Everyone wants to know how to create amazing content. In the online world, there is one thing that draws people to you. That happens to be your content creation skills. Without content… [silence]. You don't need to be a content creation agency to make awesome content. All you need is some great content creation tools. Keep reading for heaps of content creation made easy tips and content marketing solutions!
Whether you’re a blog content creator, video marketer, internet marketer, or a digital product creator - or any online content creator in between - you’ve no doubt struggled with content creation at some point.
You can have the best ideas, but if you don’t know how to use that idea to build quality content for a website, it makes it much harder be successful.
Sure you want the right font, colour, design, etc. The most important part of your website, however, is your content. If you don't create amazing content, that interests your audience, your website cannot survive.
Content is king! Or queen. Or chief honcho. Whatever.
I know you already know this. We all do. So, if everyone knows this, what's the problem? In truth, there is probably two problems:
- You don't have any content ideas, and/or;
- You struggle to put the content together so it looks awesome and drives traffic.
There is a third problem, too.
There are so many content creation tools out there these days. Each of them promises to help you create unmissable content. Content that will blow your competitors out of the water.
But if you tried to use all these tools, you'll end up never getting anything done. Ever.
You'd also be flat broke.
Trust me. I've tried.
So, in the past 8 months, I've narrowed the list of content creation tools I use right down. There may be one or two extra tools I use every few months or so. But the following are the only tools I rely on to create amazing content and grow my business.
I have also thrown in a list of awesome content creation books at the end that are definitely worth a read.
The following may include affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase after clicking one of my links, I may make some commission. But this will be at no extra cost to you. I only ever recommend things I trust and use myself (or have used). You can use my full disclaimer here.
Create Amazing Written Content and Websites
PLR
PLR stands for private label rights. PLR content is content that you can buy, edit, brand, and sell/use as if it was your own. You can get all sorts of PLR content, from written content, to video, to the templates you can find in my store.
Let's focus on written content for now. It might feel a bit odd to use PLR but it is exactly the same as hiring a copywriter. But way cheaper!
You can edit you PLR in anyway you wish. Break it down, merge it together, change it completely … It's up to you. Even if you buy a pack of 20 PLR articles just to get 20+ blog post ideas, you're still going to be way further towards creating amazing content than you were before.
Check out these Awesome PLR Suppliers as I don't offer much written PLR content.
Grammarly
I use Grammarly for nearly everything I write.
Not only is it useful for making sure everything you write makes sense, it's perfect for helping to make PLR unique. Grammarly has a built in Plagiarism Checker.
You'll easily be able to see who has used the PLR before and make tweaks as you go. I always aim for 40% unique or higher - depending on what the PLR is for. You can use it free, but I've been paying for it for years!
Thrive themes
People are always commenting on my website. The general consensus is that it must take me hours to build all my pages. It genuinely doesn't.
It doesn't have to take hours to create amazing content.
When I first started working online everything took me hours! Given that I do everything myself, I don't have hours.
Now, beyond actually writing my web content and getting all the images together, no part of my website takes me longer than 20 minutes to build.
This is thanks to all the Thrive Themes plugins. They might cost a few $$ but they are worth every penny.
Think this blog post looks good? It took 21 minutes to build thanks to Thrive Themes. That time mostly involved adding links.
Create Amazing Content with Images
Stencil
There literally isn't enough room to tell you all the reasons I love Stencil. But I'll tell you a few:
- You can quickly create images and post directly to social media. How does getting an image onto Pinterest in two minutes flat sound?
- Got a WordPress website? There's a plugin! Create your blog images inside WordPress - no downloading and uploading necessary. Time saved? Hours! The images in this post took 3 minutes to create and insert - all of them!
- Got an image on your website that you want to turn into a Pinterest Pin or Facebook image? Get the Stencil browser extension, right-click the image, Open with Stencil and you'll have a Pin within seconds.
- Stencil is my number one image creation tool - check it out here
RelayThat
RelayThat is my secret weapon for creating tons of different size images with the same design. Have you checked out the images in this post? Content creation made easy, for sure!
It as as close to automated content creation for images as you're going to get!
With just a few basic ingredients and tweaks, RelayThat conjures up thousands of beautiful designs in every format and size you could want.
You can drag-and-drop your content and publish stunning designs in seconds.
With every change, the entire layout library is instantly updated. So, you won't need to spend hours trying to resize and remake images.
You can create banners, ads, or social media images, and this tool automatically creates perfectly sized images every time. 50 pins created in 10 minutes, anyone? I thought so!
RelayThat is currently on AppSumo for $49 for a lifetime deal - no extra bills! Sure it might take a bit of getting used to but it is 100% worth it.
Check out RelayThat here and add it to your list of content creation tools
Ripl and Animoto
I've put these two together because they do similar things and are both amazing to use.
If you want to create video to capture people's attention but don't want to spend hours fiddling around and editing, these are the tools for you.
You can make eye-catching videos in about 3-5 minutes!
Check out Ripl here for a free trial
Check out Animoto here for a 30 day free trial
CreativeFabrica
It can be really hard to find amazing graphics with licences flexible enough to be able to actually use!
My absolute favourite place to get graphics is CreativeFabrica. In fact, it isn't just my favourite. It is the only place I'm willing to pay for, month after month.
I have the $29 plan and that gives you unlimited downloads of both graphics and fonts.
I have hard drives full of graphics and fonts. So, trust me when I say CreativeFabrica is the only place I recommend you check out to help you create amazing content.
eCover Authority
Did you know, you're more likely to sell a digital product if you have a mock-up of what it would look like if it was a physical product. I've tested this myself.
Even if you're selling a printable journal that will never be in book form, your customer will be more likely to imagine themselves using it if they see a book mock-up.
This is one of those content marketing solutions you don't think you need. But you really do!
eCover Authority allows you to create awesome product mock-ups super fast without needing Photoshop or other fiddly software. I use this for every single product I create and cannot recommend it highly enough.
It's $47 for lifetime access, this might feel like a lot but if professional images get you sales…Check it out here.
Lead Magnets & Product Creation
Powerpoint
Whenever you look up how to create journals, worksheets and other printables, there are a few programmes and tools that will always get a mention. These tend to be Canva, Picmonkey, InDesign, and even Microsoft Word.
Oddly, perhaps the easiest to use never even gets a look in: PowerPoint.
I get it.
When someone says PowerPoint, your mind immediately thinks presentations. You probably don't think it would help you create amazing content
For the past year or so, I've used PowerPoint for about 3-6 hours a day every day. Only once, in that time, was I putting together a presentation. The rest of the time I was creating journals, notebooks and workbooks… not to mention the few hundred Pinterest Pins I've created (yep, you read that right!)
Before starting to use PowerPoint, I was an avid Canva fan. When someone suggested I made the switch, I was sceptical - no way it would be easier to use than Canva!
A few weeks later, I realised I had been wasting days at a time trying to do things on Canva, which now take less than an hour on PowerPoint.
Now, if anyone told me they wanted to create journals, worksheets and other printables, I would never recommend anything other than PowerPoint. Ever.
The Microsoft Office Suite is about $80 a year. But given that I've made over $40,000 in 9 months just using Powerpoint, I recommend you give it a try!
Designrr
Designrr is a powerful content repurposing tool that not only creates ebooks, but also blog posts, all from various different content sources.
It is also the only solution that can repurpose video and audio content into ebooks and blog posts within a few minutes.
I use Designrr for turning blog posts into awesome freebies (want to keep this post to read later? Click here). All this needs is a link to the blog post and Designrr will do the rest of the work for me - I just need to make a few tweaks here and there and away we go.
If you want to get more people on your email list, you need better content marketing solutions. Designrr is one of those!
Check it out here, I've snagged you lifetime access for $27!
content creation made easy
Copyclip and Ditto
If you're anything like me, copy and paste are your best friends. I think I'd be wrong to assume that you don't press Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V about 1000 times a day. If you don't, how do you live?!
But I bet there are times you wish you could copy 100 things have have that list to hand at all times. You know, so you could just click one them and have them pasted in for you.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
This is exactly what Copyclip and Ditto do. They're both free too. I paid $3 to get extra features on Copyclip because I use it so much. But you don't need to.
Copyclip is for Mac and you can grab it here.
Ditto is for Windows and you can grab it here.
Typeit4me
Do you find yourself typing the same thing over and over? Do you often wish you had predictive text on your laptop so you could simply type a few letters and it would guess the rest?
That's exactly what Typeit4Me does.
This is my most recent discovery. I've just gone through the 30-day free trial and had no trouble whatsoever paying the $20 for the full licence. It was worth it!
Simply spend a bit of time inputting all the things you no longer want to type out, choose your snippets, and away you go.
For example, I was recently going through my website, updating the HTML code for all the images I don't want people to be able to pin to Pinterest. I didn't want to keep typing the code and I didn't want to add it onto my CopyClip.
So, I added "dpnp" to my Typeit4Me. Now, that’s all I need to type to get data-pin-nopin="true" - genius huh?
Or maybe you're sick of typing your affiliate link disclaimer?
"afflink" = This contains affiliate links. I may earn commission if you purchase via my links. However, I only ever recommend sellers & products I know and trust.
Now, you can't deny that's cool!
Fresh Title & Title Analyzer
I'm sure I don't need to tell you how important you titles are when it comes to driving traffic. It may not take up a lot of time in the whole content creation process. But it definitely needs more attention than many people give it. It is one of the most important aspects when you create awesome content.
Fresh Title is a desktop programme (Windows and Mac). It basically gives you a massive library of clickable titles with a click of a button. It really is super useful.
Coming up with titles used to be my least favourite job - for blog posts and emails. It was just something I really struggled with. Not anymore!
Fresh Title simply lets you put in a few words that you want in your title, then brings up long lists of titles you can copy and paste over. The titles may need slight editing, but not much… And away you go.
You can also save lists of titles that you can save for later.
If you grab Fresh Title through this link, you'll also get a free copy of Title Analyzer. This will analyse the strength of your title for you.
Staying Organised to Create Awesome Content
In order to create amazing content, first you have to plan!
Todoist
I'm not kidding when I say I have tried every productivity tool known to man. There is literally only one tool that has stood the test of time: ToDoist.
First of all, I am a former athlete so the fact that I get points for ticking things off my to-do list is a bonus. But other than that, it's just an incredibly useful tool that makes me so happy to use.
It's the little things that make Todoist awesome:
- Set up projects to divide your to-do lists up
- Set recurring dates for any periods (e.g monthly, every other Tuesday etc)
- Set up templates. If you do similar projects all the time, you can export the template and import it as often as you like.
- The browser extensions allow you to highlight something on any webpage then add it to Todoist. Not only will this add the text, it adds the URL, which is clickable. This is really useful to remind you to go back to that exact page or if you want a list of all your blog posts for future updates.
- Integrate individual products with your calendars so you can have a visual of all your tasks. Perfect for quickly creating a content calendar.
You can use Todoist completely free or get all the features for $44 a year. Given that it has changed my life from complete chaos to having a clear plan, I refuse to live without all the features. Take a look here.
OneNote
I use OneNote for absolutely all my writing before I prettify it. Even my journals and planners start life in OneNote.
You can have unlimited notebooks, with unlimited sections and pages. This means you can keep everything neat and tidy in one place. You can do the same using Evernote. However, OneNote feels far more intuitive and flexible - and way cheaper!
OneNote is completely cloud based so it is constantly saving for you and available on any device.
Often I will copy PLR content into OneNote, then add different coloured notes on the side to give me direction. So useful! Definitely something a blog content creator needs!
OneNote is part of Microsoft Office so you may already have access to it and just not know it. If not, I believe you can get it free these days (I'm 99% sure). You can also sync it with ALL your devices (there's no limit to this).
Social Media Content Creation Tools
There are absolutely tons of social media tools out there. I could probably tell you about 20 different platforms you could use. But there are only two that I highly recommend.
Tailwind
Pinterest and Instagram are both tricky to post to. With Pinterest, things are ever changing and there's a knack to getting it right - that "knack" isn't the same for everyone either. For Instagram, you can't truly schedule your posts any old way - with most platforms you can only schedule notifications to remind you to post. See, tricky!
Tailwind has you covered with both of these! Yes, it might feel expensive as you have to pay for each profile separately. But trust me, if you use Pinterest and Instagram and want an easy life, Tailwind is 100% the way to go.
Check it out and grab your free trials here.
SocialBee
I'm relatively new to SocialBee as I took a full break from social media for a while. But of all the SM tools I've used (which is a lot), it is already my favourite.
I love that you can set up content categories and evergreen content so posts can keep going out without you constantly having to fill up your schedules every five minutes. Been there - I definitely have better things to do!
There is a lot to SocialBee so I recommend you check it out here and use the free trial.
What tools can you not live without? Let me know in the comments below...
The following may include affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase after clicking one of my links, I may make some commission. But this will be at no extra cost to you. I only ever recommend things I trust and use myself (or have used). You can use my full disclaimer here.