13 Exciting Tools to Ignite Your Home Business as a Freelance Copywriter
Being a freelance copywriter can be extremely exciting and rewarding. It’s one of the few jobs that allows you to work with many different types of clients and industries while also giving you the freedom to set your own hours.
On top of that, you can make more money than most people make in full-time jobs!
However, it can be difficult to get started as a freelancer if you don’t know where to start. That’s why today I’m going to show you 13 copywriting tools (plus some bonus resources) that will help ignite your freelance copywriter business.
Remember that copywriting is a skill. Even if you think you could never succeed in freelance copywriting work, learning how to write content that sells is surprisingly easy with a bit of time, dedication, and these critical copywriting tools.
What is Freelance Copywriting?
Freelance copywriting is a career in which you want to write copy to sell a product or service. To be successful as a freelance writer, you need to know what makes people tick and how they think.
You also need to understand that it’s not enough to want to write well—you have to know how best to position what you’ve written so it gets read by people who can help your client make money. This is essentially offering writing services in content marketing and SEO content creation.
When most people think of the writing process, they picture an author sitting alone at a desk with nothing but their thoughts and words for company. This isn’t true!
In fact, being a freelance writer is one of the most collaborative writing professions out there. As a freelancer, you’ll spend much of your time working with clients from all over the world—sometimes via phone calls or Skype, sometimes with face-to-face meetings, and even over video games.
Your job is to write fresh, original content that targets a specific niche market. Having these copywriting tools is only step one.
How Much Do Freelance Copywriters Make?
The truth is that being a freelance writer is a great career. You can make anywhere from $15 to $100+ per hour, depending on the copywriting you do and how much experience you have with keyword research, writing, and empathizing with a target audience.
The more you write blog posts and engaging content, the more money you’ll make. So if your goal is to climb up the income ladder as quickly as possible (which it should be), then putting in many hours each week practicing your craft with these copywriting tools while also networking with other professionals will help propel your writing career forward at warp speed.
When I started, I charged $10/500-word blog post on Fiverr.com. Now I am a Pro Fiverr seller earning 5-10X that amount per hour because of these copywriting tools. My mentor makes upwards of $250 per hour because of her experience and online marketing.
The sky is the limit, but you must market yourself and put in the effort. These copywriting tools will help you get to that point and automate much of your creative process and content marketing skills.
13 Best Tools for Freelance Copywriters
Grammarly is a browser extension and copywriting tool website that can help you catch spelling and grammar mistakes. It works on almost any website (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Gmail), and it’s free to use up to a point.
The copywriting tool also has fantastic features, like detecting passive voice sentences or vague terms to elevate your writing. In addition, the tool highlights errors on your screen when you’re typing, so you don’t have to go back and re-read what you wrote for missing apostrophes or typos.
You can get started at $12/month for a premium account that should serve your purposes well until you need to upgrade when more work comes your way.
Hemingway Editor is a powerful copywriting tool that checks your writing for readability and style. The editor highlights difficult words, passive voice, adverbs, and more so you can see what needs to be improved. This is the best tool if you want to write a children’s book.
Best of all, the Hemingway Editor has a free version that is compatible with Google Docs when you want to copy and paste for a quick check of your work. Of course, it’s not the only tool for checking readability, but it does offer a few extra features like synonyms and an online calculator that shows you how many characters are on your page based on the number of sentences.
Fiverr is a popular freelance marketplace website where you can find various services for low rates. It’s a great place to research quotes for small jobs, and it’s easy to contact professional freelancers for your blog, website, audience, or social media post copy.
This is the freelance copywriting resource where I got my start. I offered 3 gigs (product descriptions, blog posts, and website content) and built up a portfolio of clients – many of which now work with me privately.
People on Fiverr have been pre-screened. It’s unlikely that you’ll come across any bad apples here. The site uses an automated system to filter freelancers who haven’t met their hiring standards.
That means less time wasted sifting through irrelevant submissions or dealing with annoying applications from unqualified or unreliable candidates. This saves you time and effort in finding quality writers.
Copyscape is a tool that checks if your content is plagiarized. It can also find unoriginal content. This will let you know if your work has been copied from elsewhere. It’s an excellent way to track what other people have written about similar topics so that you don’t accidentally repeat them in future articles.
Most clients want the reassurance that their work is original, especially if they are paying premium pricing. Running your work through Copyscape will give them the peace of mind that the content you have written is 100% original.
Headlines are critical to getting people to read your content. A good headline makes readers want to click, view, and read a piece of content. It should be short, catchy, and make people want to read the article or at least click on it.
The best headlines are those that relate directly back to the content itself but also engage the reader with curiosity or intrigue. This can be done by asking questions, being controversial, or just making people curious about what you will say next in your article. The goal is simple: get them interested enough in what you have written, so they continue reading until they finish!
CoSchedule helps you perfect how you write headlines by emphasizing emotional words, power words, and a healthy mix of common/uncommon phrases.
Google Docs and Drive are a great way to keep all your information in one place. They’re also free, which means that even if you don’t have a ton of money to spend on tools, you can get these and start using them right away.
Plus, they work across all devices—your desktop computer, laptop, and mobile phone—so you’re never far from the file you need to use. This makes it easy to share, so if you’re working on writing a eulogy, you can easily communicate in real time with the client’s family members for approval.
This is especially helpful for freelancers who work from different locations or frequently travel for work-related reasons, such as attending conferences or seminars. You don’t have to worry about losing data as everything is saved in the cloud.
Readable is a free tool that checks for readability. It checks for the correct word count, sentence length, and complexity (i.e., the number of syllables in each word).
It also helps you find the right words and phrases to use based on what’s in common usage, as well as relevant data about your audience (like where they live) and their job titles. It has a Chrome extension and a macOS app.
You have to be a little careful because you don’t want to minimize your creativity, but you aren’t also looking to be Agatha Christie in freelance copywriting.
There are many blogging platforms out there, but WordPress is the most popular. It’s free to use and easy to learn, but you will have to pay for a domain and hosting plan. I suggest Bluehost for those needs or Hostgator for a more affordable option.
The WordPress app store has thousands of plugins that allow you to build landing pages and track your social media stats, create a portfolio website, or even sell freelance copywriter services directly on your blog.
Thesaurus.com is a free online thesaurus and dictionary that can help you find synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and related words. You can search for terms by synonym or antonym (i.e., “blue” or “green”). The site also allows you to search by word origin and etymology (i.e., “water” will take you back to its Latin roots).
I use this writing tool for both how to write a novel and any professional freelancing work.
Idioms Dictionary is one of my favorite tools because it gives me access not only to these valuable nuggets of wisdom but also to a whole world full of exciting stories that I might not have known about otherwise.
For example: did you know that in ancient times there were no words for “left foot” or “right hand?” Instead, people used their left hand for everything on their right side (and vice versa). Or did you know that “shark” translates into German as “jumping fish?” These tidbits will make your copy sparkle with personality and color!
If you’re looking to rank in Google, then Surfer SEO is one of the best tools for finding keywords relevant to your freelance copywriter business. With this tool, you can easily filter through a list of suggested keywords and apply filters such as search volume, competition level, and cost per click (CPC).
You can also use local search terms to target customers who are searching within your area. This is an excellent way of getting more qualified leads while improving local visibility on Google.
Ahrefs is a free tool that allows you to find and track keywords. It’s helpful in finding new keyword ideas, the most popular keywords, the most profitable keywords, and more. It also tells you how many people are searching for each keyword in both Google and Bing (and other search engines).
The best thing about Ahrefs is that it provides data on every possible aspect of your freelance copywriter business competition levels, industry-specific rankings, and so much more.
If you want to become a freelance copywriter who can make money from your home office, then this tool will help you achieve this goal.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are named pomodoros, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student.
The Pomodoro Timer is a 25-minute organizer of your day’s upcoming goals, needs, and tasks. It will help you stay focused and ensure you get the most out of your time management.
Bonus Digital Media Copywriting Resources
Canva is a fantastic copywriting tool for creating graphics and designs. It’s also free, making it an affordable option for all freelancers. This saves you a ton on writing supplies by offering easily editable digital media.
Canva is best used to create social media posts, blog graphics, and infographics. This free graphic design software can help you easily create great-looking marketing materials for your business or clients.
Pexels is a free stock photo website with millions of high-quality photos, vectors, and illustrations. You can search by keyword or browse their categories, like “animals” or “coffee.” The site has a large selection of images and videos for you to use in your next project.
Pexels makes it easy for anyone to find what they need online – even if they don’t know what it looks like yet. Whether starting an online store or updating your brand identity on social media, Pexels provides high-quality images at no cost.
Use These Tools to Elevate Your Freelance Copywriting Business
A successful freelance copywriter business can be achieved with a few simple tools. These tools will help you increase your productivity, improve your writing and potentially increase your income.
Developing your creative writing skills doesn’t have to be intimidating or difficult. In fact, it can be fun and fulfilling for any freelance copywriter at any stage of their career.
If you are looking for inspiration, motivation, or just a little push in the right direction? Look no further than these thirteen tools that will ignite your freelance copywriter business!