5 Must-Have Tools for Content Creators and Website Owners
I like shiny new toys. The only thing I like better than shiny new toys are shiny new toys that make my job easier and improve the value and service Angie’s Copywriting provides to our customers.
The problem with all these toys is finding ones that work well AND save time. Lots of times, I find ones with one or two helpful features and this usually means entering the same information into multiple locations. Or, I end up tracking several applications at the same time.
Well, you’ll be happy to know I’ve found some brilliant programs. They’ve made my life easier, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re a must-have for anyone creating content or running a website.
Project and Strategy Planning — Trello
Fog Creek Software call their wonderful new program “a collaboration tool that organises your projects into boards”, but Trello is so much more.
A free collaborative organizational program, Trello lets you create lists and cards you can add to a virtual board. These cards can then be dragged and dropped between the boards as needed. You can label and filter them, add comments, a voting mechanism, checklists, due dates, and more. (Did I mention you can collaborate with others and even publish the boards publicly?)
Currently, I’m using Trello to organize and track:
Books I’m Writing – I name the board the title of the book. Then, I create a list for each chapter. The subheadings and topics in each chapter are represented by cards in the list.
Marketing Strategies – I have one list for ideas, one for onsite marketing, one for offsite marketing, and one for promotion/advertising. Then, I create a card for each segment. (The email marketing list might contain cards labeled “signup strategies”, “pitches”, and “landing pages” for example.) To help flesh out the concept on each card, I add URLs, ideas, checklists, due dates, and notes in the comments section.
Website Planning and Building – Trello is excellent for keeping up with the constant changes that come with new websites. I create a list for each parent page, cards for each child page, and add links to additional boards in the comments.
For larger websites, I create multiple boards: The first board is divided into steps. So, I’ll make a list for market research, design, structure, content, marketing, etc. Then, each of those lists contains cards that represent and link to yet another board for each of the major steps. (Under marketing, for example, there might be a card for social media with a link to a social media board, one for SEO with a link to the board with all my SEO plans on it, etc.)
Content Creation — As you might imagine, I work on a ton of content for clients, my sites, and sites I run in collaboration with others. While I use Google Calendar and RememberTheMilk to keep everything straight, I found I still needed something to keep track of ideas and what stage each piece is at. So, I created a board specifically for content creation.
To do this, I made a list for each step in the process (ideas, currently writing, waiting for editing, ready-to-publish, published). Then, I drag each idea from one board to another as I get them done.
Easy peasy, right? Trello could use a few tweaks to improve its usability, but they’re pretty new and they’re working like crazy to add new ideas and features. Overall, I am absolutely loving it.
Trello Pros:
- Able to keep up with constant change (drag and drop)
- Excellent collaboration
- Flexible (boards/cards/lists can be used for just about anything)
- Free
- Labeling, filtering, and card customization
Trello Cons:
- Unable to make a card represent a board
- Comments get lost on extremely active cards
- Inability to integrate with other software programs like iCal, Basecamp, and others
Email Marketing and Newsletter Management — MailChimp
For effective email marketing and management, you can’t beat MailChimp. I’ve seen it in action for businesses of various sizes, and it always impresses me.
MailChimp starts with easy-to-build signup widgets and forms. These simple forms collect and automatically add respondents to a list. Then, you can use an existing template or create one of your own to make your own HTML and text emails. (Recipients can choose which format they prefer when they sign up.)
You can schedule the emails to go out at a specific time, create and drip feed an autoresponder series, or send them out immediately. You can send an email out to everyone, or segment your lists to personalise the emails and get a higher conversion rate. MailChimp’s reporting feature and live statistics make it really easy to see how your campaign is performing.
MailChimp offers a number of other services as well including an inspector to ensure safe delivery, an RSS-to-Email tool, geo-location, split testing, and more.
MailChimp Pros:
- Super simple for non-tech types
- Make campaigns as simple or as complicated as you’d like
- Integrates seamlessly with a variety of other software programs
- Flexible campaign creation
- Free or very affordable
- Solid list management
- Excellent reporting feature
- Easy campaign duplication
MailChimp Cons:
- Takes a bit of tinkering when you first start if you’re inexperienced and have no techie know-how
- Would love to see more data collection involved
- A bit clunky when dealing with late sign ups or sending to a single recipient
- Can’t disable social sharing on some emails and not others in a single campaign
Product Marketing and Membership Software — Your Members
A membership plugin designed for WordPress, Your Members isn’t something I’d normally recommend for anything other than creating a membership site, but wait until you can see what it does.
Your Members includes full user management, payment gateway integration, content management, and a ton of other features. It also includes add-on packages for Facebook membership sites, secure video streaming/distribution, and more.
Currently, I’m using Your Members strictly to manage and market the ebook series I’m working on. This plugin will make it possible sell my ebooks individually (choose the ones you want), in bundles of four for a small discount (buy all the books on a specific topic), as an annual 12- month subscription (for all 12 ebooks), or for a significant discount. It will also allow me to offer additional content and ebooks, as well as deliver courses and other features.
I think this is brilliant for anyone who creates content. You can use Your Members to sell your works of fiction (think: a novel and a series of short stories, or releasing the novel as a series), videos, podcasts, products and educational courses, blog posts, web designs, images…If you can make it, Your Members can sell and manage it.
Your Members Pros:
- Create flexible packages and memberships
- Full content control (Hide or show full or partial posts)
- Tons of opportunities to upsell and cross-promote
- Super easy to install, set up, and customize
- Ability to create your own messages and emails
- Integrates easily with other software
- Excellent customer service
Your Members Cons:
- Requires an initial investment
- You need to plan how you’re going to offer your content very carefully
- Must make sure the right people have access to the right content
Social Promotional Tool — inviteApe
Social sharing and word-of-mouth marketing are becoming more and more important. A recent Neilsen study showed more than 70% of consumers trusted socially shared content over brands and official media sources, so why not use this to market your products and services? That’s where the inviteApe WordPress plugin comes in.
This tool allows your followers to share links and information to your website and rewards them when that share pays off! So, if I share a link about my buddy Glenn’s book, and you click the link, I get a free copy. Ok, maybe just a discount or some other free material, but you get the idea. I used it to share initial copies of my first ebook and I don’t have a single complaint.
inviteApe uses Gravatar to create personalised pages for you and all your followers without lifting a finger. You can redirect users and customise the offer however you’d like. It’s a brilliant, quick little app.
inviteApe Pros:
- Easy way to encourage others to share your content and expand your reach
- Very little setup required
- Works for just about anything, and with a little customisation, you can even use it to sell and sign people up to mailing lists
- Works easily with pretty much any theme
inviteApe Cons:
- Need an established social-based following that’s already sharing and paying attention to your content
- Must have a main offer and something to give. This “something” has to attract others who aren’t as familiar with your work and tempt them to share
Invoicing and Bookkeeping — Freshbooks
I love that Freshbooks has a dashboard where all of my clients can log in and see what’s happening with their accounts. The UI is pretty and easy for everyone to use, and it tracks everything involved in my projects including my time, expenses, how long it takes them to pay, how much is outstanding, and how much I’ve been paid for. Best of all? It’s priced at a level that’s suitable for individuals and small businesses.
Another thing I really enjoy about Freshbooks is that it integrates with tons of stuff. This means I don’t have to worry about setting up PayPal requests or copying and pasting the same information multiple times. I just set it up and go.
The time tracking is probably good for people who remember to turn the silly thing on and off, but for me, it just doesn’t work. I need something with automatic tracking, a desktop app that works on my Mac, and something that lets me assign the time to a project, without having to go back to the website. For this, I use Paymo.biz.
Paymo’s time tracking app still needs some tweaking because it’s a bit clunky, but it’s new. And I have to say that it’s the best I’ve found for Mac so far. (Paymo is actually another really good alternative to Freshbooks. However, I find it has more of a project management focus, which is why I chose Freshbooks. I also don’t generally use time to invoice, so it isn’t much of an issue.)
Freshbooks Pros:
- Slick, brandable interface for clients
- Easy and fast to track and send invoices
- Uploading options means you can keep all of your client’s files in one place where they can access them whenever they need to
- Snail mail and email invoicing. Also does recurring payments
- Affordable
- Integrates with Basecamp and numerous other programs small businesses already use
Freshbooks Cons:
- Time tracking is helpful, but it doesn’t auto-track movements on your desktop.
- Another set of log-in details for clients
- Initial setup takes some time
- Frequent tab switching when locating and setting up projects
Customer Relationship Management — CapsuleCRM
CRM programs have been a particular pain for me. I’ve tried a bunch, and I’ve found they all had major issues for me:
- Desktop-based — Really sucks when you travel and frequently switch machines, not to mention a huge resource hog.
- Affordable, but don’t do what I want — I hate having to track everything manually!
- Fantastic, but expensive — If I have to work six months to pay for client management software, I don’t care how well it works. It’s not worth it.
Capsule CRM integrates completely with Gmail, so I never have to re-add information. Just click the button to upload the email and it’s done. It automatically matches the email with the right client.
It manages sales leads, as well. As a small business, I don’t find this section as helpful, but I’m trying to get into the habit of maintaining it for that inevitable day when I realize I’ve once again grown bigger than I thought. Overall, the entire thing is quite intuitive and I no longer have to worry about losing emails to a server crash. (Just be sure to back this up.)
CapsuleCRM Pros:
- Stores contacts individually and as an organisation
- Integrates with other software and apps, as well as social networks
- Makes contacts and organisations easy to find, including any projects or opportunities associated with them
- Change an individual into an organisation or an organisation into an individual
- Merge multiple contacts
CapsuleCRM Cons:
- Doesn’t allow you to make a case into an opportunity or an opportunity into a case
- Doesn’t include cases and opportunities on the dashboard
- No way to search the content of emails? (There may be one, but I haven’t found it yet.)
- Tasks and calendar don’t integrate with iCal and Gmail tasks or other calendar/to-do apps
Content Collaboration — Gather Content
I’ve been looking for a suitable way to share and revise content with clients, and this quest brought me to Gather Content. It basically gives you a way to design mockups and insert content. You can then invite clients, designers, and others involved in the project, so they can revise and tinker with the layout and the various elements. You can assign pages, due dates, and upload content. When you’re done, you can export the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle in one full swoop.
I don’t think I’m using it the way the developers had intended it, but so far, I’m pretty pleased with it. At the moment, I’m using it to design and layout new website content. I’m also using it as a temporary home for all the new content for my existing sites. I couldn’t care less about the design options, but I did have a play with them and thought they worked quite well. I’ll be testing this one further before adding it to my existing client routine.
Gather Content Pros:
- Easily create and move pages
- Files, comments and everything you need is in one place
- Project organisation is fantastic
- Keeps track of what’s due and when
- Easy for others to change things and make comments. (Revisions are all saved, so you can easily move from one revision to the next without losing anything.)
- Free!
Gather Content Cons:
- Having to play with the design is a bit frustrating when you just want to use it for content. You need to add a text box to the page before adding content
- Reloads the entire page when you switch from one page to another. Avoid this by opening pages in multiple tabs
- No integration with other software or apps yet
To Do List — Pegby
I’ve used RememberTheMilk to handle all my to-dos since I started my business. I enjoy it, and find it’s really convenient, but I have been playing with Pegby recently. It’s another one of those pretty drag-and-drop apps that you actually don’t mind playing with. You create one card for each item, and from there, you can add notes, files, and tags. You can push it off until later, or share the board with someone else and delegate the tasks.
This is fun for me, but not practical when things start getting overly complicated. Not to say it won’t work for someone else, but my brain simply doesn’t work that way. That’s why I’m still using RememberTheMilk to handle all of my long-term tasks. But, I’ve found Pegby’s Trello-like information radiator layout is a great option to manage my daily to-do list. (I’m still playing with it, so opinions here may change.)
Pegby Pros:
- Pretty, fun, and makes me want to get things done, so I can move the cards around
- Information radiator layout is ideal for daily task lists
- Free (Works on a pay-what-it’s-worth model)
- Collaboration is pretty simple
- Email cards to the board
- Paying members can make boards public and give them their own branding
Pegby Cons:
- Can’t simply tick off completed tasks if it’s an item with multiple steps
- Not really designed for long-term task management
That’s it for me. What sorts of tools have you recently adopted or been testing? Anything I should try?
*** Update ***
The other day, I tweeted a blog post and made a comment that I really liked the tag cloud the site was using. Today, Infomous replied to my tweet with a thank you and a gift! Turns out, it’s a tool. And they have a bunch of other really neat tools for analysts and publishers like this nifty alternative navigation system. Very nice, yes?
Blog Tag Cloud
Twitter Tag Cloud
Copywriting Master Class Sneak Peek: Creating Successful Link Bait
It’s here! Yesterday, I released the first ebook in the Copywriting Master Class series. It’s 40 pages packed with link-bait-creation goodness!
Today, I thought it would be fun to share a sample of it with you. Enjoy!
Boost the Strength of Your Content
Congratulations. Things seem to be rolling along nicely. Your link bait may even be ranking well in the search results, thanks (at least in part) to a little known ranking factor called ‘Query Deserves Freshness’ (QDF).
(The search engines believe newer content is better, so they often list new content higher in the search results to see how it does. It’s also the result of the high number of links, traffic, and attention new content gets compared to older content. And without maintaining this momentum and establishing your piece, it will start falling in the search results.)
To make the most of your new rankings, and the attention your fresh, new piece of link bait is getting, you’ll need to increase its strength and visibility almost immediately. In fact, I make this part of the pre-planning phase because it takes work and time.
Link Back to Your Own Link Bait
Usually, when I create an important piece of content, I also develop a guest posting strategy to go with it. This way, I’m generating links to keep the content up in the search results, but I’m also driving fresh traffic to the piece, while expanding my reach. (I’ll write more on this later, but in the meantime, check out The Fine Art of Creating a Guest Posting Strategy.)
This strategy is almost identical, except for what I choose to write about, and how I choose my targets.
For example:
Let’s say we’ve created link bait for a car manufacturer entitled ‘The 20 Strangest Cars on the Road’. For guest posts, I would create content that looks at customizing cars, odd cars from history, unique uses for various cars, and other content that touches on the subject of the link bait piece, but doesn’t duplicate it. If it fits, I may add a little extra intrigue by borrowing an image or video from my link bait piece, to use in the guest posts.
Then, I publish a few of the guest posts on the same day as my link bait, a few more the next day, and so on. Why? When readers click through from the guest post to read more of my content or see what I have to offer, they’ll land on the link bait piece, and continue reading. After all, if they were interested in the guest post enough to click through, they’ll likely be interested in our link bait as well.
The transition is smooth, and readers are more likely to read further, rather than returning to the first site. (I should add that I normally don’t publish additional blog content immediately after a link bait piece. I like to milk my link bait for all it’s worth, before moving on.)
The second reason for this is to create a safety net. If something goes wrong with the piece (it attracts the wrong audience, feedback is negative, it’s not getting attention, etc.), I have time and the opportunity to make changes and get things back on track.
When choosing sites to guest post on, I tend to stay away from others in my industry. Instead, I search out sites that are target rich. This means their readers are interested in the content, use my chosen social media networks, and own websites (are likely to link back).
So, in our example, I would look for sites such as car magazines, companies that specialize in customizing cars, high-end recreation websites, and others who attract people with a high income, and an interest in expensive cars. I may even create pieces that look at cars driven by top CEOs and target business magazines and websites.
Blog posts aren’t the only format you can use, of course. Other types include:
- Videos
- Slide shows/presentations
- Ebooks
- Articles
- Press Releases
- An app, widget, game, software, or tool
- White papers
- Case studies
You can use anything really. The only rule is that whatever you choose has to link back to your site and target the right audience.
Continue to Generate Interest
It’s no shock that people lose interest in your content the second you press publish. So, if you’re going to keep people coming back in the weeks ahead, you’ll need to keep working with it.
One I way I accomplish this is to create…
Want to read the rest and find out how I keep traffic coming to my link bait? You’ll have to get your own copy of Copywriting Master Class: Creating Successful Link Bait.
Introducing the Copywriting Master Class: Creating Successful Link Bait
Well, after a good year of planning, writing, and tinkering, it’s finally here!
Drum roll…
Copywriting Master Class: Creating Successful Link Bait
Designed for beginners, and those already creating their own link bait, this 40-page book and accompanying workbook will make creating quality content and generating links a breeze.
Unlike many of the others out there, this ebook doesn’t start with how to write the post or article. It starts right at the very beginning, with a look at what link bait is and isn’t. Then, I walk you through the entire link bait creation process, step-by-step, including what you need to do after you’ve published your content.
You’ll learn how to:
- Identify your target audience.
- Research and find out what they’re interested in.
- Plan your content.
- Write a powerful headline.
- Format and present your content.
- Market and push your link bait.
- Monitor traffic and make changes on the fly.
- Perform a content audit
Find out more about Copywriting Master Class: Creating Successful Link Bait here.
Fun, Free Tools For Writers
Those of us who like words are a special breed. We love words and love to use them, particularly if it means we can psycho-analyze a topic and dissect it down to the letter. But sometimes, when we’re all alone with our laptops, blankets, pillows, and our cats, we just want to let it all go. We want to get all wild and crazy, take off our glasses, and let our hair down.
That’s where these fun, free tools for writers come in. Are they particularly helpful? Not really, but they are fun and they might even get our creative side going a little more.
(Credit)
The Gender Genie
Did you know I can tell whether you’re male or female just by the way you write? Well, not really, but the Gender Genie thinks it can. Based on a New York Times piece, this nifty little tool will determine an author’s gender by running text through a specially designed algorithm.
I Write Like
Do you have a favorite author? Have you always wondered if you write like a famous writer? Well, now you can find out. I Write Like will analyze any content you’ve written and compare it to their database of content written by famous authors to see which one you match best. It’s fun, cool and sorta quirky, just like us!
(Credit)
The Brainstormer
If you’ve ever suffered with writer’s block or have been looking for some inspiration for your latest story, you’ll want to check out The Brainstormer by Distraction Beast. In short, it’s a giant wheel of ideas with three movable circles of ideas. Imagine: a “healing journey with a cannabalist samurai” or “a tale of unconditional love with a Transylvanian shoe maker”. Yeah. Tons of wacky fiction goodness.
Make Your Own Comic Strips
(Strip Creator works, but you’ll need to make an account first and use a screen cap to host it elsewhere. The Bubblr project from Pim Pam Pum lets you use Flickr images while Pikistrips uses your photos.)
750 Word Brain Dumps
Admittedly, my vacation and some recent happenings have derailed this little project for me, but I’m waiting patiently to get back in it. I find 750 Words extremely helpful to just ramble on and I’m actually considering the idea of using it to finish one of the books I currently have on the go. I find that, after dumping almost a thousand words here, my mind is clear, I’m less stressed, and much more able to create everything from strategies to articles.
GobbledyGook Grader
Brevity. Clarity. Conciseness. Try the GobbledyGook Grader content analysis tool.
Linkbait Generator
When a little online app comes up with titles like ’8 Things Copywriters Have In Common With Unicorns’, it makes an instant fan out of me. The Linkbait Generator is definitely on my list. Granted, not all of the titles it comes up with are useable and some are a little adult, but they’re fun and they definitely get your mind going in the right direction. The only downside? I’d love to see them add more formats/headlines into the mix.
Practical SEO Copywriting Review — The Easy Way To Learn SEO Copywriting
I provide SEO copywriting for a number of different businesses, but unfortunately, I haven’t been able to help everyone. You see, a large number of the people who contact me are website owners with budgets that are simply too small for the amount of copy and content they need.
The other group is moms, dads and students who would like to earn some extra cash writing for a living. They want to do it, but they just can’t afford to pay me to teach them one on one and finding a decent course on it is like finding a needle in a haystack blindfolded!
While I do help some of these people on rare occasion, I simply can’t afford to help all of them. Now, with Practical SEO Copywriting by Glenn Murray, I can!
About Glenn…
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Glenn Murray of Divine Write for almost three years now. We met over a tweet about SEO of all things. I was looking for some good quality resources to learn more about SEO, and he was kind enough to offer me a copy of his book SEO Secrets.
Being a creative, writing-obsessed, information addicted, quirky soul with a passion for SEO like me, we hit it off instantly and spent a good chunk of time talking about…I don’t know…something. Anyway, despite the fact that we’re technically competitors, we’ve become colleagues, and most importantly, great friends. We’ve worked together and helped each other more times than I have fingers and toes. (Might explain why I don’t know how many times we’ve helped each other out!)
You’ll never find another copywriter more interested in talking about the industry and willing to help. He’s smart, knows what he’s talking about, and is certainly ahead of the game compared to most in the industry. Naturally, I was excited and flattered when I got a sneak peek at Practical SEO copywriting.
Glenn and Writing
Perhaps one reason Glenn and I get along so well is that we have the same methodologies, techniques, and ideas when it comes to SEO copywriting and running our businesses. (They say imitation is the best form of flattery 
)
Well, we do argue about one thing: I’m a firm believer in the idea that contractions should be used to improve the flow of the writing, but they should be mixed with the long form to add variety and emphasize various points. He doesn’t. As a result, it has become one of our favourite arguments that I poke him with just often enough to keep him on his toes. (I keep meaning to write a post about that…)
Ok, ok. He uses a lot of funny words that remind me of Crocodile Dundee, his spelling is a little off (who spells tire with a ‘y’ anyway? ) and he’s made me go digging through an Australian/Canadian dictionary for a translation more than once, but I digress.
In short, Glenn has written a book that contains the teachings I would have included in a book about SEO copywriting. He is an extremely talented copywriter, successful, and someone I look up to very much.
Practical SEO Copywriting
I absolutely loved the way Glenn formatted and set up the book. Not only was there lots of pretty pictures and tables to look at, but it also meant I could absorb more information by reading less. Who doesn’t like that?
The problem with writing about SEO copywriting is that it contains many problems you don’t encounter or think about until after you get going on it. This can make these situations a bit difficult to for someone new to the gig to understand. Glenn, however, handled it beautifully.
He explored each of the common issues in detail using simple and entertaining English. (I must say that ‘The sniff of an oily rag is the Honda ride-on mower’s equivalent of over-eating!’ is my favourite line in the whole book.) The problems, solutions, and examples included in the book made it easy to understand what he was getting at and how to solve them.
Glenn also covered a number of the dilemmas I was forced to learn through experience. I think this will give everyone wanting to know more about SEO copywriting a huge advantage that those of us who came before this book simply just didn’t have.
Everything you need to know about SEO copywriting is in this book and explained in a way everyone can understand! It’s far better than most of the multiple week training courses I’ve seen, and if you don’t think so, Glenn is more than happy to refund your money. (If it makes you feel better, I don’t remember Glenn ever having to give someone a refund on any of his books.)
What I’d Like To See In The Book…
Like the brain freeze that comes with ice cream, you have to take the good with the bad. On the bright side, the sugary sweet goodness more than makes up for the momentary discomfort.
First of all, Glenn doesn’t talk about himself or brag about himself near enough. I know him, so I know there’s much more to the story that I think others would have related to and found interesting. It would also have gotten readers to realize exactly how big of a deal he really is. (In case you’re wondering, he’s as big in the copywriting world as Oscar the Grouch is on Sesame Street. Wait…is Oscar still on Sesame Street? Never mind. You know where I’m heading with this. You definitely want to get to know him!)
I would have liked to see him dig a bit more into formatting text and the importance of bold, italics, colour, and underlining. On the Web, this can make or break your copy, as far as I’m concerned.
While making headlines and text scannable was mentioned in the book, I would have loved to have seen a section devoted to it. Other items such as studies, reports, statistics, etc that outline the habits of online readers (the first three words of a title, for example) would have been another great set of topics to consider, even if it was simply providing links to further reading.
The book doesn’t dig much into creating headlines, but at the same time, this is sort of a tough one to teach. You just need to practice. A pull file filled with great headlines you find along your travels can really help too.
I think those new to copywriting and websites would have benefited from a set of examples they could refer to. The book does have examples, but some people learn better when they can compare before and after samples in different styles. Perhaps it would have been even better to give some exercises at the end that we could work on and compare to the optimized version? That’s right, I need more dammit!
From now on, those who ask me about SEO copywriting will definitely be getting a link to this book.
So, if you haven’t already purchased Glenn Murray’s Practical SEO Copywriting, I strongly suggest you do so. You won’t be disappointed!
Update: Blair Keen of Good Signal.com did up a great video that takes an excellent look at both of Glenn’s books. However, it gives you a REALLY good look inside the cover of Glenn’s Practical SEO Copywriting. Enjoy!
(Yes, these are affiliate links on an honest review.)
