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You are here: Home / Blog / Must-Have Tips and Resources For Writers and Copywriters

Must-Have Tips and Resources For Writers and Copywriters

by Xavier Lannes

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Must-Have Tips and Resources For Writers, Content Marketers and Copywriters

Table of Contents

  • Must-Have Tips and Resources For Writers, Content Marketers and Copywriters
    • Why would you must have these copywriting resources?
    • Start by getting your writing at level “expert” all the time
    • Get your grammar in check
      • #1. The Elements Of Style
      • #2. Guide to Grammar and Writing
      • #3. Copywriting 101
      • #4. Grammar Girl
      • #5. The Purdue Writing Lab
      • #6. Daily Grammar
      • #7. Grammarly
    • Refine your copy
      • #8. ProWritingAid
      • #9. Hemingway App
      • #10. 1 Checker
    • Readability Score Resources for writers
      • #11. Readability Score (Readable.Io)
      • #12. Analyze My Writing
      • 13. Tone Analyzer
      • 14. I Write Like
    • How to be aware of the latest industry news and trends
      • #12. Content Marketing Institute
      • #13. B2B Marketing
      • #14. Marketing Profs
      • #15. Seth Godin
      • #16. Copyblogger
      • #17. Hubspot
      • #18. Pro Blogger
      • #19. Enchanting Marketing
    • Improve even more your expertise
      • #20. APA Style
      • #21. Chicago manual of style
      • #22. Acronym Finder
      • #23. The Free Dictionary
    • Practice writing on a safe place
      • #24. 750 Words
      • #25. T Words
      • #26. Daily Page
    • Turbocharge your productivity and output
      • #27. Stay Focused App
      • #28. Zen Pen
      • #29. Cold Turkey
      • #30. Todoist
      • #35. Marina Timer
    • Fine Tune your Content Marketing
      • #31. Google Scholar
      • #32. Project Gutenberg
      • #33. Internet Public Library
      • #34. Answers
      • #35. Pew Research Center
      • #36. Statista
      • #37. World Economic Forum

Digital Marketing Do It Yourself Difficulty LevelContent Marketing or Copywriting is an exciting and interesting profession, but it’s only for a few of us.

If you are the kind of person who is desperately trying to paint a white page with a few words, then writing might not be for you.

The firsts qualities of good writers are that they have a passion for writing, words come out naturally, and they are not scared about the white page syndrome.

In a nutshell, to be a good writer you need to be able to write as easily as you breathe.

Because not everybody can dribble like Ronaldo or Messi, not everybody can serve like Serena Williams; not everybody can grind like Pedro Barros or Andy Mac, not everybody can surf Pipeline like Gerry Lopez or Kelly Slater, not everybody can write like David Ogilvy or Dan Kennedy.

So, don’t feel bad if you can’t do it, it takes time to become a copywriter, more time to be a decent copywriter and a lifetime to be an expert at copywriting…

Of course, if you are an entrepreneur trying to do it yourself but can’t, maybe because you don’t have the time to do it, you can always hire a copywriter.

But that does not mean you – at least – can try to do it.

That is why I have gathered these resources that will help you:

  • learn about writing
  • refine your writing
  • follow the trends of the industry

So, this article is both for aspiring copywriters and full-fledged copywriters.

copywriters for hire


Why would you must have these copywriting resources?

If you want to run a worthwhile, gratifying and fun-filled occupation as a copywriter, you want to keep these resources handy.

Thanks to these resources, you will be able to

  • focus on what matters at the moment
  • write captivating content on a consistent basis
  • turbocharge your productivity and output
  • get more clients for work
  • manage your customers’ social media campaigns
  • create simple images for your posts
  • help your clients with resourceful infographics for their activities

One thing for sure, thanks to these tips, resources and tools handy, your copywriting business will never be the same again.

Start by getting your writing at level “expert” all the time

Some people think that the more they produce, the more they make money. Let’s say you make $100 per assignments and you write 10 assignments per day, that’s $1,000 per day. Wow, that’s a lot of money.

But now let’s say you only write one text per day, but you charge $1,000 for it.

What would you prefer?

Of course, most people would take the one gig at $1,000.
But can they really write at a quality level to charge $1,000 for a couple of hundred words?

Sure, almost anybody can write 10 texts a day, but what would be the tradeoff? Quality?

Because let’s get serious, if you write 10 texts a day, you’re gonna spend 40mn per text. Do you really think you can write a powerful 400-word text in 40mn?

Can you even write a convincing 400-word copy at all?

That’s when quality vs. quantity comes into action.

And to write a quality paper, you need to know how to write.

Not only a super polished text takes more time to write, but also more skills.
So, before we can name ourselves writers or even copywriters, let’s start by learning how to write.
Here are the best resources for that, in no particular order:

Get your grammar in check

#1. The Elements Of Style

The Elements of Style CopywriterFirst of all, I love the motto: “one must first know the rules to break them.” Too many people start writing maladroitly and unsatisfactorily and then declare that their obtuse writing is a style of their own before saying that the world doesn’t understand them because they are so brilliant.

Truth is, you create your own writing style after decades of writing. After you have mastered the skills of writing like others. After you know the usage and principles of composition. You can’t start your career by violating the rules and pass for someone who’s other than ludicrous.

Writing effective, convincing, and powerful copy is a strenuous burden for most people. So, next time you want to write decently, start by reading the online edition of E.B. White & J.K Strunk’s book “The Elements of Style.”

William Strunk, Jr. first used his own book, The Elements of Style, in 1919 for his English 8 course at Cornell University. The book was published in 1935 by Oliver Strunk and is still as vibrant in 2019 (that’s ONE HUNDRED YEARS after publication).

With the Strunk-White book, you’ll be able to develop powerful writing skill that will last a lifetime.

#2. Guide to Grammar and Writing

By the same token, special attention should be paid to grammar and its usage. After all, syntax and grammar are the backbones of writing.

One way to get good at writing is through the use of a guide which you can always refer to at all times. Use this guide, and your grammar and writing will skyrocket.

#3. Copywriting 101

Copywriting 101
A great blog for copywriters

Writing and Copywriting are two completely different beasts. Of course, if you don’t know what copywriting is, or if you never tried to write a sales copy, you’ll think anybody can write a powerful facebook ad.
But a lot of people declare themselves as Copywriters because it is lucrative. It’s also compelling and revealing. It’s also financially rewarding because if you’re damn good at copywriting, you become a highly sought-after commodity.

Thanks to this Copywriting guide by the Copyblogger team, you’ll be able to put a foot ahead of other writers in the business and win the race.

#4. Grammar Girl

Grammar Girl Website for copywritingAs Mignon Fogarty (the founder of Grammar Gil) says; “the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study.” The English language (and actually ALL languages) are live organism. They change with time. And because they change, we need someone to keep the change tally.
That’s why this web resource should be your “go-to” website. It contains resources and materials on the correct use of grammar. One amazing feature of this tool is that Migon uses humor and everyday examples to drive home her points.

It’s really resourceful and it should be on your resource list to check out regularly thanks to its frequent updates.

#5. The Purdue Writing Lab

Purdue Writing Lab website for copywriting
You can never have enough of anything related to writing as a copywriter. That is exactly what the Purdue Writing Lab is all about. It’s the crossroad for everything related to writing.

In this awesome resource, you’ll find a series of informational articles and books on the correct usage of the English language. It’ll definitively help you to update your know-how of writing, and how to do it effortlessly.

#6. Daily Grammar

The Daily Grammar websiteI should have started with the basics, but I assumed you knew your grammar. If it’s not the case, no worries Daily Grammar has 440 lessons and 88 quizzes. Lessons 1-90 cover the eight parts of speech, which are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Lessons 91-300 cover the parts of the sentence, such as appositives, predicate nominatives, direct objects, prepositional phrases, clauses, and verbals. Lessons 301-440 cover the mechanics of grammar, which is also known as capitalization and punctuation.

Content manager, Writer, Freelance Copywriter for hire

#7. Grammarly

grammarly website

Refine your copy

I like the word editing. For most, editing means enhancing. For me, editing means removing, cutting, erasing, deleting. I love having a big pair of scissors and removing redundant or insignificant words from my copy.

Remember that people don’t read. They don’t have time, and they don’t like it.
So, whatever you write, you need to make it as short as possible.

For example, I am always frustrated when I see people writing about their products: “With this software, you’ll be able to automatically uncover any potential errors, like grammar, word choice, spelling, fluency, conciseness, punctuation, and style mistakes when writing.”

If you are a real copywriter, just write: “This app finds all errors: grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation, style & automatically corrects them. ”

See what I mean?
Not only the 2nd sentence is half the length, but’s it’s also more precise…

Again, there are a plethora of apps and resources on the net that you can use to edit your copy. Let’s start with the one I love most:
There you go! The sentence above is a description of Grammarly. This app was first released about 9 years ago to enhance any text in English.
Grammarly finds all errors: grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation, style & automatically corrects them, on the go.

I use Grammarly for EVERYTHING. Even when I write a simple short post on Facebook, Grammarly is my favorite tool-to-go, and I always have an open tab on my screen.

#8. ProWritingAid

Pro Writing AidPro-Writing boasts that they are trusted by more than 700,000 writers, authors, copywriters, and so on all over the world. That’s most probably true.

Thanks to ProWritingAid, you’ll be able to edit faster, fix style issues, eliminate errors, and learn as you edit. Even though it’s a paid tool, it also has a free version which allows you to edit 500 words at a time online, good enough for most blog-posts.

It’s also available in Microsoft Word, Google Chrome, Google Docs, and so on but unfortunately, plagiarism is not included in the package.

#9. Hemingway App

hemingway grammar appNo, it’s not the writer of “The Old Man And The Sea” but an app for writers.

Whereas one of the problems of Grammarly and Pro-Writing is that they are paid app, Hemingway is free. Of course, being free, Hemingway doesn’t have all of Grammarly features, especially plagiarism which is included as a basic feature. For example, you can’t check texts like this one which is over 50,000 words long. If you have the paid version of Grammarly, you don’t need Hemingway, but if you write occasionally and you just need to check small copy, say from 20 to 500 words, Hemingway should be good enough.
Just copy-paste the article you want to edit inside the window, and you’ll start editing instantly.

Live test
As a test of Hemingway performance, I took the Hemingway chapter that I had previously edited in Grammarly and pasted it into the Hemingway app.

The results?

On the positive side, I was able to:

  • reduce its readability from 6 (not bad) to 5 (wow, excellent)
  • reduce the “very-hard-to-read” sentence from 1 to 0
  • reduce the “hard-to-read” sentences from 1 to 0
  • eliminate all use of passive voice

On the negative side, I had to get rid of 2 concepts, the phrases are shorter and thus the text is not flowing as smoothly (there are a lot of stop-and-goes). It also took me 10mn to enhance a 150-word text. Given that this whole article is 50,000 words it would take me about 55 hours of work to enhance the readability by 1 point…

Worth it?

I would definitively recommend Hemingway, but only fort short texts, like social media posts, ads, short form landing pages but probably not for long articles.

Here is the result below after the Hemingway exercise. Let me know if the enhancements were worth 10 extra minutes…

Hemingway (After editing)
hemingway text editorNo, it’s not the writer of “The Old Man And The Sea” but an app for writers.

One of the problems of Grammarly and Pro-Writing is that you need to subscribe, but Hemingway is free. Of course, being free, Hemingway doesn’t have all of Grammarly features. For example, it doesn’t include plagiarism (included as a basic feature for Grammarly). Nor can you check texts like this one which is over 50,000 words long. If you have the paid version of Grammarly, you don’t need Hemingway. But if you write occasionally and you just need to check small copy, Hemingway should be good enough.
Copy-paste your text inside Hemingway’s editing window. You’ll start editing right away.

#10. 1 Checker

One checkerEver thought of a way of proofreading your documents easily without spending a dime?

So, 1 checker is here for you.

Thanks to 1 Checker, you will be able to update your spelling and grammar, enhance text readability, make a professional impression with natural writing, and so on.

Above all, it is absolutely free to use this tool.

Readability Score Resources for writers

#11. Readability Score (Readable.Io)

If you are using Grammarly, the basic readability score is enclosed, otherwise, you need an extra tool for that. But no sweat, most readability apps are free, except this one. Although Readable.Io has a free version which is available for all, its PRO version has more features such as keyword analysis, content analysis, Email marketing scoring, and so much more. But again, you get what you pay for. If you are an occasional writer, a free app will suffice.
But I sometimes write up to 1 million words in a week (it’s easy to do, this text alone is 50,000 words long), so I use paid tools because they are more efficient…

A readability score is a computer-calculated index which tells you what level of education is needed to quickly and easily read a text. The score identifies a grade level corresponding to the number of years of education a person has had.

readability scoreA score of around 6 is the approximate reading level on completion of elementary school in the USA or primary school in the UK and is considered the optimum level for any website in the US.

For example, according to readable.io, this text (the while 50,000-word-text) has a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 8.3, which is equivalent to a 10th grade. The Flesch Reading Ease is around 60.4 and the total score is B. (see readability graph)

This score is much too high for regular readers, or for an ecommerce website. For example, there are too many long words, too many long and complex sentence and the vocabulary is not basic enough. But since I assume that you are copywriters too, I guess you are able to understand what I am talking about, so I took some liberties with the readability… .

If I were to write for an eCom website, I would need to lower my Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level below 5, that’s 3.5 points lower than the current score, and only a readability app would be able to help me with that.

#12. Analyze My Writing

Analyze My Writing is a free online text content and readability analyzer. Just paste your text into the window and get a wealth of information about your text including:

– word count
– lexical density
– character count
– passive voice
– sentence length
– readability
– cloze test

You can analyze as many texts as you like, and the texts you analyze can be as long as your browser and system can handle.
They also offer support for how to use and interpret almost every text statistic our website offers.
Analyse my writing also has articles on how to interpret readability and lexical density. What’s more, you may find ideas and examples which apply the tools available on this website.

To give you an example, here is a test with one copywriting landing page that I wanted to analyze. One of the results really show visually what words are the more important in the text. All of them are related to writing, and marketing.

Most Common Copywriting Words by Size and Color
https://myadgency.com/copywriting-help/copywriter-for-hire/

13. Tone Analyzer

The Tone Analyzer is based on IBM Watson Developer Cloud. It uses linguistic analysis to detect and interpret emotional, social, and language cues found in the text. Note: Make sure that you look at the sentence level to see what words it points out.
When I analyzed the same Copywriting Landing Page as above, the analyzer painted most sentences in blue for overwhelmingly “Analytical” which satisfied my ego because that’s exactly the emotion I wanted to convey.

Bizarrely, the analyzer also found that “Joy” was the 2nd strongest emotion of my text. If you are have written any text, try this tool. Even if you are not a professional writer, you’ll be surprised to see what emotions transcend in your text.

14. I Write Like

iwl.me analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of famous writers.
This little tool, I Write Like is pretty funny and gave me a big boost of confidence when after analyzing the same Copywriting Landing Page, it said I write like “Arthur C. Clarke”, a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. That is actually is pretty consistent with the previous analysis which found my writing was analytical…

How to be aware of the latest industry news and trends

OK, now you know how to write with style and you know how to adapt your style to your audience. That’s a good start! But that’s not enough. You still need to be fluent in Content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and inbound marketing.

Notice that I say “fluent” and not “expert”?

As a copywriter, you need to understand the underlying changing trends of marketing. You also need to understand the techniques and what they need to be used for.
For example, did you know that there are over 10 different styles of Landing Pages? From short ones to Long Ones

Do you know when using a short page and a long page?

Of course, to be up-to-date, you need to read my posts on MyAdgency.Com, but also a bunch of other ones.

#12. Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing InstituteIn this hard world, knowing how to write is not enough. Not only you need to learn how to write like a ci\opywriter, but you also need to learn how to be a good marketer.
Of course, no one can market alone in front of a computer screen. You always need to find out how the others are doing it. That’s when you need this resource, a “go-to” blog for everything related to Content Marketing.

On Content Marketing Institute’s blog, you’ll learn tips and strategies that’ll aid you to improve your Business to Business (B2B) and Inbound Marketing.

After you read a few of their articles, it will definitively broaden your knowledge and expertise in a lot of different industries.

#13. B2B Marketing

Most people think that marketing is only a B2C profession. But how about marketing to businesses? That why B2B Marketing is a professional development tool for marketers that you should consider as an ultimate resource and guide for anything related to content creation process involving businesses.

Of course, their premium content is gated, so start by reading their blog (because it’s free), at least, you’ll learn the best practices, terminologies, and trends that’ll help you greatly in order to succeed targeting B2B ventures.

#14. Marketing Profs

You can gauge the health of a profession by counting the number of helpers. Marketing Profs is one of them. MarketingProfs is one powerful resource that marketers, marketing teams, and some of the world’s largest organizations turn to for modern marketing tools, training, strategies, articles, online seminars, discussion forums, and much more. The profs also provide various strategies for numerous types of marketing, from email to social media and beyond. For upcoming events, professional development, and industry trends check out the profs’ resources and be prepared to take your marketing to a new level of excellence.

With blog posts, case studies and eBooks on marketing from a diverse team of marketers all over the world, you’ll surely take your marketing skill to an entirely new level.

#15. Seth Godin

Seth Godin is one of several Marketing Gurus that are trending right now.
Seth, an author of over 18 books, provides useful daily tips on entrepreneurship for writers on his blog.
One peculiarity of Seth is that he keeps his emails and blog posts short, to the point yet simple and very enlightening.

#16. Copyblogger

Copyblogger should be one of your top references if you are in the business of Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, and Copywriting. With weekly features written by experts, the digital team at Copyblogger will contribute to your copy with words that’ll work for you in any freelance writing business.

Copyblogger Certified Content Marketers

#17. Hubspot

Hubspot has so many resources that one sometimes forgets that it’s primarily an app company. Hubspot is selling an Ad Software, a Blog Software, an SEO Software, and a Social Media Software. It also has a lot of free training you can enroll in. But they are overly well-known on the profession by being a Content Management System that is a powerful marketing tool for copywriters.

If you are a freelance writer, or merely trying to write a good copy for your company, thanks to the Hubspot blog, you’ll learn marketing tips and strategies that will help you improve in your freelance writing business.

Some of the training includes courses on Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, and much more.

#18. Pro Blogger

Copywriter-pro-blogger
I am really amazed at how many resources there are available on the web if you want to work as an internet marketer or digital marketer. Pro blogger is another one of them. Since 2004, this blog by Darren Rowse has been the home for bloggers wanting to create, grow and make money from their blogs.

That is useful for you as a freelance writer since you’ll most likely be involved in blog content creation for your clients.

This resource helps you to learn more about blogging tips that you can use for your clients in the long run.

#19. Enchanting Marketing

Henneke Duistermaat prides herself as an irreverent writer on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook content.

And she does just that with Enchanting Marketing.

On Darren’s blog, you’ll learn a lot about writing in an enchanting way, creating seductive content and adding sparkle to your business writing.

Wherever you are in your writing journey, her regular blog content will take you by the hand to become enhanced in your craft.

Improve even more your expertise

So, you have become quite good at Content Marketing (1st step), then at Copywriting (2nd step) and you feel pretty confident that you can write almost anything. If you use and master all the resources above, I’m sure you can too.
But suddenly, a client gives you a memo filled with acronyms, abbreviations, vernacular or asks you to write a paper using the APA or Chicago manual of style and you are like “Say that again?”

Don’t feel like a deer in the headlights. I have extra tools, for those who are already writing material on a regular basis but want to expand their field.

Thanks to these tools, you’ll have a guide handy that you can always consult, whenever you want to make references.

#20. APA Style

The good news is that if you want to write for commercial purpose, you probably shouldn’t need APA Style®.
If you write Content Marketing (mostly articles) for a website, you should know that this resource exists because you might need it, especially on formatting, referencing, headlines, lists, table of contents, citations, quotations, interviews, and plagiarism.
However, if you write white papers, cases studies, books you definitively need this tool.
The rules of APA Style® represent a safe guidance for writing with simplicity, power, and concision. APA Style® has been adopted by many writers around the world.

On this site, you will find tutorials, FAQs, and other resources to help you improve your writing, master the APA Style®, and learn the conventions of scholarly publishing.

#21. Chicago manual of style

The Chicago Manual of Style website is a respected, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. It is an indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice.

Just like the APA style resource already mentioned, The Chicago Manual of Style website should be one of your most prominent “go-to” resource for writing.

It will help you with up-to-date information regarding the usage, style, and grammar of the Chicago manual of style.

#22. Acronym Finder

When confronted with the use of Acronym in your writing, you don’t need to stress.

With more than 5 million acronyms and abbreviations, Acronym Finder is definitely the world’s largest and most comprehensive dictionary for acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms! It probably covers all the acronyms out there. There is a tool that is especially useful since some abbreviation can be in use across several industries: you can search or filter terms from the following categories:

  • Information Technology
  • Military & Government
  • Business & Finance
  • Science & Medicine
  • Organizations & Schools
  • Slang & Pop Culture

#23. The Free Dictionary

There are a lot of dictionaries online, and you should always have an open tab with a tool like this. This one has a lot of features; if you need to look up often, then this one is definitely for you.

On the Free Dictionary website, you have access to a lot of learning materials such as word of the day, a daily grammar lesson, article of the day, this day in history, and quotation of the day.

Similarly, it serves as a “one-stop” dictionary which provides you access to other useful writing resources such as Idioms, encyclopedia, medical dictionary, financial dictionary, and so on.

Practice writing on a safe place

In 1962 word golfer champion Gary Player wrote a book “Gary Player’s Golf Secrets.” This book was memorable on several levels, but especially since one of the quotes was: “I found out that the more I practice, the luckier I get.”

The same luck also applies to copywriting: an exceptional writer practices his skills every day.

Practicing every day will make you more confident with your writing, and make you the “go-to” freelance writer for clients’ projects.

One major problem most freelance writers face with practice is doing it the right way; having an accountability-check that keeps them on their toes.

To be able to vanquish this, these practice tools will definitively help you.

#24. 750 Words

750 words represent 3 pages of text. That’s because the standard in the profession is 250 words per page.
Writing 250 words every day is not that easy, but almost any writer, whatever their level, can do.
Of course, writing 500 words every day is more difficult.
But writing 750 every day seems like training for a marathon daily.
And guess what? Marathon runners train every day for an average of 13 miles. That’s why they can run the dreaded 26 miles when needed. They are prepared.

And that’s why 750 words was invented. To give you a safe yet accountable space to train. 750 words is not about style, it’s not about grammar, punctuation, style, clarity or conciseness. It’s just about writing with a twist. 750 words tracks the time it takes you to complete your task; making you more efficient and have fun in the process. You’ll also actively engage with fellow writers, so you won’t feel alone.

#25. T Words

Whereas 750 words force you to write anything in 750 words and stop by helping you with some few bells and whistle, T-Word takes the relay with much more features to help you finish in time: track writing, track editing, missing days, accountability, stats.
All those enhancements will help you avoid procrastination, writer’s block or feeling isolated in your work.
If writing is a hard task for you, T Words is the answer.

#26. Daily Page

Daily page has been created for those who wake up one day without any motivation to write anything.
While this is a paid resource, you’ll be able to get over that, as it keeps you motivated to write every day.

On Daily page, you create a daily writing routine thanks to a series of writing reminders, access writing courses, and also use a distraction-free writing space.

Daily Page is a resource you can’t pass as a writer.

Turbocharge your productivity and output

Being productive is something you’ll strive with on an ongoing basis as a freelance writer.

A typical day in your life as a freelance writer involves writing articles for clients, prospecting to new clients, following latest industry trends, reaching out on social media platforms, hanging out with colleagues, and so many more.

Sometimes, it’s challenging to joggle between these tasks without getting burned out.

With these tools below, you’ll be able to solve your productivity problem, manage your time effectively, and achieve more work.

#27. Stay Focused App

Have you ever wanted to restrict the time you spend watching cat pictures on productivity-wasting websites? StayFocus is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you concentrate on your writing by reducing the time you spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allocated time has been used up, the websites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.

Stay Focused is extremely configurable. It allows you to block or remove entire sites, specific subdomains, specific paths or pages, even specific content inside pages like videos, games, images, forms, etc.

#28. Zen Pen

Don’t let distractions affect your writing! With Zen Pen, you have found a minimalist writing zone, where you can block out all distractions and get to what’s important. Writing!

#29. Cold Turkey

Cold Turkey has been downloaded over half a million times and can help you become more productive with your computer. Cold Turkey isn’t just another browser extension that can easily be uninstalled. People use Cold Turkey because once you start a block, there’s no turning back. By default, timers are locked until your timer is up and the weekly schedule can be locked until a certain time.

#30. Todoist

Unclutter your mind from preoccupations. If you think to all those things you need to do in a course of a day, it’s possible that you lose focus you end up forgetting about the important stuff.

With Todoist, you’ll be able to unclutter your mind, organize your life, and enjoy your free time.

Thanks to Todoits, you’ll get unimportant tasks out of your head, and onto your to-do lists anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

#35. Marina Timer

The Pomodoro timer is a well-known productivity technique that has been shown to improve your productivity. It gives you a prescribed interval of 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break. After 4 work intervals, there is a 15-minute break. Marina Timer is a fluid adaptation of the Pomodoro technique.
For instance, you can decide to work for 50 minutes straight, with a 10-minute break interval, and so on.

Ultimately, Marina Timer it helps you reduce distractions, limit interactions, and make you complete tasks efficiently within a short period.

Fine Tune your Content Marketing

No matter what you write, you need to research before you start anything. You can’t write out of fine air and the more research you engage in before creating your marketing content, the better is your output.

Of course, Google mostly provide you with all the answers needed when researching for an article but did you know about the other tools you can use in research as a freelance writer?

#31. Google Scholar

Standing on the shoulders of giants haven’t been anyway easier.
Google Scholar is a simple way to look for scholarly literature on the web. From the Google page, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions. It also lists articles from Universities, professional societies, online repositories, and other official websites.
Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Features of Google Scholar

  • Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
  • Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
  • Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
  • Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
  • Check who’s citing your publications, create a public author profile

#32. Project Gutenberg

Want to consult an eBook when writing, but you’re on a budget?
Project Gutenberg offers over 57,000 free eBooks. Choose from free ebooks or kindle books. The best part? You can read them on your phone or download them to your hard drive. Project Gutenberg has ready the world’s greatest literature. With focus on older works for which copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.
There is a downside, though, all books available were written before 1910 (because of copyright issues).
No fee or registration is required.

#33. Internet Public Library

The Internet Public Library was a non-profit, largely student-run website that ceased operations completely on June 30, 2015. However, the site is still there for you to use but some links are not working anymore because it is simply not updated. You can ask reference questions, and volunteer librarians and graduate students in library and information science formed collections and answer questions.

The Internet Public Library has a variety of topics involving Arts & Humanities, Science & Technology, Education, Computers & Internet, Regional & Country Information, and a lot more.

It’s a great place to get anything you want if you need to do a research for a special paper or blog post.

#34. Answers

Do you want answers to any of life’s questions?

But, getting it on the internet seems a herculean task.

Take for instance; you want to know the food item which’s an ingredient in dynamite.

Truth is: a generic search on the internet won’t most likely give you the response.

With this tool, you’ll get all the weird answers to things you never knew existed.

#35. Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center
The kind of graphic you can easily add to your Content Marketing

Adding more facts and figures to your content can make it go viral. But, if you need to write solid papers rooted in facts, studies, science written in a non-partisan style the Pew Research Center is the place to go to get your authoritative information. For example, the Pew Research Center has shown that 70% of Americans are getting their news from Social Media, overwhelmingly from Facebook. But Facebook is not a news outlet, it’s a social media platform where people share pictures of their pets, so if you think you’ll get accurate information from Facebook, your kidding yourself. The same goes for all other social media platforms.

The Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis, and other empirical social science research.

Pew Research Center website will provide you with real numbers, facts, and trends that make your content stand out.

#36. Statista

Statistics is the backbone of content marketing, but Getting relevant stats is sometimes difficult, until Statista. Statista is a website statistics portal, showcasing market research and business intelligence. It provides access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government institutions in English, French, German and Spanish. By using Statista, you are adding more depth and flair to your content.

Boasting of Statistics from more than 22,000 sources, covering market studies, industry reports, surveys, country reports, and so on.

That is your ultimate website for market data, market research, and market studies

#37. World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is your “go-to” resource for exclusive reports.

It covers topics such as Health and healthcare systems, digital economy, energy, production, education, gender issues, among others.

You’ll find all the reports you can trust from these experts and more.

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