Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a surge of new, up-and-coming freelance content writers out there. Many of them have minimal to zero experience in writing, but it doesn’t mean they’re not good writers.
Thankfully, there are various free content writing tools that can significantly improve the quality of your work. In this article, I share with you a list of five most essential ones:
Grammarly
Having typos in your work is one of the biggest mistakes only amateurs make.
If you want to earn a living from offering SEO content writing services, your spelling and grammar must be perfect.
Grammarly is one of the most important tools every content writer should have at his or her disposal.
The app checks your work for spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes.
The premium version offers more features like better correctional capabilities and a plagiarism checker. However, it can be expensive for beginners on a budget.
Google Docs
Throughout your writing career, most clients don't require you to use a specific software or tool to do your writing.
One popular and essential too is Google Docs on your Google Drive, which allows you to write your content remotely while saving you time, The best part? It is completely free.
Google Docs is a preferred online tool for writing for many content writers.
The reason for this is because it’s a very simple app to use, it automatically saves your work, and the work is easily sharable with your coworkers and clients via URLs.
It offers almost all the features as Microsoft Word does and based on the browser you use, it’s possible to connect it with other apps from our list such as Grammarly and the SEMRush SEO writing assistant.
SEMRush Writing Assistant
SEMRush writing assistant is a valuable tool, particularly for writers who focus on blogs and long-form articles (more than 1,000 words).
The tool is even better when you integrate other tools from our list. It’s completely free to use online and it comes in a form of a Chrome add-on.
SEMRush will improve your content writing skills in the long run because it allows you to see how your content looks and sounds in real-time.
While it’s free to use, not all features are unlocked. The plagiarism checker and tone of voice need a paid subscription, but there are other tools you can use that will check this for free!
The biggest problem with this add-on is that you need to set up everything before you start writing. The free version doesn’t allow changes once you start.
WordCounter
There are many tools that count the number of words and characters you’ve written in your blog post, but WordCounter is a very simple and effective tool used by many professional content writers.
Aside from being free and easy to use, it provides insight into daily activity and setting your daily writing goals.
It’s one of the most useful free tools for SEO content writers that are still at the beginning of their writing career.
Google Keyword Planner
There are A LOT of free keyword planners advertised online, but the fact is that these tools offer only free trials or offer limited searches per month.
Of course, all require your email address that is used for sending out their newsletter. There’s no much value there unless you get a paid subscription.
When it comes to FREE keyword planners, the only one that’s genuinely free to use is the Google Keyword Planner.
Yes, you’ll need to link your Google account to get access, but it’s a super-helpful tool if you’re offering SEO content writing to your clients. If you’ll target SEO companies to hire you as a freelance content writer, you probably won’t need to use this, or any other keyword planning tool.
Can You Write Quality Content Using Free Writing Tools?
The biggest misconception is that people tend to think that these tools improve their work drastically.
Content writing tools are meant to help you do your work more easily and efficiently, not to improve the quality of work.
Content writing is a job that requires experience, know-how, and most of all – creativity. Coming up with original, informative, and engaging content is the hardest aspect and no tool out there, whether it’s free or paid, won’t do it for you.
The content writer needs to work on his or her skills constantly, reading blogs and articles in their preferred niche and learning how the best writers out there are writing their posts. The more you read, the easier it will become to write.
Thus, no content writing tools (free or paid) will help a writer provide quality work if he or she doesn’t have the required skills. These tools are created only to make the process easier.