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20 Best AI Writing Apps

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Artificial intelligence is the latest buzzword in the tech world. It’s everywhere and has been for a while, but AI-powered writing software is a relatively new concept.

AI Writing Software uses artificial intelligence to write articles, blog posts, and other content in your voice. The goal is to provide a tool that will save you time and energy so you can focus on different aspects of your business or life.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 20 AI writing software you can use to create content for your website, blog, or social media accounts.

1. Copy.ai 

Copy.ai uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to produce high-quality content for your business, ebooks, blog posts, articles, product descriptions, social media content, and more. It can also be used to rewrite existing content so that you can use it on your website, blog, or social media pages.

Since it uses artificial intelligence to mimic human writing patterns and styles, the copy will be more natural and easier to read than the typical machine-generated text we’re used to seeing.

Copy.ai differs from traditional content creation tools because it doesn’t just offer suggestions on improving your current content; it generates new text based on what it thinks would be most relevant for the topic or audience.

Key Features: 

  • Pre-built Templates – Copy.ai has a ton of pre-built templates for different kinds of content. For example, you can see below that it has options for blogs, social media content, video, case studies, and more:

  • Different tones and variations – Get access to tones like friendly, persuasive, professional, luxury, witty, bold, and more to align the content with your writing style. It also creates multiple variations based on your input – you can pick the one you like or make more.

    To illustrate this, here’s a screenshot of the results we got while trying to write the introduction for this article using Copy AI. 

  • Writing and Brainstorming tools – You also get tons of writing tools, brainstorming tools, and personal tools. Writing tools include essay intro, cliffhanger generator, adjective accelerator, passive to active voice, verb booster, and the like. Brainstorming tools have a name generator, startup ideas, viral ideas, and more – while Personal tools include birthday cards, clubhouse bios, cover letters, love letters, and shower thoughts.

    You can save your content and then return to it later if you wish. Plus, the software’s user interface is easy to navigate, and the program is simple. 

Luciano Viterale, Co-founder of Ticker Nerd, also shares his experience with Copy.ai, 

“I’ve been experimenting with AI copywriting tools since GPT-3 was released. I have explored many of the popular tools. However, my favorite tool by far is Copy AI. They have an outstanding blogging outline feature; the UX is clean and easy to navigate, and the pricing is reasonable.

Copy AI also generated the name of my startup, “Ticker Nerd,” which is an investing newsletter that was recently acquired.”

That said, Viterale suggests that the blog outlines can be repetitive. He says, “one thing I don’t particularly like is that blog outlines include the same point repeatedly but articulated slightly differently, essentially adding no value.” 

Pros: 

  • Copy.ai produces content at least 80% as good as a human writer (and often better). The system continually learns, which means the more you use it, the better it gets. 
  • It has an extensive library of templates available for different requirements. 
  • It supports over 25 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, and more. 

Cons: 

  • Not suitable for long-form content. 
  • The content can get a bit repetitive after a while.  
  • The free plan lets you create only 2000 words per month. 

Pricing: 

It starts from $39 per month (if you pay yearly) for up to 40k words per month, unlimited copywriting tools, priority email support, Blog Wizard tool, support for 25+ languages, and five user seats. 

2. Jasper 

Jasper.ai is an AI copywriting tool that uses a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to create content based on user input. 

It helps you generate original content for your blogs, social media, websites, and more. Jasper also knows 10% of what’s on the internet and continues to learn more daily.

Just like Copy.ai, Jasper’s user interface is easy to use and navigate around. With its specific template for blog posts, articles, ebooks, and more, it’s also one of the few AI writing software suitable for long-form content. 

All you have to do is enter the title, your intended audience, tone of voice, and language options, along with the main point of your copy, and voila – Jasper can churn out a high-quality piece of content for you within seconds.

(Jasper Interface) 

Key Features: 

  • 50+ AI templates – Jasper.ai offers a variety of AI templates, including Blog Posts, Summary, Conclusion, Q&A, Ads, Videos, Social Media, Rewriter, Marketing Frameworks, Articles, and more. Each template has several use cases – for example, a blog has Blog Titles, Content Briefs, and Outlines.

Headline Generator

  • Boss Mode lets you write long-form content such as blog posts, stories, and books. It also allows you to organize your content into projects and find help with priority chat support, Grammarly integration, and plagiarism checks. You can also choose from 25 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and more.
  • SurferSEO Integration – If you have a Boss Mode plan, you can add SurferSEO to your Jasper account. This integration will enable you to find the best keywords, build a content strategy, create blog outlines, and more.

Content production using Surfer SEO Integration

Pros: 

  • No technical assistance is required.
  • Simple, easy-to-use interface.
  • Provides plagiarism-free content every time.
  • It helps you build a content strategy based on high-ranking topics and keywords.
  • Ready-to-use templates cover most of the use cases that a writer or marketer will need.
  • Excellent customer support is provided through live training sessions, live Q&A sessions, blogs, Facebook community, help docs, and emails.

Cons: 

  • Plagiarism-free content doesn’t always mean unique content.
  • Customer support options via chat or email are limited.

Pricing: 

It starts with $40/mo for 35K words, 50+ AI templates, 20+ languages, up to 5 seats, and chat support.

3. Rytr 

Rytr is a content generation tool that uses AI to generate high-quality, human-sounding content for emails, blogs, YouTube videos, and landing pages. 

It also supports multiple languages and tones and uses copywriting frameworks, including AIDA & PAS. And to ensure that your content is free of plagiarism, it comes with a built-in plagiarism checker.

Like Copy.ai. Rytr is also more suitable for short-form content and copywriting than long-form content. 

Key Features: 

  • 30+ languages – Rytr supports many languages, including English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Polish. It also uses a proprietary approach to support languages that are not supported by the limitations of GPT3.

Language Support

  • Use Cases: Rytr offers 40+ use cases, including Blog Section Writing, Blog Ideas & Outline, Brand Name, Business Idea Pitches, Call-to-action, Cover letters, Emails, and more.

    Each use case has a short description of what it’s about below it. Select the use case to write about, give a little context about what you want to write, and then select how many variants you want the AI to write for you (max is 3). 

You can also choose a creativity level by selecting one of 6 options, including Default, Non, Low, Medium, High, or Max.

Generating Blog Ideas & Outlines

  • Tone – You can add a personal touch to your content by choosing from over 18 tones, including Formal, Convincing, Inspirational, and more.

Writing in a formal tone.

Pros: 

  • Simple user interface.
  • Fast live chat support.
  • Using the magic command, you can produce content for poems, letters, and more.
  • Comes with an in-built tool for plagiarism checks.
  • Provides multiple resources for guidance.

Cons: 

  • Tone options are limited.
  • You will receive a small number of credits per month.

Pricing: 

It starts at $9/month for 100K characters per month. There is also a free plan with a 10K characters limit.

4. Writesonic 

Writesonic is a content-creation platform that uses generative artificial intelligence models to write SEO-optimized long-form blogs and articles. 

It has 65+ use cases or templates, including Article Writer 3.0, Landing Pages, Tweets, Quora Answers, Facebook Ads, and more.

You can easily create desired content by picking a suitable use case, typing a topic, and adding a paragraph of your own words. You can also set the language and quality level before generating it.

Generating Pros and Cons

Key Features: 

  • 24 Languages: You can produce content in 24 languages, including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Danish, Greek, Hungarian, and more. They’re also continually adding more language options.

Languages

  • Unconventional Use Cases: It’s got a more comprehensive range of templates, including Sentence Expander, Text Summary, Conclusion Writer, YouTube Outlines, LinkedIn Ad Descriptions, Analogy Maker, Question Generator, Song Lyrics, Definition, and more.
  • SEMrush and WordPress Integrations: Writesonic integrates with SEMrush, Zapier, and WordPress.org. SEMrush helps you optimize your content for search engines, and WordPress.org lets you publish your blog directly from Writesonic. Zapier integration enables you to automate your content from Writesonic.

SEMrush Integration

Pros: 

  • Easy to use.
  • The User Interface gives you step-by-step instructions and tips for how to use the tool more efficiently.
  • There are many unique use cases, including a hook generator, pros and cons generator, and landing page creator.
  • Free trial available.

Cons: 

  • Like other tools on this list, the copy may not always be accurate. 

Pricing: 

It starts at $10/month for 12K words, 70+ AI templates, a Landing page generator, a browser extension, Zapier integration, and more.

5. Grammarly Business 

Like most other tools on this list, Grammarly Business isn’t an AI-based content writer per se—it’s more like an AI-based writing assistant. Specifically, it checks your documents for grammar, spelling, plagiarism, and style mistakes.

Grammarly Business also provides feedback on your writing style so that you can improve as a writer over time. 

You can use Grammarly Business to:

  • Get suggestions to improve your writing style, including word choice and sentence structure.
  • Identify common grammatical mistakes and fix them in one click.
  • Improve your email response time by checking emails before they’re sent out.

It’s also ideal for larger teams of writers who need to access the same Grammarly accounts, enabling multiple users to edit documents simultaneously.

One of the best parts about this tool is that it integrates with every online writing space, including Google Docs. This allows you to write and edit simultaneously without waiting for one draft to be finished before making changes to the next.

Key Features: 

  • Custom Brand Tone: You can create multiple tone profiles to suit your needs and assign them to different Teams. You’ll also get real-time feedback on your tone and can adjust it while writing. Your tone can be anything from Joyful, Excited, Loving, and Surprised to Curious, Formal, and Cautionary.

Brand Tone Feedback

  • Grammar Checker: Grammarly gives you feedback on everything that can be improved in your writing – from typos to sentence structure. It also checks for grammar mistakes, spelling errors, and incorrect punctuation.
  • Style Guide: Grammarly Style Guide enables you to establish a uniform tone and style across all your teams. You can set a library of words, terms, and phrases that your teams should adhere to.

    You can also prevent them from using complex acronyms or jargon. Lastly, you can get feedback on how the performance has increased with the Style Guide.

Style Guide Analytics

Pros: 

  • Real-time feedback on errors and tone usage.
  • Grammarly gives instant, easy-to-understand feedback and lets you fix mistakes with just one click.
  • You can always add new words to the dictionary.

Cons: 

  • It flags passive voice as an error.
  • Grammarly is good at catching mistakes, but sometimes it corrects things unnecessarily.

Pricing: 

It starts at $15/month for one member, real-time feedback, style guide, snippets, brand tones, admin controls, and more.

6. Peppertype.ai 

Peppertype.ai is another AI-based content generation tool that claims to create content ten times faster, boost Google ranking, and optimize conversions.

It’s a simple but valuable tool for writers who need help getting started on their next article, email, or blog post.

Some of its use cases include a product review generator, Amazon product descriptions, personal bio, email subject lines, cold emails, paragraph writing, Google Ad copy, Meta descriptions, blog outlines, blog conclusion, and more.

Key Features: 

  • Projects: You can organize your content under Projects, which will group similar types of content so that you have an easier time finding and repurposing the content.

Projects

  • Output personalization: You can like or dislike the output so that the AI behind it can learn your preferences and improve its performance.

Personalizing output

Pros: 

  • If you invite your friends to use Peppertype.ai, join our community, write them a review, and schedule a training call, they’ll reward you with more word credits.
  • You can create teams, projects, and workspaces.
  • You can filter out unwanted results with annotations.

Cons: 

  • One seat is expensive, and the price increases with each added seat.

Pricing: 

It starts at $35/month for one user, 50K words, 40+ use cases, unlimited projects, customer support, and more.

7. Anyword 

Anyword is a copywriting AI that creates content tailored for your customers and target audiences. 

It has a unique feature – the predictive performance score to predict how well your copy will perform and engage with your audience. This helps you write optimized texts that boost your conversions.

It has 11 major use cases, including a social post generator, Instagram caption generator, sentence rewriter, AI writer tool, meta description generator, Ad copy, landing page, blog, and more. 

Generating Facebook Post

Although it can create blog post titles and outlines, it’s better suited for writing short-form content like ad copy, product descriptions, and headlines. When writing a blog post, it can generate the title, outline, and introduction before creating body paragraphs.

Key Features: 

  • Predictive Performance Score: This score is given to your copy based on its potential to perform well with your target audience. This can help you immediately improve your copy.

Predictive Performance Score

  • Website Triggered Messages: This feature helps you create and deploy multiple copy variations on your website and apply the best one automatically.

Pros: 

  • It offers a predictive performance score to optimize your copy beforehand.
  • It also offers a free social post generator. No sign-up is required.
  • It automatically creates and runs multiple copy variations to determine the best one.
  • A Freemium plan is available.

Cons: 

  • Limited use cases.
  • A bit expensive for the credits and the number of use cases it offers.

Pricing: 

It costs $24/month for 20K words and one seat.

8. Scalenut 

Scalenut uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to produce content that ranks higher on search results. It also gives insights into statistics such as word count, grade level, H tags, readability, and the number of images you should use in your content piece. 

Aside from that, it offers a variety of use cases, including SEO Hub, AI Copywriter, Talent Network, Chrome Extension, Cruise Mode, and more. With these features, you can create content for blog ideas, product descriptions, website copies, blog intros, and more.

Key Features: 

  • Integrations: You can integrate Scalenut with SEMrush for keyword research, cluster boost, and Copyscape to check plagiarism.

App integrations

  • Cruise Mode: Cruise Mode helps you create blog content in 5 minutes. You just need to provide your blog post’s title, outline, and main points to get your intended content. You’ll also get a real-time quality score that helps you improve your search ranking.

Pros: 

  • It offers a quality score.
  • Affordable plans with a 7-day free trial.
  • 24*7 chat & email support.

Cons: 

  • Limited use cases and features.
  • Content quality is not consistent for all businesses.

Pricing: 

It starts at $12/month for 100K AI words, 5 SEO reports, 24*7 chat and email support, and more.

9. Frase.io 

Frase.io is an all-in-one AI writing tool that helps you, research competitors, develop content briefs, and produce and optimize content.

First, you’ll analyze your search competitors using Frase so you can see what your competition is writing about. Next, you can focus on Then, your overall outline or dig deeper by focusing on individual headlines, external links, statistics, etc. 

Next, use Frase’s AI writer to finish your draft. You can choose from dozens of use cases to generate content, including product descriptions, blog introductions, and more. You can even automatically expand on what you’re currently writing or rewrite what you’ve already written. 

Finally, you can optimize your draft using recommended keywords and readability scores. Again, Frase provides real-time feedback as you fill in the gaps. 

Key Features: 

  • AI Writing Tools: They include an AI content generator, introduction generator, outline generator, paraphrasing tool, paragraph rewriter, blog title generator, meta description generator, product description generator, slogan generator, summary generator, sentence rewriter, and more. 

Blog introduction generator

  • Content Analytics: It fetches data from Google Search Console to provide insights into organic growth, content decay, and keyword opportunities.

Frase Content Analytics

  • Integrations: It integrates with Google Docs, Google Search Console, and WordPress. It also offers a Chrome extension.

Frase Integrations

Pros: 

  • You can add multiple pages in a single doc.
  • It offers content analytics, allowing you to see which articles are getting the most traction and which ones are not.
  • It enables you to do competitors’ research.

Cons: 

  • Limited word credits in each plan.
  • Max 3 seats available.

Pricing: 

It starts at $14.99/month for one user, 20K AI characters, and four articles (write/optimize) per month. There’s also a 5-day free trial for $1. 

10. Surfer SEO 

Surfer SEO is an SEO tool and AI writing assistance that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to help you manage and improve your content strategy.

Rather than creating the body of your copy, it helps you create outlines and optimize the content you write based on that outline. 

It helps you to evaluate your content and find places to improve it using its content score metric, competitor research, SERP analyzer, and keyword recommendations. It also offers a content planner that you can share with your team. 

Key Features: 

  • Outline Builder for Content Editor: The tool generates headlines and paragraphs based on your competitors’ postings. You can use that content as is or edit it by copy-pasting it into the editor. Content paragraphs are available in English, German, French, Polish, Swedish, and Dutch.

Outline Builder Content Builder

  • SEO Audit Tool: This tool performs step-by-step optimization on your website to improve your Google search results. When you pick an URL to audit, it provides suggestions such as missing backlinks, internal links, word count, and important keywords to use.

Terms to use

  • Content Planner: You can start with your content planner by keyword or domain. Based on your keywords, it comes up with clusters that you can use to create your content topics.

    However, there is a learning curve involved. You will need to understand topic clusters, search intent, and keyword difficulty, among other metrics.

Content Planner

Pros: 

  • Easy to use interface.
  • They offer a 7-day money-back guarantee – if you don’t find it helpful, you get your money back.
  • It identifies keyword stuffing and prevents you from doing so.

Cons: 

  • Each plan offers a limited number of pages that you can audit.

Pricing:

It starts at $49/month for one website tracking and ten articles/month.

11. Copysmith 

Copysmith markets itself as an AI content creation solution for teams. 

This AI writer is best suited for bulk and short-form content copy like product descriptions, blog templates, social media content, advertising content, and more.

Key Features: 

  • Use cases: It includes product descriptions, content enhancement, ads & social media, blog templates, and brainstorming. With Product descriptions, you can generate descriptions for eCommerce Products, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Flipkart. Blog templates include blog titles, blog ideas, outlines, intro, Kickstarter, and more.

Product Description

  • Campaign Builder: It includes several AI templates to help you generate SEO-optimized product descriptions, Facebook posts, and Google ads in just a few seconds. 
  • Integrations: Copysmith integrates with Frase to use SEO data, Google Ads to publish campaigns, Microsoft Word to produce content, and WooCommerce for products.

Pros: 

  • It’s easy to use and generates SEO-optimized content.
  • It comes with an in-built plagiarism checker.
  • Provides good training material for new users.

Cons: 

  • Not suitable for long-form content. 

Pricing:  

It starts at $19/month for 75 credits, up to 40K words, and up to 20 plagiarism checks.

12. ClosersCopy  

ClosersCopy is an AI writing robot that provides various templates for producing marketing materials, including website content, sales copy, email marketing campaigns, and social media posts. This tool doesn’t require any special skills or training to create engaging text.

Key Features: 

  • Use cases: It includes Facebook & Google Ads, email subject lines, landing pages, sales copies, social media content, and more.
  • LongForm editor: You can create blog posts, articles, sales copies, and email marketing copies.
  • Drag-and-drop builders: The drag-and-drop content builder makes your tasks more manageable by allowing you to drag and drop elements on your copy. The only thing you need to do is provide some context at the time of configuring this builder.

Pros: 

  • Its user interface is easy to use and navigate.
  • You can easily create content with their drag-and-drop builder.
  • The video tutorials provide in-depth, step-by-step instructions for each process.
  • Tone analysis helps you understand the emotions in your writing.

Cons: 

  • No free plan or trial period is available.
  • More expensive than most other AI tools.

Pricing:  

It starts at $49.99/month for two seats, 300 AI runs, 50 SEO Audits, an SEO planner, Email support, and more.

13. LongShot AI

LongShot AI is another writing tool that can help you write SEO-friendly content. It comes with over 30 use cases and a plagiarism checker to ensure your content is original. 

While most of its use cases are for short-form content, you can use templates like the content expander, write more, or bullets to text generator to assist you with your long-form piece. 

Key Features: 

  • Use Cases: It includes content rephrasing, FAQ generator, headline generator, blog ideas generator, meta description generator, text extender, blog insights creator, headline intro generator, product description generator, FAB copywriting framework generator, content readability improver, sales email generator, video description generator, and more.

Headline Generator

  • Integrations: It integrates with WordPress to enable you to export AI-generated copies directly to WordPress. Its integration with SEMrush will help you write SEO-friendly content. Apart from these, LongShot AI will also provide integration with Hubspot and Grammarly soon.

LongShot X SEMrush

  • LongShot AI Community: The LongShot AI Community is a group of researchers and developers working on open artificial intelligence problems. Anyone can join and contribute to the research.

Pros: 

  • The free forever plan offers ten credits daily.
  • Community is a big help for new users.
  • It gives you multiple ways to know more about the product, including blog posts, help videos, customer support, and announcements.

Cons: 

  • Aside from the free plan, it’s costly, especially considering the limited number of use cases and credits.
  • Doesn’t have use cases for social media content.
  • Supports only eight languages.

Pricing: 

It starts at $49/month for 1000 monthly credits, one user, basic integrations, and more.

14. INK Editor

Inky is a suite of content marketing tools that include AI-powered tools: AI Writer, SEO Optimizer, Copy Assistant, and Content Planner. These features can be used individually or collectively, and the price will be adjusted accordingly.

The AI Writer offers unlimited credits and helps you write long-form and short-form content. In addition, you can re-edit the generated copy with a single click as often as you want. The tool also offers WordPress plugin integration and open-source export API.

In addition, you get access to use cases like product descriptions, social media copies, sales copies, blogs, essays, emails, microcopies, product ideas, and more.

AI Writing Tools

Key Features: 

  • SEO Optimizer: INK’s SEO Optimizer is a natural language optimization tool that can improve your SEO score and increase engagement by providing recommendations on keywords, titles, alt text, and the like. Enter a keyword or phrase, and the INK SEO Optimizer will do the rest.

SEO Optimization Score

  • Content Planner: The INK Content Planner helps you group keywords and analyze search intent. You can also import your keywords and download your clusters for further analysis.
  • Copy Assistant: A built-in grammar checker automatically checks your grammar and spelling. It also checks words, tone, and sentence fragments.

Pros: 

  • Easy to use.
  • You can use it as an all-in-one content marketing tool. 
  • Offers unlimited AI text writing even on a free plan.
  • Offers keyword clusters to optimize your SEO strategy.

Cons: 

  • The paid plan is relatively costly for one seat.

Pricing: 

It starts at $50/month for one seat, INK Copy Assistant PRO, INK AI Writer PRO, INK SEO Optimizer PRO, and INK Content Planner PRO with 1,000 Keywords.

15. Articoolo

Articoolo is an AI content generator developed by a group of mathematicians, computer scientists, content writers, and marketing specialists. Thanks to NLP and AI technology, the tool drafts articles in a way that mimics the human brain.

Key Features: 

  • Use Cases: It includes Text Writer, Article Rewriter, Article Summarizer, and Image Scraper. Based on your keyword, Articoolo will also fetch images from royalty-free websites.
  • WordPress Plugin: This will help you export your copies directly to WordPress so you can post faster.
  • Plagiarism Checker: All you have to do is enter your text into the program, and it will scan for instances of plagiarism.

Pros: 

  • It has pay-per-use plans.

Cons: 

  • There’s no official website.
  • Customer support is missing the mark.
  • Not much information about the tool online.

Pricing: 

It starts at $19/month for a ten-article fixed package.

16. NeuralText

NeuralText is a writing tool that offers users keyword reports and cluster credits. It also has an API for developers looking to integrate its services into other programs.

Some of its most prominent use cases include a paragraph generator, content outline, and product description – making it a short-form content-centric tool. 

The best part is that it not only creates content but also creates content briefs and optimizes the content based on keywords and SERP analysis.

Key Features: 

  • AI Writing Assistant: This tool will help you produce text in any format. It also provides text recommendations while you write.

AI Writing Assistant

  • Content Optimization: NeuralText can help make your content more search engine-friendly and improve its score in Google’s search results. It analyzes your word choice and sentence structure to ensure your content is easy to scan and relevant to your topic.

Content Score

  • Content research analysis: It makes content research and studies more accessible, allowing you to see real-time data across SERPs. It also has a Google Docs-style editor, making managing your data points and keeping track of your research effortless.

Content research analysis

Pros: 

  • Free plan available.
  • Offers keyword clusters.
  • You can group content into different projects.

Cons: 

  • The community is not active.
  • A bit on the expensive side. 

Pricing: 

It starts at $49/month for one user, unlimited AI text generation, 50 content analyses, and 50 keyword reports.

17. AI Writer

AI Writer helps you create unique, SEO-friendly content that you can publish directly to WordPress. In addition, it offers features like research & write, text rewording, verifiable citations, and source summarizer.

Key Features: 

  • AI-Writer Content Kit: AI Writer uses artificial intelligence to analyze keyword difficulty and ranking opportunities based on the field you enter. It chooses up to 250 keywords and generates one article per keyword, which can be directly published to WordPress.
  • (Sub)Topic Discoverer: It checks to see what other writers have written about and then uses that information to create new topics for you.
  • Verifiable Citations: When it produces content for you, it also provides a list of citations so that you can check the accuracy of the information.

Pros: 

  • It offers a free trial for seven days.
  • One of the few AI writing tools to offer verifiable citations so you can confirm the accuracy of the content.

Cons: 

  • Not enough resources in the knowledge base for new users.
  • Fewer use cases.
  • Does not offer a free version.

Pricing: 

It starts at $29/month for one user and up to 40 articles.

18. Wordtune

Wordtune makes your previously written content clearer, more compelling, and more authentic by bringing out the best.

Although this tool doesn’t write content from scratch, it makes your content look more professional. It also integrates with Microsoft Word, so you can edit your work while you write your content.

It provides tools to: 

  • Rewrite your content 
  • Make your content casual 
  • Make your content formal 
  • Shorten your sentences to make them crisp 
  • Expand your sentences to give more detail 

Key Features: 

  • Paragraph Rewriter: Wordtune can rewrite your paragraphs entirely at once, one sentence at a time, and one word at a time. See below for an example.

Paragraph Rewriter

  • Tone: You can alter how your content appears by making it more informal or formal. Here’s an example: 

Casual Tone

Pros: 

  • You can make the text longer or shorter.
  • It offers a casual and formal tone.
  • Simple and easy-to-use interface. 

Cons: 

  • It doesn’t offer any other benefits besides rewriting.

Pricing: 

It starts at $9.99/month for unlimited rewrites. 

19. ProWritingAid

Rather than a full-fledged artificial intelligence writer, ProWritingAid is a grammar checker and style editor that’s available online. It helps prevent spelling errors, suggests impactful words, and corrects grammar and punctuation.

It supports general English, British English, US English, Australian English, and Canadian English.

Key Features: 

  • Document type: You can choose from 35+ document types for your content. They include general academic abstract, academic essays, admission letters, book reviews, business books, and more.
  • Reports: ProWritingAid provides three types of reports: real-time reports, summary reports, and style reports.

    Real-time reports show errors and corrections as you write. Summary reports provide an overview of all reports. It contains a spelling score, grammar score, and style score. On the other hand, Style reports identify problems in writing style and readability.

Summary report

Pros: 

  • It offers 20+ reports to track your progress as you improve your writing.
  • There are no limits on the number of words you can use with premium plans.
  • Notifies of style changes and suggests corrections if needed.

Cons: 

  • Only available through the web browser. 

Pricing: 

It starts at $20 per month or $120 per year (if you pay yearly). 

20. Article Forge

Once you provide ArticleForge.com with a keyword, article length, and other custom information, the program creates a 1500+ word article in seconds.

Your content will be checked for plagiarism and uniqueness before being delivered.

Key Features: 

  • Media-rich content: It can automatically find and insert relevant images, videos, titles, and links in your articles. To make it more relevant, ArticleForge also uses LSI keywords.

Creating an article

  • SEO Automation: It integrates with WordPress to automate your scheduling and posting of articles.

WordPress Integration

  • Interlinking: It can automatically turn URLs into links within your article. You can choose how often to do this for every keyword or just the first occurrence.
  • Languages: It can generate content in English, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.

Pros: 

  • Produces SEO-optimized content.
  • Can schedule posts on WordPress automatically.
  • Plagiarism-free content.
  • Automatic keyword linking.

Cons: 

  • The content can be repetitive.
  • You need to check the accuracy of the content before publishing.

Pricing: 

It starts at $13/month for 25K words and the rest of the features.

Frequently asked questions about AI writing software.

1. What is AI Writing Software?

AI writing software is an artificial intelligence program used to write text. It can generate content for websites, blogs, and other fields. The content created by AI writers is often indistinguishable from human-created content. Still, sometimes it has a slightly robotic feel or may include words or phrases that seem out of place in the context of the writing.

2. How does AI Writing Software work?

The software uses an algorithm to mimic the creative process of human writers. It first creates a base text that modifies by adding words and phrases specific to your content. This ensures that you get high-quality original content every time you use it.

3. Who can use AI Writing Software?

Anyone who needs to create texts for their business or website can benefit from using this software. It’s also an excellent option for freelance writers and content marketers facing writer’s block. As it’s easy and fast, even beginners can start using it immediately and see great results within minutes!

4. Can I use AI writers for everything I write?

No — AI writers are best suited for shorter pieces like headlines or product descriptions because they don’t have much time to learn about your company’s brand voice or personality. 

While there are tools to churn out long-form content, you still need the human touch for longer and more research-intensive pieces like blog posts or sales copy. AI algorithms still can’t pick up on nuances like a human can.

5. What are some of the benefits of using AI Writing Software?

There are many benefits to using AI writing software. The most obvious benefit is that you no longer need to spend time creating content yourself. The software will do it for you! 

Another benefit is that AI writing software allows you to create content in any niche or topic you desire. You can even target multiple niches at once! This makes it possible to scale your business quickly and easily by leveraging the power of automation while still keeping your hands on the work itself.

6. How much does it cost?

The pricing depends on the type of service you want to use. Some companies offer free trials or even freemium versions with limited credits so that you can test their services before making a purchase decision. Some companies offer lifetime discounts for repeat customers, so keep an eye out for those offers when making your choice!

7. What’s the difference between AI-powered and human-written content?

While humans are still required for high-quality content creation, AI makes scaling up your content marketing efforts easier. By automating much of the writing process – from keyword research to formatting – AI can help you create more content at a lower cost per article. In addition, this frees your team members to focus on other tasks that require their expertise (like outreach) or simply spend more time enjoying their lives!

8. What is the best AI Writer?

The best AI writer depends on what you want it to do and how much you want to spend. If you’re going to write books or articles, many different programs can help you with this task. Our top pick for long-form would be Jasper. 

On the other hand, if you only need help with short-form content such as blog posts or press releases, there may not be any need for an AI writer because these documents don’t require as much work or effort from the user. In that case, you might want to use tools like Copy.ai, Rytr, and more. 

9. Can I use AI Writing Software to replace my human writers?

No, AI writing software isn’t meant to replace human writers. It’s designed to work alongside them, helping them create more engaging and relevant content for their audiences. You’ll still need human writers who can add style and personality to your content.

Over to You! 

Do you find writing to be an exhausting activity? If yes, you would want to try one of the AI Writing Software tools we suggested above. These are some of the best AI writing tools specially developed to boost creativity, motivation, and productivity.

There’s room for experimentation with AI-generated content as long as you can recognize where specific tools are lacking and how to incorporate that into your work. Ultimately, the future of AI writing assistant software will mean ever-more versatile tools for writers, so don’t be shy about testing the waters.

 

Featured image by pch.vector on Freepik.

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20 Best New Websites, November 2022

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Every month we put together this collection of the best new websites we’ve seen appear on the web in the previous four weeks.

In this month’s collection, you’ll find lots of daring interactions, some inventive portfolio sites, florescent yellow colors, and even some old-school mouse trails. Enjoy!

Joshua’s World

Joshua’s World is a fantastic animated site. Grab and drag to tilt and rotate the island and watch the little cyclist power past important links to milestones in his creative career.

Vana

Vana is a new service aiming to help you take control of your data. Its site is modern and lively and uses some great retro-illustrations to bring its features to life.

Velocity Nitro 2

This slick site has some incredible 3D renders for the Puma Velocity Nitro 2 running shoe. The scrollable animation guides you through each feature in a thrillingly engaging fashion.

Norwegian Soda Co.

The Norwegian Soda Co. uses beautifully shot photographs to capture the zest of its products. It’s an excellent example of how a one-page site can be rich and engaging.

Anytype

Anytype is a collaborative platform pitching itself to creative thinkers. It uses a lovely gradient animation to create a sense of power and technological evolution.

Dash

Dash claims to be almost the best tech company, and its modest site does a great job of expelling the tedium from HR. Plus, it has an old-school mouse trail!

Sileon

Sileon is a site packed with clever details. For example, the hover effect on text links is pleasingly minimal, and the photography shot through distortion is a simple but effective technique.

Karina Sirqueira

Karina Sirqueira’s portfolio is a joy to browse through. The morphing shapes add interest to a collection of case studies that are engaging and beautifully presented.

Hotel Santa Caterina

This beautiful website for the Hotel Santa Caterina on the Amalfi Coast captures the light and wonder of the region with a muted color palette and stunning photography.

La Lulu

La Lulu is a Columbian-American singer, dancer, and musician. Her site uses color to disrupt a fairly standard layout and infuse it with amazonian, psychotropic, South American vibes.

International Magic

International Magic is a design agency that boasts some impressive clients, from Maison Margiela to Nike. Its scroll-to-browse portfolio is a masterful example of selling design.

OAD

OAD uses color expertly to convey contrasting temperatures. At this time of year, who doesn’t want a pullover crafted to withstand the Norwegian weather?

También

También is a creative agency specializing in organizations that positively impact the world. Its scrolling collage of client projects is one of the best examples of this type of portfolio.

Dragonfly

If you were designing a website to be used in a 90s film about the internet, you’d create Dragonfly’s site. It’s packed with glitches, code references, and awesome pixelated imagery.

Elva

There’s a lot of distortion entering the design lexicon at the moment, and one of the best examples is Elva’s portfolio site, which uses it to enliven its black-and-white site.

Sussex Taps

Sussex Taps uses multiple full-screen video clips to sell its carbon-neutral tapware range, but it’s the horizontal scrolling product videos that really make this site stand out.

Angello Torres

Angello Torres’ portfolio is packed with daring typography that breaks pretty much all the rules and yet still manages to work somehow to convey energy and creativity.

Repeat

Repeat is an excellent service for upselling customers with repeat orders. It uses simple illustrations to represent generic products with an attention-grabbing yellow for interactions.

High Five Strategies

High Five Strategies eschew the formality of most business pitches to deliver a positive message with bold colors and typography that makes you feel ready to move forward.

Delight

Delight Snowparks employs a questionable lilac color, but its fantastic imagery and video framing more than makes up for that. Plus, there’s another super-old-school mouse trail!

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3 Essential Design Trends, November 2022

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Color and depth are key themes this month as we look at what design trends are happening across websites. Red is the primary color of choice, and you can see it almost everywhere; the new thing is that it’s being used in backgrounds and as more than an accent color. Additionally, 3D elements and depth of field are making significant impressions.

Here’s what’s trending in design this month.

1. Red Backgrounds

Red is the color of power, passion, and attention, but until recently, it wasn’t the go-to choice for website backgrounds. Now trending is red as a background color.

These designs are bold and in-your-face with bright color, an almost brash feel in some cases, and a lot of impact.

But it works.

In the projects below, red is a powerful tool to help convey the message of the website design. The color demands that you engage with the design to see what’s happening and the content therein, and in the case of Pentel, it’s part of the brand color.

Arze uses a bold red background with a smaller inset of contrasting color to show items on the site. It’s an interesting and quite bold choice. The red background carries through the scroll as well. This is a use of color that verges on off-putting but still gets the point across and helps show products thanks to a lot of contrast.

Russia Invaded Ukraine is a perfect use of red as a color that invokes feelings of passion with content to explain the conflict. Red can be a charged color; here, that’s precisely the intent.

Pentel uses a red background that’s a little softer than the previous examples. Here, red is a brand color, and they use the background to help draw attention to items and elements on the site. The red carries below the scroll as well to keep the theme moving.

 

 

2. 3D Icons and Graphics

Three-dimensional elements seem to keep ebbing and flowing with designers. We see a lot of 3D in projects, and then it seems to vanish again. It’s like we haven’t really figured out how to use it well or in a way that works with the content of various designs.

Admittedly, 3D icons, graphics, and illustrations can be difficult to create and use. Often they look a bit light and don’t go with all kinds of content. Therefore, they don’t get used that often.

Each of these projects takes a different approach:
Admilk goes all in with a series of 3D animations featuring the brand name. They are fun, light, and a bit unexpected. The graphics include objects that look like balloons, milk and cereal, and grass with flowers. (Click through to see each one.)

Refokus uses three-dimensional objects that move on a scroll to create directional flow and visual interest in a space where there’s not much else in terms of art. The objects stick with the aesthetic on the scroll and create an interesting element that carries you through the design without overwhelming you with tricks.

Junni is one of those website designs that goes all in with 3D. This illustrated bubble style of graphics is beginning to be a 3D trend in itself as a style that’s being used more and more with icons and even emojis. It has a light feel, and the animation almost makes it seem silly and somewhat childish.

 

 

3. Long Focal Depth

It’s been a while since a true photography or videography trend made this roundup, but there are so many instance of this image/video style in projects it can’t be ignored. Long focal depth is almost everywhere, from travel sites to architecture to e-commerce.

Long focal depth or depth of field allows the image to show a lot of space in an image in a way that’s sharp and viewable. Depth of field, in photography terms, is the distance between the closest and farthest objects in an image that are acceptably sharp.

In this trend, each website features a strong image with plenty of depth of field. The image can be still or moving, and the image is the thing that really draws you into the design.

What’s great about this trend is that you can see a lot of a scene and even feel like you are part of it. It’s an engaging visual concept that can work for a variety of purposes.

Interest Media uses a video reel that slowly zooms even further out. The image is lovely, and with the text overlay is easy to read and understand. It almost feels like you are walking backward on the bridge in the video.

Bloomingdales uses an immersive video with plenty of depth and virtual reality elements to create an immersive shopping experience. It makes you feel like you are in the store via the website and encourages shopping. It’s a fun way for the retailer to showcase its 150th anniversary.

 

Arredamento Design uses a photo with a wide focal area to provide interior design inspiration. Note the crisp lines and ease of which you find yourself engaging with the image, or even imagining a room like the one pictured. The effect used in the design, with a zoom on scroll, pulls the user into the image even more. Depth here keeps the motion and zoom from being too much and almost allows you to see more and feel even closer to objects that are further away in the image.

 

 

Conclusion

There are two trends here that tend to cross over into one another: The color red is everywhere and having a major emergence this fall as a dominant hue and depth, and three-dimensional focus is everywhere.

Both are highly usable design elements that can be incorporated easily, making them even more likely to continue to gain prominence in projects.

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SAP présente de grandes innovations dans le domaine de la gestion des dépenses au salon Spend Connect Live

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SAP NEWSBYTE – 25 octobre 2022 – Aujourd’hui, à l’occasion de SAP Spend Connect Live, la conférence la plus importante du secteur sur la gestion des dépenses, SAP SE (NYSE : SAP) annonce des innovations, des avancées et des points d’attention dans ce domaine :

SAP franchit des étapes clés dans son parcours FedRAMP®

Aujourd’hui, et dans les mois à venir, les agences gouvernementales et les organismes hautement réglementés des États-Unis auront accès aux solutions de gestion des dépenses et de réseau d’entreprise SAP, leaders sur le marché, qui sont déployées avec un haut niveau de sécurité. Les étapes importantes sont les suivantes :

  • Les solutions SAP Fieldglass sont désormais disponibles dans l’Environnement Commercial Réglementé (CRE) de SAP National Security Services (SAP NS2), qui a été construit selon les critères de base du National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) avec les paramètres modérés de FedRAMP. Il est également conforme à la Réglementation sur le Trafic International d’Armes (ITAR).
  • SAP Business Network for Procurement et SAP Business Network for Supply Chain seront disponibles dans SAP NS2 CRE en 2023. Les clients pourront ainsi collaborer avec leurs partenaires commerciaux dans un environnement qui répond aux exigences de sécurité et de conformité des agences gouvernementales fédérales.
  • SAP travaille également avec SAP NS2 pour ajouter les solutions d’approvisionnement SAP Ariba au portefeuille SAP NS2.
  • SAP Concur est actuellement “en cours de traitement” pour une autorisation d’agence FedRAMP. Un organisme d’évaluation tiers a effectué une évaluation complète de la sécurité, et l’agence sponsor a procédé à un examen de l’ensemble des autorisations de sécurité. Les solutions SAP Concur devraient être répertoriées sur la Marketplace FedRAMP d’ici la fin de l’année.

Intégration renforcée entre les solutions SAP Ariba et Icertis

Dans le cadre du partenariat élargi annoncé en début d’année, une intégration plus étroite entre SAP Ariba Sourcing and Procurement et les solutions de gestion des contrats d’Icertis peut aider les clients à gérer un plus grand nombre de scénarios. L’intégration plus stricte permet une meilleure collaboration et expérience utilisateur ainsi que des processus de gestion des contrats flexibles et rationalisés. Les utilisateurs peuvent désormais répliquer dans Icertis des espaces de travail contractuels issus des solutions SAP Ariba, lancer la création de contrats dans Icertis pour des espaces de travail contractuels provenant de SAP Ariba, et gérer plus efficacement les processus de modification des contrats. Ces intégrations sont développées et soutenues conjointement par les équipes de SAP Ariba et d’Icertis et ouvrent la voie à de futures innovations. En outre, pour les clients disposant de solutions SAP Fieldglass, il existe une intégration directe avec la plateforme Icertis Contract Intelligence, qui permet de rationaliser les processus de sourcing, d’onboarding et d’offboarding pour les travailleurs externes. Conçues pour apporter de la valeur à l’échelle de l’entreprise, ces intégrations permettent d’accélérer les négociations, de renforcer la conformité, d’obtenir des informations commerciales et une automatisation alimentées par l’IA.

Nouvelles fonctionnalités des solutions SAP Ariba en avant-première

SAP continue de promouvoir l’innovation dans le domaine des achats et a présenté en avant-première de nouvelles fonctionnalités conçues pour aider les entreprises à évoluer vers une expérience d’achat plus prédictive, personnalisée et durable. Les nouvelles fonctionnalités d’achat à 360° sont une évolution de l’achat guidé, dont SAP a été le pionnier il y a plusieurs années, visant à améliorer l’expérience d’achat de tous : de l’employé qui a besoin d’un nouvel ordinateur portable, aux acheteurs principaux sur des secteurs stratégiques et pour tout type de dépenses (matériaux directs et indirects, maintenance, réparation et opérations et services). Ces nouvelles fonctionnalités devraient être disponibles pour certains clients au début de l’année 2023.

SAP fait de la gestion des stocks un domaine d’intérêt et d’investissement permanent

La gestion des stocks est le fondement d’une stratégie d’approvisionnement efficace, surtout dans cette économie post-pandémique. Le rôle essentiel que joue l’approvisionnement dans la continuité des activités ne cessant de croître, il désormais nécessaire de numériser la gestion des stocks et les stratégies d’approvisionnement. Une étude récente menée par Economist Impact, sponsorisée par SAP, souligne que la gestion des stocks est l’un des principaux moteurs de la transformation numérique des achats, plus de 40 % des personnes interrogées ayant choisi cette fonction comme priorité absolue.

” Des études de ce type et les commentaires issus de nos conversations permanentes avec les clients valident et orientent notre stratégie et notre feuille de route produit “, a déclaré Muhammad Alam, Président et Chef de Produit, Intelligent Spend and Business Network, SAP. “Nous nous concentrons et investissons davantage dans le développement de solutions qui aideront nos clients à véritablement numériser la gestion des stocks afin de transformer les données en informations qui peuvent conduire à de meilleurs résultats commerciaux.”

La solution pour la gestion des stocks devrait être disponible pour certains clients d’ici la fin de l’année, avec une disponibilité élargie tout au long de 2023.

Les clients disposant de plusieurs environnements ERP peuvent simplifier la gestion de leurs achats

 SAP Central Procurement, édition Cloud privé, est désormais disponible et aide les clients à améliorer la cohérence, l’efficacité, la visibilité et le contrôle. Avec cette nouvelle édition, les clients gèrent l’ensemble de l’entreprise sans devoir entrer et sortir des systèmes ou sans perturber les solutions et les flux de travail existants qu’ils ont mis des années à définir et à perfectionner. Les organisations peuvent gérer de manière centralisée les opérations d’approvisionnement à partir d’un seul endroit, quel que soit l’environnement ERP qui sert de back-end. Bien que les transactions individuelles soient toujours traitées dans chaque back-end, l’équipe en chargé des achats dispose d’une vue et d’un contrôle centralisé sur tous les éléments, des demandes d’achat aux achats, en passant par la recherche de fournisseurs et les contrats.

Parmi les clients, citons Accenture, Baker Hughes, Barrick Gold, CDW, Constellation Brands, Devon Energy, Duke Energy, Endress+Hauser, Fifty Thousand Hours, Guidant Global, Hilltop Holdings, Insight, INVISTA, Johnson & Johnson, KUKA, LG Smith Transport, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mabe, Merck & Co, Ontario Power Generation, Pfizer, Sony Pictures Entertainment, T-Mobile, Thermo Fischer Scientific, Walmart, Van Genechten Packaging N.V., W.R. Grace et W.W. Grainger partageront leurs expériences et expliqueront comment ils naviguent dans un environnement marqué par des perturbations constantes de la chaîne logistique et d’évolution des tendances macroéconomiques. Pour plus d’informations, consultez le catalogue des sessions SAP Spend Connect Live, et regardez les sessions à la demande dans l’expérience virtuelle à partir du 8 novembre.

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Popular Design News of the Week: June 13, 2022 – June 19, 2022

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Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.

The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!

CSS.GUI – Open Source Visual Editor for CSS

Meet Web Push

Mobile-First CSS: Is it Time for a Rethink?

Web5 Is Here, Goodbye Web3? TBD

Nosignup.tools – Free Web Apps that Don’t Require Signup

Hello – The Best Search Engine for Software Developers

Exciting New Tools for Designers, June 2022

Adobe Plans to Make Photoshop on the Web Free to Everyone

8 CSS Snippets that Demonstrate the Power of Shadow Effects

Tango 2.0 – Automatically Generate Step-by-step Guides for your Team

Understanding the Template Element in HTML

Random Emoji Generator – Have Fun with Emojis

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WordPress 6.0 Lives Up To The Hype

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WordPress 6.0 has been released, and another niche jazz musician will be enjoying extra Spotify royalties next month.

WordPress 6, named for latin-jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill, is the realization of a change of direction the WordPress Foundation adopted several years ago.

All versions of WordPress now power around 42% of the web. That’s approximately 810,000,000 sites. If you looked at each site for a single second, without pausing to blink, it would take you over 25 years to see the home page of each one — of course, if you factor in how long a typical WordPress site takes to load it would take well over a century.

Some people (i.e., me) have been predicting the decline of WordPress for so long that sooner or later, we were bound to be correct. And, despite its astonishing reach, there are some signs that its market share may now be in decline. Even the W3C abandoned it in favor of Craft.

Of the 1,930,000,000 sites that currently make up the web, only around 400,000,000 are active. WordPress’s long-term dominance, coupled with a stalling market share, means that a disproportionate number of abandoned sites are WordPress. With site builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify taking huge chunks of WordPress’ share of new sites, WordPress is facing something of a cliff edge.

What the ill-informed naysayers (i.e., me) hadn’t counted on was that WordPress had already seen the writing on the wall and formulated a plan…

WordPress’s problem has always been its legacy code; supporting out-of-date ideas and a spaghetti-like codebase has meant a great deal of work to do anything new. As a result, the last few releases have seen great ideas stifled by labored implementation. Even the most loyal WordPress user has to admit that Gutenberg, while filled with potential, doesn’t work the way it should. However, with WordPress 6, all the work may be starting to pay off.

With version 6, the block editor in WordPress is starting to feel like a design tool that, if not perfect, is at least usable. Editing content no longer feels like you’re fighting against the UI. Most importantly, the bar for creating a site is much, much lower. WordPress 6 also offers improved performance and accessibility, both areas that have traditionally been lacking. Security is still something of an issue, but that is mainly due to the ROI for hackers that massive market shares generate.

WordPress, it seems, has arrived at two conclusions: its main competition isn’t other CMS but other site builders. To maintain its market dominance, it needs to cater not to professionals but to amateurs.

Don’t get me wrong; the WordPress ecosystem will benefit from WordPress 6, at least reputationally. New sites run by amateurs eventually become established sites run by, if not professionals, then at least knowledgeable amateurs.

OK, so WordPress probably isn’t a good choice for enterprise sites. And there are certainly better options for ecommerce. And as for SEO, well, probably best not mentioned.

But in WordPress 6, we have a free, open-source site builder that lowers the bar for making a new site. It’s a credit to the community that has persevered to produce it.

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4 Founder-Led Brands That Are Done Right

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When you hear the word “leadership,” do you think of a particular person?

If you’d been asked that question anytime before the 1900s, chances are you’d think of an accomplished politician or a battle-tested general. These were the people leading society for most of recorded history. Today, you might have someone else in mind.

Since the industrial era, the US has birthed a pantheon of founders who’ve arguably led our society as much as any statesman or president. We put Rockefeller and Ford right next to Lincoln and Jefferson. Think about it; these guys haven’t just changed the US; they’ve changed how the entire world lives and does business.

Founders of successful companies today command even larger amounts of capital and power than JD and Henry. With the rise of social media, they are often thrust to the forefront of their brands and the public, whether they like it or not. Some manage the responsibility better than others.

In my opinion, the best businesses use all that capital, manpower, and name recognition to do more than simply make a profit. By leading with authenticity, inspiring positive action, and influencing their brand’s vision for innovation – they try to make a change.

I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some modern founder-led brands I think are doing a killer job of creating unique, world-changing businesses and company cultures. I also want to discuss the lessons I have learned from them.

Elon Musk – Tesla

When talking about founder-led brands of the 21st century, it’s hard to pass over electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and its outspoken CEO, Elon Musk. Love him or loathe him, he belongs in any conversation on influential founders.

While Musk isn’t technically the founder of Tesla, he is one hundred percent responsible for the company’s direction over the past decade. I think two of the strongest leadership points for Musk are his focus on branding and innovation.

Tesla created showrooms and charging stations long before his business had the sales to justify the expense. People saw the name Tesla everywhere, got curious about it, and now that’s paying off big time. Tesla today is at the forefront of the EV industry while all the other car companies play catch-up.

Behind the scenes, Tesla was also early to create a vertically-integrated supply chain – giving it almost complete control over its product and logistics. That’s another feature with a hefty upfront price tag but paid off when the pandemic hit. Now the biggest automakers in the world are rushing to copy that model.

Musk arguably even convinced China to deregulate foreign ownership of automotive companies. That’s hard to prove. However, China changed its rules around foreign ownership of EV companies shortly after he refused to enter the country.

Arguably, Tesla today is one of the frontrunners in redefining how traditional companies run. Musk is known to hate bureaucracy and traditional hierarchies. He hires other people to take care of bureaucratic processes for him.

Musk is also known for hiring relatively young, hard-working employees into high-power management positions in the company and letting them prove themselves. That inspires extreme loyalty from his employees from an early age. Musk’s focus on efficiency and rejection of traditional hierarchies has sparked a small revolution in tech companies.

Finally, I respect Musk because he has goals beyond showing year-over-year growth to shareholders. That’s hard to do day in and day out.

Sara Blakely – Spanx

Sara Blakely is an example of a founder with her hands in every part of her business, from product creation to sales. Most importantly, she created an authentic company culture with values she felt the business world lacked.

For those who know her story, Spanx very nearly didn’t happen. Blakely pitched her slimming undergarment to multiple women’s brands run by men. Most told her it would never work.

It might seem silly now, but men used to think they knew women’s fashion better than women. It wasn’t until one executive gave Blakely’s product to his daughters to try out that he agreed to start stocking Spanx. It’s a great example of how businesses can make a lot of money by listening to their customers.

Besides founding a women’s clothing company that sells products women want, Blakely strived to bring “feminine energy” into the workplace. I saw this poignant quote from her in an article:

“Twenty-one years ago when I started Spanx, I ended up in the paper in Atlanta, and I was at a cocktail party and a couple of guys came up to me and they said, ‘Sara, we read about you. Congratulations! We heard you invented something.’ And I said, ‘Yes I did, I’m so excited.’ They said, ‘Business is war,’ and then they pat me on the shoulder and they kind of laughed at each other. I went back home to my apartment that night. I was 29 and I just thought, I’m not going to war. I’m going to do this very differently. I’m going to honor a lot of feminine principles — intuition, empathy, kindness. Just allowing myself to be vulnerable through this process. And of course, a lot of the masculine energy has helped me also — it was a balance. But I wasn’t going to do it by squashing the feminine.”

Blakely worked hard to create a sales-oriented company culture that was purposely welcoming from that point forward. She regularly scheduled “oops meetings” where employees could stand up and say how they messed up and turn it into a funny story. At Spanx, it was okay to make mistakes and learn from them.

Blakely wanted everything about her product to be fun, including the way it was sold. She created a mandatory boot camp for salespeople, which, among other things, requires employees to perform standup comedy. Little things like that resonated with people and made Spanx synonymous with “fun.” Even famous actresses were flashing their Spanx on the red carpet.

The lesson we can all learn from Spanx and Blakely is that fun and positive energy are great marketing tools for any business. Many companies try to push a fun culture publicly without any authentic leadership that genuinely exemplifies that narrative, they won’t have the same effect. Blakely’s story of Spanx is not just a story of the brand but a story of her life and the experiences that shaped her vision and goals.

Jack Dorsey – Block (FKA Square)

While better known for founding Twitter, Jack Dorsey has recently been in the news for his move to solely running payment processing business Block. I admire Dorsey because he radically encourages his teams to think differently about how they work.

Dorsey is known for optimizing ways to stay productive and focused throughout the day. He manages through unconventional tactics like communicating only through voice memos on his phone that he runs through transcription apps. He says this prevents him from being sidetracked by distractions on his computer. I think that kind of mindfulness is necessary now more than ever.

Dorsey tries to bring this level of focus to his interactions with his employees too. I saw a great quote from him in this article discussing computer-less meetings at Block.

“When phones are down and laptops are closed, the team can discuss any issue at hand without distraction. We can actually focus and not just spend an hour together but make that time meaningful — and if that time is 15 minutes, then it’s 15 minutes and then we move on with our lives.”

Besides limiting distractions, Dorsey is known to walk five miles to work daily, theme each day, and create detailed agendas and goals for each team meeting. In his former company, Twitter, the culture was frequently described as a space where employees could speak freely to management about things they wanted to change.

On that subject, Dorsey has been known to push hard for employee control in his companies. Perhaps ironically, he was also quoted saying he wants Twitter to break away from its co-founders’- vision and control, calling founder-led companies “severely limiting.” However, it still seems he has some sort of vision for the world that he wants to bring around via Block.

His business goals are visionary, pushing the boundaries of innovation in the financial world.

Dorsey is a known cryptocurrency enthusiast but had pushback from the Twitter team, including his CFO, about making a crypto-centric product. His move to payments processor, Block, seems to be a bid to follow his passion and exert his vision on the world.

Block has since made headlines for being extremely bullish on cryptocurrencies, while many have expressed doubts. Dorsey even changed the business’s name to Block to better reflect its focus on blockchain and famously purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin in 2020. All the while, Dorsey has been quietly creating arms of his business in the hopes of improving BTC’s usefulness. That may pay off down the line.

Melanie Perkins – Canva

I identify strongly with Melanie Perkins, co-founder of graphic design SaaS, Canva. Besides being roughly the same age, we both came from nondescript beginnings with no background in entrepreneurship or tech.

Canva is an excellent example of a business created by becoming intimately familiar with a customer problem and executing. Perkins spent years teaching people how to use design platforms like Adobe Creative Suite because they were so complicated. Taking that knowledge, she started a simple product to help customers create high school yearbooks. That expanded into a super app covering every aspect of design.

This super-app has unlocked a way for millions to learn design and produce high-quality content at any skill level. The cost to use Canva is many times lower than anything else on the market.

While Canva is an amazing product, what I like most about Perkins is that she believes business serves a higher purpose than maximizing profits.

When she was suddenly thrust into the limelight with a $40 billion valuation, people were even more impressed by Perkins’ philanthropic goals. She vowed to donate a 30 percent stake in Canva to a charity dedicated to eliminating poverty (about $12 billion). She is also known to regularly fundraise for 25,000 different nonprofits through her app. She doesn’t just inspire people with words, but by actions, she’s actually taking.

Canva is very public about its ethos. I like their values because they are general yet avoid the jargon many companies fall into. They are:

  • To be a force for good and empower others;
  • Pursue excellence;
  • Be a good human;
  • Make complex things simple;
  • Set crazy big goals and make them happen.

Besides revolutionizing how modern businesses design and harness goodwill marketing, Canva was also one of the forerunners of the remote work trend.

Most of Canva’s “Canvanauts” worked from homes worldwide even before the pandemic. Canva showed a lot of tired old businesses that you could still run a successful company without having employees in the office 24/7.

How I Try to Learn From the Best

Finally, I want to talk about what I am trying to contribute to my team and society with my current business, startup acquisition marketplace, MicroAcquire.

As I’ve mentioned, I think it is very much on myself as a founder to set the tone of my business – and that starts with who I hire. When I’m searching for new employees to join the “#Micromafia” I not only look for productive workers, I look for people I genuinely enjoy spending time with. It’s the best feeling in the world to go to meetings where you leave thinking, “That was really fun.”

Besides creating a great team, I’ve tried to address another problem I see again and again at major tech companies: employee burnout. There’s a reason the average tenure of a tech employee is three years.

I love working on startups. It’s like playing a video game for me, and it’s probably why I’m a founder. That said, I know my employees don’t always feel the same way. As CEO, I make sure my team knows I want them to live their lives outside of MicroAcquire.

On the business side of things, I take cues from the best. Like Musk and Dorsey, I want to preemptively create features that I know our customers will love. I knew people wanted an easy way to sell their startups because I wished I’d had one back when I was doing it.

Like Spanx and Tesla, I also strongly believe in the power of innovative branding – and I make sure we spend in areas that will give us significant returns down the line.

For example, we’ve made it easy to get MicroAcquire merchandise online completely free. The extra exposure we get from tech people rocking MicroAcquire t-shirts is more than worth the cost. We also created our own media publication Bootstrappers.com to tell the founder stories we thought major publications had missed. That’s been a huge hit with our customers, who also happen to be founders. These people traditionally have had to spam inboxes and pay for press because they didn’t raise billions in funding.

Finally, like Blakely and Perkins, I also want to actively listen to customer feedback and make sure we create a necessary and desired product. That’s why I make sure we’re constantly engaging with our community both on our website and social media. Many of the features we’ve added are just things we’ve heard mentioned multiple times from customers.

So far, I love the community we’ve created online and in the office. I don’t claim to have the winning formula, but I feel we are making a real difference out there. We’re lucky to live in a world with so many smart people getting their ideas out and making a positive change in the world.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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How To Take Your First Steps in Web Design

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Are you a creative person looking for the perfect career path to take? If so, there are not many more creative professions than that of a web designer.

However, becoming a web designer can be challenging, especially if you do not know where to start. For example, do you need to attend college to become a web designer? And what kind of computer and software do you need to own to be successful as a web designer?

This guide aims to answer all these questions and show you the steps you need to follow to build a career in web design.

Web Designer: Main Skills and Responsibilities

Generally speaking, a web designer is a professional who creates, manages, and maintains content for the web. Nothing is left out from designing pages and visual elements via programming languages and creating user-friendly websites.

Web Designer (Hard and Soft) Skills:

  • UX, UI, and visual design knowledge (web fonts, colors, etc.)
  • Management of design software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop)
  • Coding knowledge (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.)
  • Time management
  • Communication skills
  • Problem-solving and teamwork skills
  • Research skills

Web Designer Responsibilities:

  • Plan and create web pages
  • Design appealing layouts
  • Use codes to create user-friendly pages
  • Ability to meet deadlines
  • Listen and advise clients
  • Able to work as part of a team and effectively solve occurring problems
  • Analyze the client’s niche, explore new web design opportunities/ innovative digital marketing approaches

If you feel overwhelmed reading this table, don’t be! You do not have to master all of the above skills. No one expects you to either. Becoming a top-notch web designer takes some dedication, but ultimately it’s nothing more than a series of steps. Let’s dive deeper into them.

Becoming a Web Designer: 7 Essential Steps

1. Gaining the Knowledge Needed: Theory and Certifications

Let’s start with the most common question, “Do I need to go to college to become a web designer?” Research shows that more than 65% of web designers are self-taught (fully or partially). Of course, that does not mean you can jump into design from the start.

Instead, we recommend that you learn some essential web design elements and how to use them in your future projects. This includes UX (user experience), UI (user interface), protocols, and patterns. The same goes for technical knowledge like programming languages, frameworks, and design software.

2. Developing Certain Skills

So, there are numerous aspects you can explore regarding technical skills. To be specific, your first steps in web design include developing the following skills: 

  1. Theory and certifications: Learning the theory to understand how the web and the market work
  2. Web design tools: Finding the web design tools you need to start designing (.e.g Webflow, Sketch, Figma). This will allow you to learn how to prototype web design mock-ups.
  3. Graphic design tools: Becoming familiar with software like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.
  4. Programming languages: Especially if you think of becoming a freelance web designer, you should at least learn how to use fundamental languages (HTML, JavaScript, CSS).
  5. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Learning how to optimize your web pages to rank on search engines is crucial.  

3. Mastering Web Design Software 

What software do you need as a beginner to start creating web designs? There are numerous apps that will help you gradually enter the fascinating world of web design. 

When it comes to CMS platforms, WordPress is by far the most popular in the market. The good thing about WordPress is that it is very beginner-friendly and comes with thousands of pre-built themes and plugins that you can use when creating a website.

But the same is true for InVision Studio. Unlike WordPress, InVision Studio is specifically designed to help web designers prototype and design a website. Finally, when it comes to graphic design software, we recommend you start with Photoshop (for creating visual samples and prints) and Sketch (for UI designs). 

4. Learning How Much Computing Power you Need

Although online CMS platforms like WordPress do not require special hardware, that’s not true for web design and graphic design software. To be precise, both InVision Studio and Photoshop have quite demanding system requirements. 

Still, a mid-range desktop or an entry-level gaming laptop can easily handle such applications. You need a reliable CPU, 8 GB RAM, and a dedicated graphics card.

I find working with two screens perfect when it comes to prototyping. You do not need to spend thousands of dollars to buy a laptop or desktop for web design.

5. Practice, Practice, and Practice

As with any other profession, practice makes perfect in web design. Therefore, the good idea is to get involved with personal web design projects before you start seeking clients or applying for job offers. This way, you can gradually acquire the technical skills you need.

Also, by working on some personal projects first, you can build a professional portfolio.

6. Creating a Professional Portfolio

If you want to draw attention to your talent, you should have a comprehensive portfolio as a web designer. This way, potential customers to trust you by having a look at your work and previous experience.

When creating a portfolio, make sure to showcase all aspects of your work and make it user-friendly. In other words, think of your online portfolio representing your talent and treat it accordingly.

7. Choosing the Web Designer Type That Best Suits Your Needs and Preferences

Last but not least, before working as a web designer, you should know that there are three main types of web designers: Freelance web designers, Agency web designers, and In-house web designers.

If you prefer to be self-employed and believe that you have the required soft skills, freelancing is probably the best path.

On the other hand, working for an agency or a company is usually easier (especially for beginners) and will provide you with a stable income. But, in the end, it all depends on your needs and preferences.

Wrap Up

Being a web designer can be an exciting career. As long as you have the necessary dedication and willingness, nothing will stand in your way.

Learning different aspects of the profession and mastering specific software will only make you better. All you need to do is respond positively to (and ask for) incoming feedback and practice!

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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