15 Free Online Tools that Every Writer Needs
Every new business venture comes with overhead. One of the least expensive businesses to start, though, is freelance writing. You don’t need to pay for a building and many of the “supplies” you need are free online. Here’s a guide to all kinds of free online services that you can use to get your freelance writing business off the ground. Make sure to bookmark each one!
Google Docs
There’s no need to purchase Microsoft Word to type up articles, whitepapers and copy for your clients. Google Docs is jam-packed with features and it autosaves every few seconds, so you’re less likely to lose your work.
2. WPS Office
Google Docs is great, unless you need to create longer documents like ebooks, because it tends to glitch out. I personally use WPS Office. It is a suite of software including a spreadsheet maker (like Excel), a word processor (like Word) and PDF software (like Adobe Acrobat). The whole thing is free.
3. Medium
If you need somewhere to post your blog posts or articles for free so that you can show them to clients, Medium is a good choice. It’s clean and professional looking, plus you don’t need to do any design work or pay any fees. The platform is super easy to use for beginners', too. If you sign up for their creators program you can get paid for your posts.
4. Capitalize My Title
Capitalize My Title is a little site will capitalize your titles perfectly for any style your client needs, including APA, MLA, Chicago, title case and more. This is great for writers that have a hard time remembering which rules belong to which writing guidelines.
5. Character Counter
Sometimes your clients will ask you to make sure that a headline, quote, etc. is within a certain character length. You can check easily with the Character Counter tool.
6. Plagiarism checker & citation assistant
If you ever have a doubt that you might have plagiarised someone, there’s an easy way to check. Just copy your work into the Quetext tool. It will check everything for you to ease your mind.
7. Citation Machine
The Citation Machine will create citations in whatever style you need automatically.
8. PR Newswire
Whenever you need experts for quotes, turn to PR Newswire. I’ve used it for over a decade and they’ve never let me down.
9. Google Voice
If you don’t want to share your phone number, make a free business number with Google Voice. You can set up a free phone number and voicemail box that redirects to your phone in just a few minutes.
10. Portent blog title generator
Have no idea what your blog post title should be? Try the Portent tool.
11. PayPal
You’ll need a way to take client payments. I’ve been using PayPal for decades and have loved every moment of it. They take a small percentage of your client payments so you don’t need to pay upfront. The cut is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (most providers charge a similar rate). You can also get a business debit card, business credit card, a mobile card reader, invoicing services, and pay now buttons for your site.
12. Screencasify
Screencasify is a Chrome plugin that you can use to create a video of whatever you’re doing live for presentations.
13. Free Summarizer
The Free Summarizer tool can summarize and proofread your text.
14. SpyFu
WIth SpyFu you can enter a competitor’s website and download their most profitable keywords. This little insight helps you place better keywords into your own articles and come up with more popular topic ideas.
15. Contently
Every writer needs a portfolio, and one of the best free portfolios is Contently. Plus, you can get writing gigs through the site. Win. Win.
Want to make $100 to $200 per hour from home like I do? My No-Fluff Freelance Writing Starter Pack teaches you how to make a living as a writer from home.
