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Sharpen Your Writing Skills: 6 Free Tools to Help You Write Better Blog Posts

by | Feb 22, 2016

As a writer, your salary may depend on the number of articles you can get published, as well as the the number of words in your articles.

To make the most money possible, you need to establish a process that will allow you to write as many high-quality articles or blog posts as possible.

But sometimes it’s not feasible to churn out articles on a consistent basis. There are times when you feel like writing all day, while there are days when you can’t even muster a single word.

As a result, you might find yourself struggling to make a living because you rely only on inspiration and natural momentum to complete your writing tasks.

You need to remember writing is a discipline. Without a reliable process to practice your writing skills, you will not be the successful freelance writer that you aspire to become.

These six free tools can be a part of your own perfect system that helps you write more effectively — and helps you spend less time doing it.

1. Soovle

If you’re a content writer, you need to determine the best keywords for your content. Choosing keywords can be a long-winded process, but you can simplify it by using Soovle.

This online tool lets you find most-searched phrases from popular search engines and even includes Amazon and Wikipedia to find the most common phrase that relates to your topic.

Use the keyword phrase that appears on all Soovle’s aggregated sites so you can optimize your content and boost it to the top of these search results.

2. Hubspot Content Idea Generator

Finding it difficult to come up with a title for your content? Hubspot Content Idea Generator will create one for you.

This tool lets you brainstorm headlines for your blog posts using a target keyword or phrase (perhaps the SEO-friendly keyword you discovered through Soolve!). After submitting at least one keyword phrase out of three available fields, the generator will return five interesting titles.

If you’re not satisfied with the results, you can try again for another batch of title suggestions. Repeat the process until you find the most appropriate headline for you.

3. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

Crafting an effective headline is an art — you need to choose deliberately to invoke the intellect and emotions of your readers.

While the title suggestions from Hubspot may be interesting, they may not be enough to compel your target audience to click when they read the headline in search results or on social media.

Enter the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer.

The tool refers to different factors to compute an aggregate score of your title. Ideally, your title must possess common, uncommon, emotional, and powerful words to achieve a high score. CoSchedule recommends using headlines with a score of 70 or higher.

Test a few different headline options to see which has the highest score. You might be surprised!

writing tools

4. Noisli

Distractions are productivity thieves. It’s difficult to focus on writing online where sites like Facebook and YouTube are just a click away from the resources you actually need to consult.

It’s next to impossible to build writing momentum when distractions just around the virtual corner.

Noisli aims to help people focus on work by playing different sounds sure to calm your nerves and inspire you to write. You can mix different sounds, from falling rain to the whirling of a fan, so you can achieve the perfect sound of productivity for you. You might find it boosts your energy better than your go-to playlist.

Noisli also offers a minimalist text editor so you can write your content there without distracting buttons and links.

5. Grammarly

It’s important to review your work for errors before submitting to editors. But small mistakes always seem to slip through the cracks, don’t they?

Human error increases the chance your article will get sent back for edits, and lowers your chances of even getting published on many sites. Editing articles you’ve already written takes away from your writing momentum.

Enlist Grammarly to check your grammar, spelling, and sentence structures before you submit your work. The Premium version of the tool lets you look up better word suggestions, check for plagiarism and more.

But, the free version is great for checking your article for simple mistakes you might miss while you’re working.

6. Hemingway

There’s no single perfect method for writing an article or blog post. But if you want more people to read your work, it can help to make sure it’s easy to understand.

Hemingway helps you remove the clutter in your posts by identifying sentences and phrases that are difficult to understand. The tool also computes a readability score of your article. The lower the grade level, the easier it is for readers to understand what you’re trying to say.

What other tools help you write more — and more quickly? Share them in the comments!