Today I am going to share my complete list of tools that I have been using to churn out high quality (at least that’s what I think) articles on my blog. Whether you are an aspiring blogger or a small business owner, a large part of your online success story will depend on the content you have to offer to your audience.
The internet is evolving fast but if there is one thing that remains unchanged it’s the power of informative quality content. Generating content for your business takes time as well as a lot of brainstorming. It’s an entire process, often ignored by many without realizing the true potential. However, creating high quality content is time consuming and there are no shortcuts available. It involves researching, coming up with a plan and finally putting everything together to generate something that will be of use to others. Without further due here are the tools that I use for generating content.
For Generating Ideas and Taking Down Notes
MindMeister – This is a great took for brainstorming and creating mind map. I usually use Mindmeister for gather ideas on the go, planning my next set of content or even structuring a long pillar post.
Evernote – One of the tools that I use everyday to organize and segment all the notes that I take while researching or searching for a new content idea. Evernote is a great place to store all your ideas and you can really use it effectively once you introduce it to your writing ecosystem.
Graphic Designing Tools
Adobe Photoshop – All the banners that you see on my website are designed by me. I am a graphic designer and Photoshop is by far the industry standard when it comes to desigining graphics or anything visual. However, if you are not a professional designer like me then there are quite a few alternatives that let you easily create compelling content:
- Pixelmator (Mac)
- Canva (On the Web)
- Gimp (Windows)
Adobe Illustrator – I use adobe illustrator for designing most of the diagrams or flowchart while writing my posts. Illustrator is a great vector graphics tool and it’s best suited for high quality text or diagrammatic output. Again, if you want something simple here are my alternative recommendations:
- Gliffy (on the web)
- Simple Diagrams (desktop)
Creating E-Books
Creating E-Books is something that I have been investing quite a lot of time lately. My first e-book for this website will be up in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait to share it with you guys. E-Books are great for generating high quality leads as well as getting lots of organic traffic to your blog if you market it right. However, most creators will agree that it takes an awful lot of time from gathering your first E-Book idea to delivering the finished product. Here are some of the tools that I use for E-Books specifically.
Adobe InDesign (Windows, Mac)– I use In-Design as well as illustrator to create the final E-Book for download. I simply export the finished product as PDF and then I can share it with all you guys. For beginner’s here are my recommendations:
PowerPoint (Windows, Mac) – Easy to use and can be a great tool for creating an effective e-book especially if it’s your first time.
Blurb (on the web) – A bit expensive but comes with a set of pre-built templates that you can use. You can export the E-Book for iPad as well as Kindle. Extremely easy to use interface.
Creating Infographics
Another area that I am heavily investing my time lately is the creation of useful infographics. Ideally you want to research using my tools mentioned above and use Photoshop to create a compelling custom infographic. However there are some great free online tools that let’s you create an infographic online:
Infogr.am (web) – One of my personal favorites. Let’s you pick and select from their wide array of pre-built templates.
Pictochart (web) – Another web based infographic solution. I find their interface quite easy to use. It’s free as well.
Bonus: How to Find Data For Creating Infographics
Writing Content
WordPress Default Editor – I find the default WordPress editor to be quite intuitive in terms of writing a blog post. Once you enter the full screen mode you can really focus on writing and adding content. However, I use the WordPress editor only to compile my final post.
iA Writer – My personal favorite for writing pillar content. iA Writer is arguably one of the best writing apps for the Mac. Their clean distraction free interface is perfect for those long stretches of writing.
Stock Images And Graphics For Your Content
Sometimes instead of creating a graphic from scratch you may want to use it directly from a source provided that you are allowed to share their stuff on your own website. Here are some of the places I often visit to get visual illustrations and stock photos for my blog post:
FreePik – My personal favorite place to go to when it comes to visual illustrations for any kind of content. Their inventory is huge and quite insightful on almost any topic. You can choose between vectors, stock pictures and PSD files. If you want to use their content on your post then you need to give them a link back or subscribe for $9.99 a month. Now that’s awesome!
Flat Icons – My go to place when I am trying to find a particular image of any icon. You can export as PNG, SVG, BMP as well as choose multiple sizes & colors. Their inventory is extensive and often updated with new icons.
Bonus: 17 Places to Find Free Stock Photos
Conclusion
These are some of my personal tools and recommendations for creating effective content on your website. Feel free to share some of the tools that you have been using and we can expand this article even further for readers.
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