.

Cost-Effectiveness

No one wants to commit to content marketing tools that will cost them a fortune only to absorb a fraction of the investment. A balance has to be maintained; you should return all that you put in with a surplus. With that said, the utilities used must be not only affordable but really worth a shot.

Content Creation Tools

So what are some content creation tools widely used by writers? Here is my selection of tools I can’t live without.

Google Tools

The number one instrument has to be Google tools. They have been integrated into our lives to such an extent that we would not be the same without them, especially in the content creation universe.

Communication, analytics, and management should be your core values in the making of exceptional material. In those three perspectives, Google offers you Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google AdWords Keyword planner.

These free online tools help you gauge the success of your pieces the moment you release them.

Buffer

Social media is one of the most sought-after platforms for the content creation industry. Buffer offers you the opportunity to schedule your social media posts beforehand. This gives you a chance to do your research on the material to post. With that, you won’t have last-minute rushes on getting useful info since you already completed it a while back. With Buffer, you can even plan uploads for the next month, if you wish.

Canva

Canva | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

Of all the image creation tools that make visuals spectacular, Canva is my favorite. It has hundreds of templates that enable you to create brochures, posters, social media posts, banners, and even online magazines. The sky truly is the limit with Canva. Want to know the best part about it? Most of its templates and photos are free of charge. 

Optimizely

You can take a wild guess on what Optimizely does, and you will be kind of right. It optimizes something; in this case, campaigns.

Optimizely uses a marketing trick called A/B testing to gauge the success of a project. Instead of you just winging it, you have tangible evidence even prior to implementation. 

Medium

When it comes to content creation, blogs are at the top of the list. Medium happens to be one of the most popular blogging platforms worldwide. It comes in handy in the generation of valuable content planning tools and will aid you in growing an audience that will relate to your work. It has a sleek CMS user interface with a robust in-built community. This means that what you post will find its ways to the people who will most enjoy it.

Markup Hero

Markup Hero is an up and coming screenshot and annotation tool worth mentioning. It can be super-useful for creating article visuals.

Leadfeeder

This is a tool that is used in the tracking of your site’s visitors. Leadfeeder gives you the full unedited number of users, including the one who clicked or not. It helps you in forecasting and identifying the groups most interested in your work, even telling you at what time of the day they saw your content. It also indicates which pieces make the most impact. With that, you can develop more of similar content to keep people involved. 

SharedCount

The last tool is majorly involved in analytics, but what is content analysis? Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you have created a poster and posted it on Facebook. People following you will see it, but how many will like, comment, or share on it? While Facebook tells you all that, it won’t go into detail.

This is what SharedCount does — it gives you the full detailed report of just how far your posts’ reach extends.

While we all have our favorite tools, these ones have helped me build up my content creation business. I hope they do the same for you!