[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Top skinny IC Logo Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#cc4315″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” global_module=”26126″][et_pb_row global_parent=”26126″ make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” padding_top_1=”0px” padding_right_1=”0px” padding_bottom_1=”0px” padding_left_1=”0px” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”IC logo Image” global_parent=”26126″ src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IC-logo-horizontal-framed-e1468862028685.jpg” alt=”Iris Content logo” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” url=”https://iriscontent.com” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” background_image=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IMG_420255.jpg” background_color=”#ffffff” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.58″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_divider color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”200″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog Post Title Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Cantata One||||” text_font_size=”72″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.1em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” text_font_size_tablet=”52″ _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
The Best Content Creating Tools and Resources That You Can Use for Success
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”0px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog post Date Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”10em” text_text_color=”#cc4315″ border_style=”solid” text_line_height=”1.1em” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
10
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off” custom_css_main_element=”width:20px;” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Month Year Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Montserrat|on|||” text_font_size=”18″ text_text_color=”#cc4315″ border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”-10px||0px|” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
JULY 2017
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”24″ text_text_color=”#363636″ border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”10px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.4em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
There is no special button or automated program that creates content — content is expected to be unique, high-quality, and still delivered in a timely manner. While content creation is manual-based, there are several programs that make content creation a little easier.
This list features some of the best tools for creating content. These include tools that assist with researching, writing, editing, and designing content. Since content creation reaches to several lengths, these tools help with visual content as well as written content. These programs can also help strengthen content creation skills, and improve on any areas of weakness when creating content. These tools aren’t meant to replace creating quality content — they help craft better content creators!
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
This is an all-in-one content managing program. You can add assignments to an editorial calendar, assign the assignments to contributors, manage blogs, and control the publishing.
With content marketing, blog and website owners are either trying to increase traffic or sales if it’s an eCommerce site. Cadence9 is versatile in its efforts to assist both types of content marketing. This is one of the many reasons why it’s such a useful platform.
Are you new to publishing physical material? This software is free and you can publish a wide variety of material such as magazines, eBooks, and catalogs.
Another great quality about issuu is you can integrate it with other programs. An example is how issuu can embed PDF files on the CMS platform Squarespace.
The contributors of this website are all content creation masters. What better way to learn than to see the pros at work? Signing up for an account is free. This will account will give access to their marketing materials. Don’t feel like signing up for an account? Their blog is always updated and gives great advice on content creation. An account isn’t needed to read their blog.
Founder Brian Clark has some of the best advice to market a brand: understand what the website followers want. Copyblogger started as a way for Brian to connect with his audience and find out where they struggled. He not only connected with his audience, but he was humbled in his efforts. Because of this, his brand grew to be successful.
This source is a go-to for all blogging questions. ProBlogger assists with struggles pertaining to writing, editing, and organizing ideas. ProBlogger also suggests the best ways to build a blog. While plenty of their sources are free, the most intricate pieces of advice come with a cost.
Don’t hog the blogs! Let all team members view them. Docalytics is a cloud-based software that allows everyone in a company to view the documents and blogs. They can also review analytics and track any leads, which is perfect when collaborating on marketing campaigns.
All content creators know the importance of SEO. There are a number of great tools to find the best search terms. SEM Rush is perfect for finding search terms results with a combination of organic and paid search results.
The layout of the program is convenient; there are ways to measure multiple factors of a keyword search such as its volume and its signifiance per geographical location. It has also received great reviews.
Every content creator knows how to search for keywords, use them in their content, and utilize tags. But are you really optimizing SEO? BrightEdge will take a hard look at your blog and will judge the SEO performance. From there, BrightEdge gives feedback on the SEO performance.
In addition, BrightEdge gives an in-depth analysis of your blog writing and its structure. This includes comparing the performance of your content to the performance of your competitor’s content.
Hootsuite is most famous for its convenient managing software, allowing the managementment of multiple social media outlets. Hootsuite also allows posting on multiple accounts at the same time, analyzing social media traffic, viewing all mentions, collaborating with other team members, and conveniently scheduling posts.
In Journalism 101, you’re drilled with the importance of a strong headline — and are often assigned to come up with a powerful headline for an assignment. Now that there is advanced technology, the computer can come up with great headlines! Or they can at least help with headlines. Headline Analyzer will judge your headline on its emotional context, any repetitiveness, its uniqueness, and other factors that could make or break the headline of an article.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding_tablet=”17px|||” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-Best-Content-Creating-Tools-and-Resources-That-You-Can-Use-for-Success.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”max-height=600px” _builder_version=”3.0.58″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”0px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
Not all content creators are design geniuses. No longer are the days when a writer types up their assignment, submits it to the editor who then submits it to the designer. Today, a writer is almost required to do the writing AND designing. Or, it at least looks great on a resume and portfolio that a writer typed and designed their projects.
While it’s best to use software such as Adobe’s InDesign, Canva is great for a beginner. You can choose the type of document you want to create (flyer, business card, etc.) and choose the font, colors, background image/color, and be able to place and organize text and graphics for the convenience and style.
Canva is also free! And Canva has a lot of great templates that are free for use, but they also offer more intricate templates that cost a small charge (never more than a couple of dollars). So if you’re new to designing documents or just want a program for a one-time project, Canva is perfect.
This one is for the designers, video editors, advertising nerds, and the writers who go above and beyond with creativity. Google has a whole library of downloadable fonts. Compared to other font resources, Google identifies the specifics of font selection. They divide the fonts into categories relating to popular fonts such as “Sans Serif.” Other categories such as “handwriting” are also included. Their tabs include “trending,” “date added,” and good ol’ fashioned “alphabetical.” You can even customize the font such as adjusting its width and slant.
All writers have been here: you’re assigned to write an article with a very boring topic, and you have to make it more fun. HubSpot created a great way to prevent any writers block or general scratching-your-head reactions when writing difficult blogs. Just enter in three nouns (person, place, or thing) pertaining to the article. This generator will give you great ideas pertaining to the topic or even an article “curve.”
Whether it’s the spellcheck on Microsoft Word or on your smartphone, this piece of technology is almost better to be deactivated. Most would rather read a dictionary to fix their spelling rather than using spellcheck; most know the struggle of typing a word such as “yet” and it’s automatically changed to a word that doesn’t exist such as “getz.”
Well, Grammarly tackles all of your previous spellcheck issues. Beyond fixing spelling errors and run-on sentences, Grammarly will tell you when you used a preposition incorrectly and the program identifies any comma splices. If you didn’t understand anything from that previous sentence, you might want to download Grammarly.
It’s so reliable, even universities are suggesting students use Grammarly as a resource for writing papers.
Taking editing a step above Grammarly, the Hemmingway App corrects your writing by making it simpler to read. Are you one of the writers who can’t get enough of adverbs? Or do you go on lengthy descriptions of something irrelevant such as the grass? This app will tell you to revise by replacing and omitting words, changing sentence structure, and generally will identify anything that will make your writing difficult to read.
The best part about this app is it can help with any type of writing. From fiction writing, to journalistic articles, and long-form blog posts, Hemmingway App makes sure your writing is clear and concise — and it’ll be easier to meet tight deadlines!
There is a free version, but the full version is $20.
This is the Holy Grail of measuring website and social media analytics. You’ll find the demographics of your visitors, their age, their gender, and other useful information about your visitors. The way it’s broken down is also interesting: your visitors are categorized based on their information so you’ll know important information about your followers that could be useful when targeting specific blog posts. An example is: this gender from a certain country reads a specific type of blog, while maybe a certain age group in another country reads another style of your blog.
And Google Analytics isn’t terribly expensive: the basic program is $39. But for those with multiple domains and several plug-ins, the $199 pro edition is the best bet.
Socialbakers is a great tool when measuring the analytics of social media posts and your followers on social media websites. Socialbakers monitors popular social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and YouTube.
This tool helps with everything regarding search terms. Google Search Console helps choose the best keywords to help promote your website. In addition, this tool will check your webpage to identify any potential errors in the way the search engine optimization (SEO) resources are being used. Google Search Console also informs you of the search terms that visitors use to access your site.
Understanding search terms, how people search, and knowing the strongest search terms will ensure your website will top the Google search results.
Measuring page views, followers, and subscribers is beneficial to marketing a brand. But a great quote is: “it’s not how many followers you have, it’s having followers that are the most devoted.” With that being said, Mixpanel is great for monitoring the actions of your visitors and followers. They measure what searches were used to come across your website and what visitors are sharing.
Photos are a necessity for any blog. But how do you include pictures on a blog without an angry photographer knocking at your door? This is where stock images come in: HubSpot is a great resource for finding stock images. For the most part, using them is free.
Other great stock photos sources are FREEIMAGES, Unsplash, and gratisography.
Writers know the struggle: blogs shouldn’t be written directly in WordPress or a CMS program — but if it’s written in another program such as Microsoft Word, the HTML coding becomes all weird. This is where Word2cleanHTML becomes handy: this program fixes the HTML issues from Word and Google Docs so you don’t have to re-code the blog into WordPress or your CMS program.
If a topic needs to be researched while working on a document in Google Docs, all that has to be done is to select “Explore” and that will open up a Google search tab. A new tab doesn’t have to be opened — research can be done within Google Docs.
In the internet-age, the way we approach content is unlike anything that has been done before. This innovation is new to everyone, including the younger generation. With the multi-faceted nature of content marketing, this list covers all of the essentials. Whether it’s utilizing these sources as tools or using them to improve your writing, any content creator could use a little help with making their blog successful.
But these tools aren’t meant to replace good writing or any other talent. The tools mentioned in this list are here to help track your audience, measure the SEO performance, and other essential marketing tools. While the analytics of your blog will be great, solid content topics and styles will always bring your audience in and will allow your brand to be remembered. Whether content creating skills improve or a blog improves as a whole, these tools will definitely help any content creator!
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#7e8f7c” show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”2″ padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”50px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”30px|||” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/write.png” show_in_lightbox=”on” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”off” border_style=”solid” max_width=”140px” custom_margin=”36px||0px|” _builder_version=”3.0.58″ /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
A more updated version of this article is included in the first issue of our monthly gazette, The Write Agenda. You can read more of the latest trends and tactics in content marketing by ordering your free copy today. Contact us to request it via ourcontact page or you can receive it together with our latest content tips eBook when you order your professional content from us.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/annie-smmmII.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.0.58″ /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member name=”Annie Ianko” position=”Chief Content Officer” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/Iris_Content” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||” _builder_version=”3.0.58″]
Annie has 20 years of experience as an editor and content creator and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.
[/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#c97824″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” custom_width_px=”780px” custom_width_percent=”80%” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”3″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_method_2=”on” parallax_method_3=”on” disabled=”off” global_module=”27319″][et_pb_row global_parent=”27319″ make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”on” width_unit=”on” custom_width_px=”780px” custom_width_percent=”80%” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”3″ padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”on” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_3=”on” parallax_4=”off” parallax_method_4=”on” disabled=”off” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text global_parent=”27319″ background_layout=”dark” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”Cantata One||||” text_font_size=”36″ text_font_size_tablet=”26″ text_text_color=”#fdf3e7″ text_line_height=”1.4em” use_border_color=”off” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”||70px|” disabled=”off”]
Want new articles before they get published?
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_signup admin_label=”Email Optin ‘graph text” global_parent=”27319″ provider=”mailchimp” mailchimp_list=”6d2efc3306″ aweber_list=”none” title=”Subscribe to our email list” button_text=”Sign Me Up!” use_background_color=”on” background_color=”#c97824″ background_layout=”dark” text_orientation=”left” use_focus_border_color=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1px” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”20″ button_text_color=”#cc4315″ button_bg_color=”#fdf3e7″ button_border_color=”#cc4315″ button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon=”%%%” button_icon_color=”#fdf3e7″ button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_text_color_hover=”#fdf3e7″ button_bg_color_hover=”#cc4315″ button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ disabled=”off”]
Yes, I want to learn more about content marketing! I want to incorporate the latest marketing strategies to improve my brand, reach a wider audience and sell more stuff!
[/et_pb_signup][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]