A Beginner’s Guide On How To Use Content Creation Tools.

You are probably a Content Creator not just because of your writing or creative skills, but because you have the ability to create a relevant piece of information people want to engage with. Every Content Creator will agree that having a passion for the job isn’t enough to help you get by; you need all the help you can get to ensure that every content you create is excellent and flawless. As a beginner, it is so exciting creating your first content because the truth is there is something beautiful about seeing your thoughts come to life and making an impact on people who come across them. But you will soon discover that it is even much more challenging without the right resources or tools.

You should give yourself a pat on the back for reading this article because you’ve reached the right place if you need to arm yourself with the right content creation tools to become an excellent Content Creator. Thankfully, there are great content creation tools and resources that will help you with every aspect of content creation and we have taken the time to highlight them just for you. Content creation is a process, especially if you want to make sure your content reaches the right audience. So, for every stage and aspect of content creation, there are content creation tools that will help you ultimately make great content; from ideation to completion.

The Research Stage

The first thing a content creator needs to do before they start work at all is research, and your research can start from getting the topic to write on or to find out more information about the topic you have in mind. To rank properly on search engines, you need to master your SEO and one of the ways to properly optimise your content for humans and search engines is to make sure the topic you are working on, in the first place, is something a lot of people are interested in; and you will find this out through research.

Google Docs Research Tool

The beauty of the Google Docs Research Tool is that it saves you time and the effort it would have taken to open another window for your research while working on Google Docs. You can work on your drive and research by the side. All you have to do is click on ‘Tools’ on the menu bar and select ‘Explore’.

Answer The Public

As the name implies, Answer The Public helps you find questions asked by the public, so you can provide them with an answer. It is a Search Engine Optimisation tool that helps you generate SEO-friendly topics to work on that are guaranteed to reach your target audience because you will be addressing a question the public is asking.

Blog Topic Generator

Have you ever found it difficult to come up with a blog topic to write on or to create a catchy topic? This tool is here to help you get your creative juices flowing. All you have to do is put in a word or the niche of your blog and it will generate topic ideas. You don’t necessarily have to use the topic ideas provided, but it will help you get creative. Thankfully, there are several blog topic generators online; you just have to pick the one that suits you or even try them all, if you want.

Search Engines

This is quite obvious. While you might not necessarily get topic ideas on search engines, you need search engines to do proper research on the topic. If you are writing on a non-fictional topic, even if you are vastly knowledgeable about it, it is advisable to do a little research still and you will get a lot of entries on search engines to get started.

 

For Writing

You probably already are a great writer; that doesn’t mean you can’t be greater; these content creation tools for writing will help polish your writing.

Evernote

Many writers can relate to having beautiful ideas at random moments that if they don’t note down at that exact moment, they will forget. Evernote is useful for saving those ideas and making notes; it can also serve as a backup for works you don’t want to lose, to set reminders and so much more. The greatest feature of Evernote is the mobile and desktop sync. You can stop working from your phone and continue on your laptop without hassle. The paid version, of course, has more features, for instance, you can sync more devices, but even the free version is a gem.

Grammarly

It is no news that perfection eludes us as humans; we can only do so much to present a perfect work void of any errors at all. This is where Grammarly comes in; while you should still proofread your work, Grammarly will further help you do more thorough work. Remember that you still have to check the suggestions provided by this tool because the software sometimes doesn’t give room for exceptions in grammar. But largely, it will point out the errors that you might miss out on. Grammarly also helps check plagiarism.

Hemingway App

One of the challenges some writers can relate to is finding a suitable tone for their article because they want to find a balance between communicating and also sounding like a professional writer. Hemingway App helps you find that balance by making your work easy to read and understand. It got its name from Ernest Hemingway, who is known for his simple writing style and so, the app helps you access passive voice and difficult/complex sentences.

Headline Analyser

The title is just as important as the main content; whether we like it or not, we all want our content to be read and one of the ways to attract readers is through the title. You want to make sure not to simply have a clickbait but a catchy title that will make them click on your article. The Headline Analyser tools let you know how effective your headline is in driving social share and traffic, as well as how valuable it is for SEO. In the end, you can still go with your guts on your headlines but you will, at least, know if your title is good to go or needs to be reviewed.

For Visuals

Research has shown that visual contents do better than written contents because people enjoy watching videos and seeing beautiful images and also, the attention span of people has reduced with so many distractions around. It is only expected that you keep up with the trends by including visuals in your content and these content creation tools will make it easy to create great visual content.

Canva

The most attractive feature of Canva is how simple it is to navigate. You just need basic tech knowledge to work with Canva. If you are not a graphic designer and need quick images and short videos, Canva will help you create amazing visuals. Canva makes it easy by providing you with different templates and images for free that you’ll only need to edit when creating your visuals. Of course, there are premium contents that you will have to pay for but even the free version is very effective.

Infogram

Infographics are quite popular among content creators because they are visual content and they help highlight information at a go with facts and figures. If you decide to use infographics, Infogram is a simple tool to use. One attractive feature it has is that it is compatible with Microsoft Excel.

RawShorts

For a beginner, RawShorts is a very effective tool for creating videos. It has video templates that you can edit by inserting text and images, and editing effects, amongst others. There are more complicated tools for expert videographers but for a Content Creator who wants to make simple videos, RawShorts will give you what you need.

Pixabay

Pixabay offers over a million free stock images, illustrations and vectors to help create your pictorial and video visuals. While you don’t have to always use videos, images are practically indispensable, especially on your website and on Instagram. But across all platforms, written content with images do better. However, to avoid using overused images, you can find great images on Pixabay that you can use without attribution. There are also premium images for a fee.

SlideShare

Creating content in slides are also quite popular these days and SlideShare by LinkedIn has made it easy. The tool provides templates to help you create PowerPoint presentations that you can share across all platforms.

For Podcasts

Audio content has always been effective because people can listen to it at any time while doing other things. This is probably why podcasts became popular quite fast. These podcasts tools will help you in creating your own podcasts.

Audacity

Audacity is very effective for creating podcasts because it caters to people at all levels of expertise; beginner or expert. It is easy to navigate for both multitrack recording and editing, and it is completely free.

Acast

Acast is very easy to use and so, it is usually the recommended tool for beginners. All you have to do is record your podcast, create a ‘Show’, upload and share the podcast. You can also get free transcription services. Acast, like most content creation tools, has the free version and paid version.

This list is by no means exhaustive as there are a whole lot more content creation tools that you would find useful, especially as you advance in your career. However, for a beginner, the tools on this list will go a long way in helping you become an excellent Content Creator.