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Passer de Docker Swarm à Kubernetes : transition et mise à l'échelle.

Passer de Docker Swarm à Kubernetes : transition et mise à l’échelle.

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Passer de Docker Swarm à Kubernetes peut être une transition complexe, mais elle offre une meilleure mise à l’échelle et des fonctionnalités avancées. Découvrez comment faciliter cette transition.

Comprendre le changement

Making the Transition

The transition from Docker Swarm to Kubernetes requires careful planning and execution. Organizations should consider the following best practices when making the switch:

  • Understand the differences between Docker Swarm and Kubernetes. This will help ensure that the transition is seamless and that the organization is taking full advantage of Kubernetes’ capabilities.
  • Evaluate existing infrastructure and applications. This will help determine if Kubernetes is the right fit for the organization’s needs.
  • Create a plan for the transition. This should include a timeline, budget, and resource allocation.
  • Test the new system before going live. This will help ensure that everything is working as expected.

Benefits of Kubernetes

Kubernetes offers several advantages over Docker Swarm, including scalability, reliability, and flexibility. Kubernetes is designed to handle large-scale deployments with ease, allowing organizations to quickly and easily scale their applications as needed. It also offers a robust set of features, such as rolling updates, self-healing capabilities, and automated deployment. Finally, Kubernetes is highly extensible, allowing organizations to customize their deployments to meet their specific needs.

Architecture de Kubernetes

Kubernetes est une plateforme open source conçue pour automatiser le déploiement, le dimensionnement et l’exploitation des conteneurs d’applications. Il offre une plus grande flexibilité, un ensemble de fonctionnalités plus riche et un vaste écosystème, ce qui en fait le choix préféré des déploiements à grande échelle et d’entreprise. La transition de Docker Swarm à Kubernetes nécessite une planification et une exécution minutieuses. Les organisations doivent prendre en compte les meilleures pratiques suivantes lors du passage à Kubernetes : comprendre les différences entre Docker Swarm et Kubernetes, évaluer l’infrastructure et les applications existantes, créer un plan de transition et tester le nouveau système avant de le mettre en production.

Avantages de Kubernetes

Kubernetes offre plusieurs avantages par rapport à Docker Swarm, notamment la scalabilité, la fiabilité et la flexibilité. Il est conçu pour gérer facilement les déploiements à grande échelle, ce qui permet aux organisations de redimensionner rapidement et facilement leurs applications selon leurs besoins. Il offre également un ensemble robuste de fonctionnalités, telles que les mises à jour en roulement, les capacités de réparation automatique et le déploiement automatisé. Enfin, Kubernetes est extrêmement extensible, ce qui permet aux organisations de personnaliser leurs déploiements en fonction de leurs besoins spécifiques.

Conclusion

Kubernetes est devenu la solution préférée pour les déploiements à grande échelle et d’entreprise grâce à ses avantages en matière de scalabilité, de fiabilité et de flexibilité. Bien que la transition de Docker Swarm à Kubernetes puisse être complexe et exiger une planification minutieuse, elle offre des avantages considérables pour les organisations qui souhaitent tirer parti des fonctionnalités avancées de Kubernetes. Les organisations doivent donc prendre le temps d’examiner attentivement les avantages et les inconvénients de chaque solution et de choisir celle qui répond le mieux à leurs besoins.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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Exciting New Tools for Designers, December 2022

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Designing a website or app can be a daunting task. But with the right design tools, it can be a lot easier. In this article, we’ll introduce you to some of the best tools, apps, and resources available right now. From client management to AI-powered design tools, there’s tons here to round out the year in style. Enjoy!

WelcomeSpaces

WelcomeSpaces is a collaborative tool for professional designers. Communicate with clients, share files, discuss revisions, and stay on track with an activity feed. Client collaboration has never been so simple.

html.to.design

html.to.design is an excellent plugin for Figma to help you quickly and easily create beautiful designs from existing websites. With just a few clicks, you can import the HTML code for any website and start designing your own version of it.

Squeaky

Squeaky is a privacy-friendly analytics suite that lets you capture up to 60% more data than legacy tools. With Squeaky, you can get insights into your customers’ behavior without compromising their privacy. Use Squeaky to make better decisions for your business.

AI Canvas

AI Canvas is an online collaborative platform that allows users to create and share AI artwork with other community members. Start your artwork with text prompts and watch it grow.

Magician

Magician is an AI-powered plugin for Figma that can create icons, images, and web copy from text prompts. It’s the perfect tool for designers who want to quickly and easily create beautiful designs.

Doughnut

Doughnut is a supportive design and freelancing community designed to help you succeed as a freelance designer. From finding new clients to managing your time, Doughnut has everything you need to make the most of your freelance career.

Deckset

Deckset is a simple way to produce great-looking presentations. Just write your thoughts in your favorite text editor and watch Deckset transform them into beautiful, persuasive presentations.

Vectormaker

With Vectormaker, you can easily convert pixel-based images into colorful vector graphics. Vectormaker uses the Potrace algorithm to trace the edges of your image. You can then choose the colors for your vector path based on the colors in the original.

Wrap

Wrap is a browser extension for capturing and editing product screenshots with ease. With a selection of carefully selected styles to choose from, you can create pixel-perfect designs in seconds—even if you’re not a designer.

Illustration Builder

The Illustration Builder digital designer toolkit is a Figma plugin for creating beautiful illustrations for your business website. You can create any illustration with a wide range of objects, backgrounds, characters, abstractions, and more.

OptiMonk

With OptiMonk, you can create beautiful pop-ups for Shopify, WordPress, MailChimp, and more that will help you increase your marketing reach, increase customer engagement and boost your conversions.

Jot

Jot is a marketing tool that uses OpenAI’s GPT-3 to generate human-like ad copy based on a single product description. With Jot, you can create engaging adverts quickly and easily.

Free Mockup Generator

Pixelied’s free mockup generator allows you to create stunning designs with editable mockups in minutes. With a wide range of customizable templates to choose from, you can design the perfect mockup for your project.

Womp

Womp is a new way to create 3D images. Intuitive and easy to use. With Womp, you can create beautiful 3D designs. Everything you create in Womp is exportable for 3D printing, social media, or directly into a game. It’s a great way to produce 3D icons and illustrations for your website.

Tinkerwell

Tinkerwell is a must-have companion to your favorite IDE. Quickly iterate on PHP code within the context of your web application. There’s no need to waste time opening browsers, creating test URLs, and uploading apps to servers. Use Tinkerwell locally, via SSH, Docker, and even on Laravel Vapor.

Magical

Magical is a tool that helps you speed up the meeting scheduling process. With Magical, you can easily find time slots that work for everyone and create personalized links to those slots. With Magical’s Dynamic Availability feature, you and your attendees can always find the best meeting time.

Explain Code

Explain Code is a great way to understand complicated code. You can see how the code works line by line and learn about programming concepts. Gain in-depth knowledge of how and why code is constructed and fast-track your learning process.

Shuffle Alternatives

Shuffle Alternatives allows you to create multiple site styles with a simple drag-and-drop builder. Create your core design and then choose from different design styles for a site that best fits your brand approach.

Idea Clarity

Get help honing your ideas, perfecting your pitch, and targeting the most profitable directions. Idea Clarity is an app that gives you direct access to experts in your chosen field who will help you revise your rough idea into a concrete plan.

Graphicsly

Graphicsly is an all-in-one graphics assets plugin for WordPress that lets you import directly into your installation. There are 1000+ 3D assets, 3000+ illustrations, and 9000+ icons ready to use today.

Source

The post Exciting New Tools for Designers, December 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

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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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Exciting New Tools For Designers, April 2022

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Bored with the same old design tools? There are plenty of new toys to experiment with, from fun divots to functional design tools that could become your new go-to’s.

Here’s what is new for designers this month…

Kosmo

Kosmo is a new project management and invoicing system designed just for freelancers. Designers and developers will love it because the interface is sleek and modern. The tool lets you send invoices, track time, manage projects, send proposals and contracts, and manage billing. You can customize everything from your brand to colors so that your invoices reflect your business style. The platform has a free option as well, making it easy to have the tools you need to run your business. (Plus, there’s a very affordable premium plan if you want more features.)

STUDIO

STUDIO lets designers layout and publish responsive websites, including the ability to connect to backend data, all with a low learning-curve GUI and no coding knowledge prerequisites. You can publish to a free URL with free hosting on the cloud. The free version also includes forms. STUDIO also has premium plans if you like the tool for websites of all sizes and bandwidth needs.

NFT.js

NFT.JS allows you to deploy an ERC721 contract that can perform all the required functions without writing a single line of code. Interact with the contract by calling functions and sending transactions to the contract with a couple of lines of NFT.JS. Provide the input file into the metadata object, and NFT.JS uploads all the files provided in the metadata to IPFS as well as uploads the metadata.json file to IPFS and mints the NFT.

Color Morph

Color Morph is a fun little tool to help you generate mesh gradients in SVG format, or generate CSS, that you can snag and use in projects. The patterns are trendy and fun to use.

Scripts Organizer

Scripts Organizer is an advanced code editor for WordPress. This premium tool helps you make workflow scripts work for you with scheduling, advanced functionality, live previews, safe mode, SCSS partials, code injections, import and export, and more.

Texture

Texture is a fun web project that creates generative art that you can use for backgrounds or pretty much anything else. Preview the textures, pull the JavaScript or CSS or even edit and continue to play with them on CodePen.

Avvvatars

Avvvatars are a set of unique placeholder avatars that are free. The tool is easy to use, includes 40 colors, is accessible and lightweight, comes with 60 shapes, and is customizable. You can grab it on GitHub or as a Figma file.

Epic Ruler

Epic Ruler is a premium design utility tool that measures distance, dimensions, position, pick colors, test contrast, and align on-screen elements anywhere on your screen. You can also create alignments, and it comes with a great color picker that helps you pinpoint hues down to the pixel.

Jotform Apps

Jotform Apps is a new set of app tools from the company you may know for form-building tools. The free no-code app builder lets you add forms, links, widgets, and branding to one fully customized app that can be downloaded onto any smartphone, tablet, or computer. Get started with a template to jumpstart projects.

Spruce

Spruce is an open-source, lightweight CSS design system that’s built on Sass. The tool, which is in beta, is designed to help you start with a solid foundation for projects. It includes structure and code, typography, tables, and buttons.

Yaade

Yaade is an open-source, self-hosted, collaborative API development environment. It’s made for those who want self-hosting in security – if you don’t know the password, there’s no way in! You can import OpenAPI v3 files, there’s data import and export, and a dark mode default.

Agnostic UI

Agnostic UI is one stylesheet that works with multiple frameworks. The user interface components work in React, Vue 3, Svelte, and Angular. It includes semantic and accessible HTML with unprocessed CSS so you can code on the platform to get ahead of web standards.

Turbulent Buttons

Turbulent Buttons is a button-and-hover animation that goes the extra mile. This is a fun button and animation that is anything but boring.

Never Install

Never Install is a cloud platform that allows you to run any application from the browser without installing it on your device. It is an alternative to traditional desktop application usage and enables people to stream applications over the web. The developers are working on a next-generation cloud platform to bring any GUI application regardless of the operating system, device, and system requirements to the browser. The tool is free to use.

Photoinsight

Photoinsight is a tool (free and paid) to manage digital assets, including photos, videos, and 3D elements, in one place. You can search, filter, and group views based on your preferences. Plus, there are tools such as batch renaming and statistics and trends to help you manage files.

Formspector

Formspector answers that nagging question – are my forms working? Use the tool to set automated tests that will notify you if anything stops working, from newsletter signups to contact forms to support requests.

Wikifox.js

Wikifox.js is a lightweight, powerful, and restful JavaScript library that connects to the Wikipedia API. This library can be used to get content from Wikipedia.

Lightning Builder

Lightning Builder is a free browser-based drag and drop website builder. You can design a mockup in minutes so that you can show developers or writers what you are thinking when you are planning a new design or website project. Use it to ease communication for teams with new project builds.

Waaard

Waaard is a tiny tool with a lot of practical applications. Use it to create a protected link or file that only people you want to access it can open. With plenty of verification methods, you’ll know your links are safe.

Doodle Ipsum

Doodle Ipsum is the lorem ipsum of illustrations. Customize doodles, grab the code, and use them on web prototypes, landing pages, or no-code tools.

FF Din Stencil

FF Din Stencil is a fun display typeface for just the right application with a distinct style. It comes in a variety of weights and styles and is part of a greater FF Din family.

Fontanella

Fontanella is a typeface designed by Coto Mendoza, which emerged from calligraphy and manual drawing exploring the skeleton and classic proportions of Roman capital letters. It has an easy-to-read style with interesting sans serif characters.

Sarlotte

Sarlotte is a statuesque typeface with long tails, swashes, and flourishes. From the type designer: It seduces your eyes with its curves yet still manages to maintain its classy serenity, it’s perfect for branding, logos, invitations, and more.

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Overcoming Blank Page Paralysis

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Whether you’re new to the job or are an experienced designer, the anxiety of a new project can sometimes – often unexpectedly – cause us to freeze in our tracks. This creative paralysis sees us staring at a blank page, unable to come up with ideas, and the knowledge that time is slowly ticking away.

We’ve all been there. So we thought it would be helpful to share our tips and tricks for overcoming the tyranny of the blank page and help you get back to doing great work.

The first thing to know is that you are not alone; blank page syndrome has a basis in science, with a clearly identifiable set of symptoms that consistently occur together. 

The first thing to know is that you are not alone; blank page syndrome has a basis in science

It starts when you become stressed. Stress causes your brain to produce hormones that slow down neural functions, which only serves to increase the feelings of inadequacy over a lack of creative spark – and fuel anxiety. Understandably, this causes a spiral as your mind seems to get emptier and the blank page more threatening.

But don’t fear! Because there are ways to move past blank page paralysis and get back to productivity. 

Just Relax

Once you’re in a negative spiral, it’s notoriously difficult to get out of. The best solution is to avoid the spiral entirely – by starting in the right frame of mind. This means setting up a calm work environment before you even sit down. 

Do your best to avoid major distractions – such as young children who need your attention or colleagues who like to play music that vexes your soul. We’re not saying that you need a sound-proofed home office – the kitchen table might be fine – but schedule your work time for when the kids are at school or with a minder, or work from home if the office is likely to be noisy. A pair of noise-canceling headphones can be handy, too.

Avoid Distractions

Seemingly small things can also get in the way of your work. Chat and email notifications are the digital equivalents of a person calling your name from across a room. Try to avoid or silence anything that stops you getting into the creative mindset, even if you just mute things for a few hours. It’ll help you mentally separate your creative workspace from everything else.

all of those notifications will still be there when you resurface

Ultimately, you need to create a mood that you subconsciously associate with being productive. But even when the space around you is perfect, it can still take a while to get into the zone. Brains don’t just flip into creativity at the flick of a switch, so be kind to yourself. And remember – all of those notifications will still be there when you resurface later in the day. 

Do a Warm-Up

Studies have shown that a blank page is particularly stressful because it makes the task in front of you feel bigger than it really is. Gazing at an empty page is like seeing the whole project stretching out before you. The stress comes from the feeling of having to fill the whole journey, all the way from A to Z.

So don’t start with A! Instead, begin with a warm-up. Just as dancers always start with a series of exercises to warm up their muscles, creative designers can benefit from something similar. You could start by talking things through with colleagues or sketch some ideas using pen and paper, before opening your design app. 

Alternatively, you could start by planning your content hierarchy. You don’t need all the final words – but it can be helpful to work out how many headings you’re going to have, where images will sit, and whether your copy will be in paragraphs or lists. 

By doing this, you’ll have elements to place and a rough idea of their relative importance. It’s easy to get overawed by the importance of actual content – so start by getting a grip on the type, density, and length of content. 

Take Inspiration

The world around us is filled with inspiration and according to an icon designer Yannick Lung:

It helps to observe things in the real world and play around with them.

It can also help to borrow an idea. Obviously, we never condone copying someone’s work, but using existing work as a reference or jumping-off-point can help. Think of it as putting your own twist on an existing idea.

“I sometimes find it useful to reverse engineer a good example of the sort of thing I’m trying to write (and this works for design too). I usually break down a successful example into its constituent parts and swap them out for things more relevant to the project at hand, then refine from there,” says Harvey, one of Sketch’s brand storytellers.

Let Templates Take the Strain

Instead of putting pressure on yourself to instantly start designing, begin by creating templates or wireframes. This isn’t an avoidance tactic. Spending time creating an outline template saves time in the long run – plus, doing practical work that doesn’t need lots of detail will act as a warm-up. It might even help you catch potential issues in your designs earlier. 

Be Collaborative and Welcome Early Feedback

In general, people don’t work well in isolation – so collaborating with colleagues is a great way to get design ideas flowing. At the start of a project, reach out to your colleagues to let them know what you’re going to be working on and set up a session to collaborate on ideas and ask for direct input.

Never wait until the end of a project to ask for feedback. Involving your colleagues in the process early helps counter blank page paralysis and involving stakeholders can help you manage expectations. Aim to get regular and consistent feedback rather than waiting for it – which could cause a delay in your project. 

And of course, you should always choose a design software that enables real-time collaboration so that everyone working on a project can avoid version conflicts.

Avoid Burnout

When work isn’t physical, it can be hard to judge how much it takes out of us

When work isn’t physical, it can be hard to judge how much it takes out of us. If you’re suffering from blank page paralysis, it’s probably a sign that you’re starting to get burnt out. Try setting an alarm on the other side of the room so you have to get up to turn it off regularly – or just scheduling some time into your day to take a break, stretch, or even take a walk. Stepping away from your screen is good for your brain and your body.

In the end, the most important thing to remember when it comes to blank page syndrome is that you have to be kind to yourself. Nobody can be productive 100% of the time – we’re only human, after all. What matters is that you do whatever you need to get your creativity flowing.

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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8 Freelance Project Management Apps for 2021+

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In my experience, the biggest challenge that freelancers face — more than winning clients or setting prices — is project management; take on too much work, and you’ll start missing deadlines, take on too little, and you’ll start missing your rent.

Some people are naturally organized; they rock up at their desk at 08:59, fully confident in what they will spend the next 8–12 hours working on. Let’s be kind and say that I am not one of them, and leave it at that. The only way I have managed to survive the industry is by self-consciously micro-managing my schedule on a daily basis.

When I worked in an agency, I knew what I would be working on days in advance. Now, I know 90% of what I’ll be working on, weeks in advance.

That level of organization requires very, very, very careful planning. I hold team meetings at the end of the day, yes, “team” meetings of one person. To do that I use a number of tools that suit me.

How to Choose a Project Management App

The most important aspect of any project is the end. That’s when the client will assess your work, and that’s when you get paid. So when you choose a project management solution, make sure it gives you a clear path to the project conclusion.

I know one freelancer who sets himself a hard stop at 7 pm every day. At 7 pm, he downs tools switches off, and walks away. I once heard him end a client call at 7 pm because he’d reached his cut-off point. It made me wince — I would have stayed on until the call concluded — but it hasn’t affected his business.

I know another successful freelancer who works on a budget. When she has earned the money she needs for that day, she stops. She bills by the hour to make this work, so when she sits down in the morning, she knows exactly what time she’ll finish.

Personally, I prefer a task-based approach. I know what I have to get done; if I can get ahead, then great, but my main focus is ensuring I don’t fall behind. I believe that if you hit your deadlines, everything else will take care of itself. Admittedly, there have been a few late-nights (and all-nights) over the years, but thankfully they’re less common these days.

No one style of project management suits everyone. And it doesn’t matter what approach you take, provided you take an approach.

8 Best Project Management Apps for Freelancers

As a freelancer, the most important thing characteristic you can have is reliability. Cultivate a reputation for delivering on your promises, and you’ll become invaluable to your clients. The best project management app is the one that helps you keep your promises.

There are some excellent tools on the market that facilitate project management, but most are aimed at SMEs, or project managers running a team of freelancers.

The tools here are listed from least, to most useful for the average freelancer. I’ve avoided too many time-tracking apps because I find these tend to encourage billing by the hour, which is potentially damaging to your business long term. If you do need pure time-tracking, check out Harvest. I’ve also avoided solutions that are too large-scale to benefit freelancers. If you’re looking for a project management tool for teams, then Basecamp, Jira, Project.co, and Redbooth are all worth considering.

Sadly none of these apps are perfect, and there’s a good chance you’ll need to use two or three to manage your projects.

8. Todoist

Todoist is hands down the best to-do app on the market. The downside is that its feature set is minimal.

Todoist really excels at lists. You can break down tasks into sub-tasks, and sub-sub-tasks. The downside is there’s no real scheduling or comparison of multiple projects in a single view.

The mobile apps are great, and Todoist recently introduced boards, a form of kanban board that gives you a good overview of everything. If it introduces a gantt chart, I can see myself relying on it more.

Todoist has a free forever plan that is fine for most freelancers, and the paid plans start at just $3 per month.

7. Bonsai

Bonsai is an excellent service for freelancers that grew from a simple invoicing app to include proposals, contracts, time-tracking, and more.

I used Bonsai for invoicing for a couple of years, and it does everything it claims to do. However, there are a couple of significant areas where it falls down. Firstly, its invoicing is super-aggressive and cannot be customized — make sure you’re on friendly terms with any client you send a Bonsai invoice to. Secondly, while it does a good job of tracking what you have done, it doesn’t help you plan what needs to be done beyond a formal proposal.

If you’re running a few simple projects, then it’s possible Bonsai is right for you. Pricing starts at $19 per month.

6. Monday

Monday is one of the biggest players in the project management market. It offers a dizzying array of options, and if this list were aimed at project management for agencies, Monday would be further along our countdown. Monday may suit freelancers, particularly those who have migrated from agency work, but for most, it’s more than we need.

There is a free-forever plan that covers almost everything you could want. However, if you need to view your projects as a gantt chart — and I strongly suggest you do — then you’ll need to update to the standard plan, which starts at $8 per user per month, with a minimum of three seats, meaning at least $24 per month when billed annually.

5. AND.CO

AND.CO stands out as a slick, easy-to-use option for managing a freelance business. Like Bonsai, it allows you to manage proposals, invoicing, time-tracking, expenses, and more.

AND.CO also has extremely well-liked customer support. An underestimated consideration when you don’t have your own accounts team to resolve problems.

As with other solutions of this type, the task-management is lacking. It does include a simple to-do list, but in my opinion, it’s not sufficient, and you’ll need to supplement it with something that supports gantt charts.

There’s a free forever plan, but it’s barely more than a free trial. Pricing for full-featured access starts at $18 per month when billed annually.

4. ClickUp

ClickUp is a SaaS that aims to replace just about everything else you could need. Unlike some options on this list, it includes a CRM, which is a bonus because there’s nothing worse than relying on the search function in your email to track down someone’s contact details.

ClickUp also offers a genuinely free-forever account with enough features to make it usable. If you choose to upgrade to a paid plan, it’s just $5 per user per month, which is excellent value.

If anything, there’s just too much in here. If you’re someone who considers themselves a power-user who enjoys digging into every nuance of a UI, then ClickUp could be for you. But, if, like me, you favor a simple tool that does what it’s told and gets out of the way, then there are better options.

3. Asana

Asana is probably the best-known project management tool on the market. It offers a tremendous number of options and is flexible enough for any style of project management.

There’s a free forever plan that is ideal for getting started and offers you most — you may be sensing a theme here — of the features you’ll need. But Asana’s best feature is its excellent timeline implementation of the gantt chart, for which you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan costing $10.99 per user per month, with a minimum number of 2 seats that translates to a rather expensive $21.98 per month.

2. Trello

Trello is famous for its kanban boards, and many people prefer them to gantt charts, which has helped the app grow rapidly in the last few years.

If you’re prepared to pay $10 per user per month, Trello actually offers gantt charts as well, in the form of its timeline feature.

Trello is mainly designed for teams, not freelancers. However, if you do have the budget for a premium plan, Trello gives you an enviable ability to switch project management styles on a whim.

1. Toggl

Toggl is perhaps the perfect balance of time-tracking and gantt chart that is ideal for freelance projects.

As with most tools, Toggl is designed for teams, with billing starting at $8 per user per month. However, it offers a solo plan, designed for freelancers, that is free forever.

The main thing you miss out on with Toggl’s Solo plan is team timelines, which you won’t need unless you’re outsourcing work. One other obvious omission is unlimited planning boards, which you may find yourself paying for sooner or later.

But for a mixture of simplicity and powerful features available for $0, Toggl is hard to beat.

 

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10 Tips to Help Video Content Succeed in 2021

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According to a recent Hubspot survey, more than 85% of marketers believe video content is essential for any marketing strategy. This percentage is more than 20% higher than in 2016.

Understanding why this is the case is not hard. Modern digital marketing is all about engaging with your audience and sharing personal stories. And there’s simply no better way to do that than video content.

Videos are engaging for people of all ages and less boring than other types of content. However, it’s not easy to create or optimize video content. That’s why we have created a list of the top 10 video content tips and tricks you should follow.

Top 10 Tips and Tricks to Succeed in Video Content Marketing 

Whether you are an influencer, blogger, or business owner, video content is important for promoting your services or products. The following tips will help you improve your video content strategies.

Plus, you can apply these tactics across all websites and platforms: from your website or YouTube channel to social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter.

1. Utilize Video SEO

Contrary to what many believe, SEO does not only apply to written content. In fact, video SEO is just as important for drawing organic traffic to your website or social network account.

You can achieve this in several ways. When you upload a new video, you need to consider things like keywords, tags, file names, and descriptions. However, this is only part of what you can do to optimize your videos for SEO purposes.

There are plenty of video SEO guides for beginners that can help you improve your online presence through your video content. 

2. Identify Your Goals and the Scope of Your Videos

As with written and visual content in general, it is critical to identify your business goals for video content. This is one of the first things you should think about when launching a new video content campaign.

Think about what you want to achieve. For example, do you need to generate new customer leads or expand your audience? Considering the reach of your videos can help you stand out from your competitors.

When it comes to video content, planning is key. For this reason, setting the goals of your strategy should be a priority.

3. Schedule Your Video Content

While it’s important to set goals, no video content strategy will work without consistency. Planning your video content is the best way to be consistent when creating, uploading, and promoting.

There are many online apps and tools that can help you organize your video content strategy. For example, scheduling tools like Buffer or MeetEdgar can help you keep everything organized and save time uploading your videos.

In addition to these social media scheduling tools, you can also use apps like Trello to help you organize your content creation in general.

4. Use Premade Material like Instagram Templates

If you are a professional video creator or video editor, you’ll have no problem creating top-notch video content. But what happens if you have no experience with video content at all?

Luckily, there are plenty of tools out there to make your life easier. For example, if you want to create video stories for Instagram, you can use captivating pre-made Instagram templates.

Editing such templates using software like Photoshop can save you both time and money. However, if you do not have Photoshop experience, you can also create videos using simple online editors like Canva. 

5. Make Your Videos Engaging and Emotional

There are a few tips we would like to share when it comes to the content of videos. An important thing to keep in mind is that your videos should always be engaging. If you don’t try to engage with your audience through your videos, there is a big chance of failure. 

Therefore, whether you own a personal blog or an enormous corporate website, your video content should connect you emotionally with your audience. Adding a personal feel to your videos is a fantastic approach to consider. 

By doing so, your customers/readers will feel the need to engage by sharing their stories with you.  

6. Create Educational and Relevant Video Content

There are a few tips we’d like to share with you when it comes to video content. One important thing to keep in mind is that your videos should always be engaging. If you are not trying to engage your audience through your videos, there is a high chance of failure.

Whether you have a personal blog or a huge corporate website, your video content should connect emotionally with your audience. Adding a personal touch to your videos is an excellent approach to consider.

This way, your customers/readers will feel the need to engage by sharing their stories with you.

7. Implement CTAs

Calls to action are one of the most effective marketing strategies for written content. Although most websites only include CTAs on the homepage, it’s a brilliant thing to also use them in blog posts, videos, and visual content in general.

You should let your customers know how they can interact with your brand. For example, let them know about your website or how they can follow you on social media for more information.

CTAs are the best way to keep your customers and ultimately increase your conversion rates.

8. Focus on Storytelling

Videos that focus on sales often bore viewers. For this reason, you should add some value to your video content. Creating videos that act like stories is a great thing to do.

When you tell a personal story, your customers can better understand your brand and how it can help them. Remember, storytelling makes your content more engaging and interesting.

9. Promote your Content

Say you have developed a great video content strategy and have already created some top-notch videos. What should be your next step? Well, maximizing your target audience is a smart approach.

You can achieve this by promoting your videos on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Another smart move is to incorporate your video content into other content like blog posts, your website, etc.

10. Occasionally Evaluate your Video Content Strategy

Since you have already established your goals and the scope of your videos, you know exactly what you want to achieve with your video content strategy. Therefore, it’s important to evaluate how your plan is working. If you are happy with the analytics of your videos, that’s great.

If not, you can always consider what’s going wrong. For example, maybe you need to promote your videos better or include more CTAs.

Wrap Up

In this article, we analyzed how important video content has become for marketing. For this reason, implementing videos into your marketing strategies is a great thing to do.

If you follow the tips and tricks above, you will increase your video content strategy’s chances of success.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Top Blogging Platforms Worth Considering in 2021

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Want to know which of the top blogging platforms you should consider using this year?

Blogging is still one of the best ways to draw attention to your brand, generate thought leadership, and build your credibility. Research suggests that US internet users spend 3x more of their browsing time on blogs than on email. Additionally, people view about 20 billion blog pages on average each month. 

So, how do you join the blogging revolution? You’ll need the right platform. 

Essentially, a blogging platform is a CMS (Content Management System) which supports blog creation. Many come with additional tools like SEO support and integrations with email marketing too. There are tons of great blogging platforms out there, which means knowing where to start searching can be tough. To help you, we’ve put together this list of the leading blogging platforms.

What to Look for in a Blogging Platform

Before we sort through our list of the leading blogging platforms, let’s start with a quick overview of what the best blogging solutions typically include. Notably, depending on what you’re going to be using your blog for, you may have other features to prioritize besides those listed here. These features will act as a starting point for your comparisons:

Ease of Use

Uploading, publishing, and sharing your blog shouldn’t be a headache. 

There are many website builders out there that seem to have blogging tacked on as an “extra” rather than having it built into the foundations of the software. This often leads to a clunky backend experience when you’re building your site. 

If you’re a new blogger or don’t want to spend time messing around with HTML and coding, make sure that your blogging environment is easy to use. The simpler it is to distribute your content, the more likely you’ll stick to your blogging strategy. 

Cost and Revenue Opportunities

Many of the top blogging platforms come with a fee to think about. Even if you use an open-source platform for blogging, you still need to consider domain names, hosting, and security costs. Finding the right balance between spend and return on investment is crucial. 

Remember, just because a blogging platform is cheap doesn’t mean it’s good value. Similarly, expensive software may not be the best for your business. Ideally, you want something that’s going to deliver a good blogging experience, combined with plenty of opportunities to grow your readership for the lowest possible price. 

If you want to get the best return on investment, focus on the kind of monetization options you can access with each platform. Medium, for instance, has a partner program that allows you to earn money on the posts that customers read. Platforms like Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace can all offer earning opportunities too. You can use them to place certain content behind a paywall, create subscriptions, and sell products or services. 

Marketing and Growth Tools

Most blogging platforms will come with at least some tools to help you build your online presence. Wix and WordPress integrate with Google marketing, so you can purchase PPC campaigns and track your organic content through an SEO dashboard. 

The majority of CMS tools equipped with blogging capabilities also come with integrations for your email marketing service. This ensures you can create automated campaigns that inform your audience whenever a new blog post goes live. 

One of the best things about WordPress is how many plugins you can access to boost your readership levels. Access to extra tools like SEO solutions, landing form creators, and pop-ups can all boost your chances of converting and capturing leads. 

Custom Branding

If you’re keen to save money on your blogging platform, you might be tempted to start with a free version of a popular service. This is fine when you’re just testing the waters. However, you will need to spend extra if you want to remove the ads that other website builders put on your site. For instance, Wix’s free version will place ads on your pages and show the Wix identity in your footer. 

To build your own brand identity, you’re going to need to replace that CMS branding with your own. Look for a blogging service where you can buy your own domain name, customize your themes, and add your own colors, images, and logos into the mix. 

While tools like Medium won’t run ads on your campaigns, they also don’t allow you to customize your site to showcase your brand personality. It’s much easier to build a memorable identity when you can control what your site looks like. 

Upkeep and Maintenance

This ties in a little with the “ease of use” factor above. Before you invest in any blogging platform, think about how much work it’s going to require. A hosted blogging platform is pretty easy to manage because you don’t have to worry about security and uptime yourself.

Products like Wix and Squarespace will give you access to SSL certificates, patch security issues on your behalf, and handle other complicated site maintenance issues. WordPress and other open-source solutions require you to take more of a hands-on approach. You’ll need to manage your own web hosting and check the security of your site regularly. 

Flexibility

This feature is often overlooked in some guides to the best blogging platforms, but it’s also growing increasingly more important in today’s digital age. If you want your website to work for years to come, you need to make sure it’s flexible. This could mean that you look for something that allows you to upload different kinds of content, like written blogs and connecting podcasts. 

It could also mean investing in a service that has a lot of integrations and add-on options available. Plugins are fantastic for extending the functionality of your blog without having to move your entire site to another location. 

The right plugins can even allow you to transform your blog into a store if you decide to start selling your services or products later. 

The Best Blogging Platforms for 2021

Now we’ve covered what to look for in a blogging platform, we can begin to explore some of the top platforms on the market today. We’ve chosen these platforms for their ease of use, flexibility, performance, customization options, and value. 

WordPress

The best-known and most popular blogging platform in the world, WordPress is the go-to choice for most bloggers and website creators. Currently, there are around 64 million websites actively using WordPress as their chosen CMS. Usage stats also show that around 400 million people visit WordPress websites every month. 

WordPress powers most of the internet as one of the most flexible and easy-to-use platforms around. The biggest decision most users need to make is between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. 

You can create a blog for free at WordPress.com, and the company will host your site for you. However, you have to use a subdomain (rather than your own domain) with the free version. You’ll also lose control of your ads with the free package until you upgrade to a premium plan. 

A personal plan on WordPress.com starts at about $4 per month, and it removes all ads from your site. The more functionality you need, the more you’ll need to upgrade. WordPress.com is very easy to use and requires minimal initial setup, but it’s not very scalable. There are no custom themes, and you don’t technically “own” your blog this way. 

WordPress.org is a different story. With WordPress.org, you’re accessing an open-source blogging platform that allows you to build your site from scratch. You do need to purchase your own domain name and hosting with this service, but the software is free to use. 

WordPress.org is a lot more appealing to most bloggers because it’s so customizable. Features include:

  • Free and premium themes that you can customize to suit your brand;
  • Thousands of plugins to help with security, SEO, subscriptions, and more;
  • Gutenberg block editors to make creating and publishing blogs easy;
  • Tons of SEO friendly solutions to help you stand out online;
  • Access to a huge community of experts;
  • Infinite control over your design options;
  • Advanced user permissions and roles.

Pricing: WordPress.org is different from most blogging platforms because the foundation technology is free. You just pay for the a-la-carte options, like plugins, hosting, and domain name subscriptions. This means you can choose how expensive your site is going to be.

Pros:

  • Extremely easy to use with lots of community support available;
  • Free platform (though you do need to pay for the domain and hosting);
  • Lots of customization and plugin options to expand site functionality;
  • Search engine friendly as-standard, to help you grow;
  • Plenty of ways to make your brand stand out.

Cons:

  • It can be difficult to control your own website at first;
  • You have to manage your own backup and security;
  • Extra costs can quickly build up.

Squarespace

Squarespace is one of the more popular website design and blogging tools for people with a creative streak. Unlike WordPress.org, Squarespace gives you everything you need to build your own website straight out of the box. This includes hosting, the option to purchase your own domain name, and access to a range of beautiful templates. 

Squarespace stands out for its focus on small business owners. You can choose from a range of stunning designs and customize them however you choose with a convenient drag-and-drop builder. There’s also a fantastic customer service experience available from Squarespace, with a team that’s ready to help you with anything you need. 

Like many other hosted blogging platforms, you start on Squarespace by choosing the templates you like and customizing from there. There are some limitations in what you can do here, particularly if you have a lot of coding knowledge, making Squarespace less appealing to growing companies or larger brands. On the plus side, you do get features like:

  • Dedicated blogging templates to get you started;
  • Categories, tags, and featured post options;
  • Built-in scheduling for your blog posts;
  • Contributor roles and permissions;
  • Analytics to track your readers’ favorite posts;
  • Email marketing tools;
  • Social media and SEO solutions built-in;
  • Mobile app access.

Pricing: Compared to some of the other leading blogging solutions on the market, Squarespace is also quite affordable. The personal package at $12 per month will power a website with a stunning blog. You can also upgrade to the Business version for $18 per month, or if you decide to start selling your own products through your blog, you can transition to “Basic Commerce” at $26 per month.

Pros:

  • Squarespace is easy to use for beginners;
  • Fantastic range of stunning templates included;
  • SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing included;
  • SSL and HTTPS support;
  • Access to eCommerce features on some plans;
  • Useful analytics tools.

Cons:

  • Not very scalable for bigger brands;
  • Limited in terms of integrations and customization.

Medium

Medium is a different kind of blogging platform to many of the options mentioned here. This isn’t a tool you can use to build your own websites, like Wix or Squarespace. Instead, it’s a community you join with a monthly membership fee. 

Medium comes with a built-in audience, so you can immediately start speaking to customers and generating results from your content. As mentioned above, there’s also a Partner Program, which is free to join. The Partner Program allows you to earn money if people are reading your blogs regularly. 

For companies or individuals who just want to generate brand awareness but don’t want to invest in an entire blog-ready website yet, Medium can be a powerful choice. You can easily share posts and view what other people are posting. The biggest downside is that you can’t build an entire community and earn a fortune through your website with Medium. 

Medium is more like a social networking site, where you can begin to develop thought leadership than a true space to carve out your piece of the online world. But it does feature things like:

  • An easy-to-use environment for publishing content;
  • Analytics and insights into your campaigns;
  • Some design customization for your blog layout;
  • Access to a pre-existing audience of readers;
  • Support for monetization in the Partner program;
  • Access to picture uploading options;
  • Mobile-responsive blog posts.

Pricing: You don’t have to be a paid member of Medium to sign up for the partner program and start publishing blogs. This does make it a pretty good way to enhance your existing blogging strategy if you’re trying to generate more attention online. 

Pros:

  • Free to use for Partners and creators;
  • Excellent for appealing to already-engaged customers;
  • Easy to use, with no coding required;
  • No requirement to create a website or pay for hosting;
  • Communicate with a team of like-minded people.

Cons:

  • Limited customization options;
  • No ownership over your audience or readership;
  • Limitations to how you can make money (no ads).

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is among the most popular platforms for professionals in the world. It’s the go-to place for people in search of reliable ways to develop their professional network. Currently, there are around 756 million members on LinkedIn. When they’re not searching for connections with their peers or chatting about work opportunities, they’re checking out the content on the platform. 

If you’re keen to develop your position as a thought leader but prefer social media accounts to full websites, LinkedIn is the perfect choice. The more you publish on LinkedIn, the more you’ll attract new people who might want to work with you, invest in your company, or just work as part of your team. 

LinkedIn is a great place to generate attention if you’re in the B2B marketplace because most professionals already have their own account. You can also earn social proof by getting people to “endorse” your work. Some of the features of LinkedIn for bloggers include:

  • Private messaging for interactions with connections;
  • Notifications to help you keep track of valuable content;
  • A full profile posting section where you can publish your blogs;
  • A convenient network of active B2B professionals;
  • Endorsements for social proof;
  • A resume and blogging platform in one (you can list your skills);
  • Job searching and employee searching features.

Pricing: It’s free to access a basic membership with LinkedIn, but you will be limited on some of the features you can unlock. For instance, you can only send messages to people already in your network, and you’ll have limited analytics. LinkedIn Premium gives you slightly more functionality, with Business accounts starting at around $29.95 per month. 

Pros: 

  • Tons of people ready to read your blogs;
  • Great for building your professional network;
  • Good environment for thought leadership;
  • Access to extra tools like job listings;
  • Notifications to keep you on top of relevant posts;
  • Engagement options like private messaging;
  • Reports and insights.

Cons: 

  • No access to full website branding;
  • Limits to how you can monetize your content;
  • You don’t own the site or your traffic.

Wix

Easily one of the most popular website building solutions for beginners, Wix can help you build both a blog and a fully-featured website. You can even design your own store with Wix and start selling products whenever you choose. 

Wix is a straightforward site builder which you can use to build a site in a matter of minutes. There are hundreds of website themes to choose from, and you can also add as many customizations as you choose with the convenient drag-and-drop editor. The blog manager section of the CMS is also simple and intuitive, with SEO and analytics built in already. 

Wix aims to make jumping into blogging as quick and painless as possible. Elements like comments, social tools, hashtags, and subscriber forms are already available, and you can add further plugins if you choose. There’s also the option to include sharing buttons for social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and more. Features of Wix include:

  • An extensive range of blog templates;
  • Drag-and-drop customization (no coding required);
  • Subscriber forms, comments, likes, and categories;
  • Social media connections;
  • Extra features like store access;
  • Analytics and insights;
  • Quick and easy blogging interface.

Pricing: 

The most basic features of the Wix website builder are free to use. With a free Wix account, you’ll get a subdomain where you can’t choose the name of your own website, unfortunately. However, you can add a custom domain for only $4.50 per month. If you want a full premium plan with Wix, costs start at $8.50 per month and extend to $24.50 per month.

Pros:

  • Lots of pre-built blogging themes;
  • Easy customization options with no coding skills required;
  • Quick and easy to load and publish blogs;
  • Connections with social media platforms;
  • Access to various third-party apps and integrations;
  • Free option for beginners.

Cons:

  • Some limitations to the free account;
  • Ecommerce features are limited to paid plans;
  • Not as scalable for bigger companies.

Ghost

Lesser known than some of the options we’ve discussed so far but still brimming with value, Ghost is a minimalist blogging platform that’s all about content creation. Ghost promises a range of ways for you to turn your blogging into a business, with access to customizable templates, newsletter integrations, premium subscriptions, and more. 

The dashboard for Ghost is clean and intuitive, with access to simple sections where you can add tags to your posts, create drafts, track published content, and access valuable insights. You’ll have an easy view of important metrics like email open rates and numbers of paid members at a glance. You can also find integrations to make your Ghost experience even better. 

Ghost works alongside things like Buffer, Stripe, Twitter, Slack, MailChimp, and many other tools so you can take your blog to the next level. There’s no need for any coding knowledge, and because everything is written in JavaScript, it’s ultra-fast too. Features include:

  • Easy-to-use and intuitive interface;
  • Blogging and writing focused;
  • Clean and clutter-free design;
  • Integrations with various powerful tools;
  • Super-fast JavaScript coding;
  • Lots of templates and customizations;
  • Comment, mobile apps, A/B testing, and more;
  • Analytics and reporting.

Pricing: There’s a 14-day free trial to get you started with Ghost, then subscriptions start at $9 per month when billed annually for up to 1,000 members, 1 staff user, 2k views per month, and an SSL and CDN. The same plan is $15 per month billed monthly. Prices go all the way up to $199 per month billed annually, or $249 per month for 1 million views per month, 35,000 members, 15 staff users, and a 99.99% uptime SLA. 

Pros: 

  • Focus on writing and blogging;
  • Clutter-free and clean backend environment;
  • Easy to use and speedy performance;
  • Lots of packages to choose from;
  • Great integration options.

Cons:

  • Some limitations in scalability;
  • Complicated setup when installed;
  • Not a huge number of themes.

Choosing Your Blogging Platform

Whether you’re blogging because you want to build your personal brand or you’re looking for a way to strengthen sales opportunities for your company, you’re going to need the right blogging platform. The options above are just some of the best blogging solutions available right now. 

Remember, do your research and explore the free versions available whenever possible, so you can confidently invest in the software that’s best for you.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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