Thread by @OlamideTowobola

"20 copywriting tools/resources for freelancers and agencies and how they work"

A Thread

If you just want to get to the juicy bits, please feel free to skip. But if you’re wondering why I chose to pursue a career as a freelance copywriter, then read on! My name is Olamide and I’ve worked in digital space for quite some years now.

I’ve been lucky enough to work for an agency, for myself and even a short stint in-house at the beginning of my career. I’ve worked in paid social media, PPC and SEO…so why did I leave that all behind for copywriting? For me, it was a personal choice.

Freelance copywriting gives me everything I need – oodles of opportunity for creativity, a ridiculous amount of freedom, an income that pays my bills and an activity that actually excites me.

If you want to…

Control how much you work and when
Master an in-demand skill
Make a high salary
Be genuinely happy with how you spend your days
…then a career as a freelance copywriter could be what you’re looking for.

Here are some of the tools I've used so far in my freelance journey:
Tools For Researching Your Topic:
There’s no point writing something well if no-one is going to read it. So, before you start writing, you need to make sure you’re tackling a hot topic.

The research stage is also critical for ensuring that your content appears high-up in the Search Engine Results Pages. Your SEO strategy should incorporate long-tail keywords (more specific terms that receive regular, if modest, traffic) as well as broader higher-traffic terms.

These are the copywriting tools that can help you to pinpoint viral subject matter with the potential to rank on page one.
1. Google Trends/Adwords: Google Trends shows you how many times a particular topic has been “Googled” in recent months.

Whilst that may not sound exciting, the insights that this free tool can give you are remarkable. Google Adwords is the advertising network that businesses use to feature on SERPs and create Display Ads.

Unlike Google Trends, which only shows relative increases or decreases in searches, Adwords show the total number of searches for a particular term in any region. So, if you are deciding between two different topic to write about, Adwords can help you choose the most popular one.

2. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo.com is a platform designed for every aspect of content marketing. It shows you the most shared and “liked” content on a given topic and provides a selection of tools for doing keyword research.

3. UberSuggest
UberSuggest.com is and all-purpose SEO and content marketing platform, that shows you search data, SERP rankings and other technical details about your competitors’ websites.

4. Goodreads
Goodreads.com is an online catalogue of books and literature with some additional social features. However, what makes it so useful as a copywriting research tool are the previews it gives and the user-generated collections of quotes.

5. Google Analytics
google.com/analytics/ is a free analytics platform that shows you information about your audience, how people behave on your website.

Tools For Writing Perfect Copy
There are hundreds of online guides to copywriting and they all miss the point. Great copywriting depends on context. It requires you to understand your readers, create a story that compels, and deliver it in the brief moment given to your words.

In other words, it’s difficult. Whilst there is no secret trick that will replace your time, effort and genius, there are plenty of copywriting tools that can make your life easier.

6. Hemingway App: It is a fantastic way to develop self-awareness as a writer. It is a very simple app, in which you enter text to see which bits are highlighted as too long or complicated. The app even identifies words with more appropriate synonyms and score for readability.

7. Yoast.com : Another text analyser that gives you visual feedback. Unlike Hemingway App, though, Yoast is mainly concerned with making your writing Google-friendly. To do this, it applies an alternative set of mathematical formulas, based on keyword density.

8. Thesaurus.com vs Power Thesaurus
Thesaurus.com and Power Thesaurus are both excellent online tools for finding synonyms. Both tools also give you antonyms and allow you to sort results according to word type.

Thesaurus.com has a built-in writing tool that checks your grammar and lets you swap words for synonyms by hovering over them.

9. Coschedule Headline Analyser: Coschedule.com provides a number of tools that help you to workshop titles and subject lines, but the headline analyser is their most popular copywriting tool.

10. Rhymezone: It works like a thesaurus for rhyming words. However, it is much more flexible than that simple application; you can also generate quotes, synonyms, common phrases and literary references from your original word.

Dealing With Writer’s Block
Despite the controversy surrounding its existence, most professional writers have experienced “Writer’s Block” at some time in their career. You still need a way to overcome the “blank page effect”. Luckily, there are copywriting tools that can help:

11. Copywriting Forums: Warrior and Copy Chief
warriorforum.com is an online platform displaying simple questions, threads and topics that any copywriter can participate in. It also contains useful tools and training resources, including “Ask Me Anything” sessions.

copywritersforum.com is a similar kind of platform to Warrior. It also has downloadable guides and a section for discussing great historical copywriting. If you’re struggling to put one word in front of another, these forums are great places to workshop content.

12. Twitter: A seriously under-rated tool for copywriters. If you get stuck writing a headline or composing some ad copy, you will be amazed at how willing your followers are to contribute ideas. Just ask them to complete the tagline and watch your hive-mind get to work…

Tools For Finding Clients
There’s more to being a professional copywriter than just writing. You also have to find clients, pitch content and manage a business. These copywriting tools help you to do all of that with zero hassle – so you can focus on writing.

You are now a copywriter, advertising your services to potential clients. But, until you have developed your own professional niche, you need to make yourself as visible as possible. You’ll need a website, a targeted LinkedIn profile and a selection of listings.

13. Upwork: upwork.com a simple matching site for copywriters and companies looking for freelancers. Need more details about the platform? Read here:

https://twitter.com/OlamideTowobola/status/1280816187820122113?s=20

14. Fiverr: A good tip for finding buyers on fiverr.com is to check out Fiverr’s buyer requests. If you write, say, press releases, key in those words on the search bar and dozens of requests for press releases will pop up.

15. People Per Hour: peopleperhour.com is an online freelance platform that empowers people across the globe with the ability to monetize their skills. One of PeoplePerHour’s primary features is its job board. On which, ‘buyers’ can post specific jobs for ‘sellers’ to apply

Top Affordable Proofreading Tools for Freelance Copywriters:
In the rush to meet deadlines and churn out newsletters, social copy, articles, and blogs for your many clients, it is not uncommon to lose track of the minor details.

Whether you have made a grammatical error or missed a meaningful punctuation mark, it does not take much to lose credibility as a writer if these mistakes become a habit.

As a freelance writer, you can easily write hundreds of thousands of words in a given week, so it is crucial to have a safeguard or two to protect you from a dreaded typo. Here are a few proofreading tools to ensure your writing is flawless.

16. Google Docs: Looking for an app that allows you to write, share, and edit in real-time? Google Docs is a great tool. Google Docs saves documents in real-time. It even keeps track of any notes and comments that have been added throughout the editing process.

17. Grammarly: grammarly.com If you’re looking for a great tool for checking grammar and plagiarism, Grammarly is the perfect option. They offer a free and a premium option. I use premium option primarily to help maintain consistency between American and British English

18. Copyscape: Google hates plagiarised content. You lose credibility, your rankings suffer and no one takes you seriously. You also risk spending a lot of money on a lawsuit if the original publisher sues for copyright. copyscape is arguably the best plagiarism checker

Tools for Pitching
Once you have found a potential client, you will have to pitch new ideas and content to them. These are not conventional copywriting tools, but they can help you to grow your copywriting business.

19. Inspect Element – this universal tool, provided by every web browser, allows you to change the text on any website. If you are playing around with different H1 titles or CTAs, the Inspect Element tool lets you see exactly what it would look like.

20. Gyazo – a simple tool that generates gifs and short videos from screen recordings. If you are discussing a project with a potential client, Gyazo.com will allow you to share an idea. It is especially effective when combined with the Inspect Element tool.

Phew! There you have it.

While the landscape is always changing, the basics resources don’t change.

Knowing where to start can be overwhelming. That’s why guides like this can help give you an headstart.

The beauty of freelance copywriting is that it’s completely flexible. You can work however you want! It’s all about knowing what your strengths are and what you want to achieve in your business.

@ToyosiGodwin @MomentsWithBren @TundeTASH @_lanreolu