One of the challenges that is faced when freelancing is that there is not always enough money available to purchase the latest and greatest tools. Along with your computer and your internet connection, there are some tools that freelance writers should have available that will help them stay on track, help with scheduling, verify spelling and grammar, check for plagiarism and verify proper citations. There are plenty of tools online that are free of charge that you can use to ensure that you are meeting your freelancing goals. There is no possible way to list every free tool, but these are a few that we have tested and used ourselves.
Proper citations - If you are uncertain how to properly cite material that you use when writing articles, ebooks or blog posts, you may want to check out University of California/Berkeley website. They offer a number of citation links that can help ensure that your work contains the proper citations for material you have used. You may have freelance clients who demand a certain style of citation be used and these guides can help ensure you do it properly.
Keyword finder – If your client is interested in keyword rich content, you might be baffled as to how to come up with the keywords on your own. If you know the topic (for example freelancing) you can type your topic into Google and from the menu on the left menu under tools you will find “Wonder Wheel”. Wonder wheel allows you to gauge what keywords are most important in terms of ranking allowing you to customize your work. Wonder wheel is free to use. Read step by step instructions for using wonder wheel to familiarize yourself with this powerful tool.
Plagiarism check - While Copy Scape is little doubt the premier plagiarism tool available, there is a free option that is suitable for most freelance writers needs. DustBall is a great little program that can help you numerous ways. You can use this free program to ensure that your work is free from plagiarism that could be the result of “over-studying” a topic and you can also use it to verify that your work isn’t being used in other places on the internet. This free plagiarism checker is highly effective for most freelance writing professionals.
Spell and Grammar checking – Most word processors have built in spelling and grammar checkers. While the spell check tools are highly accurate, not all of the grammar checking tools are. SpellCheckPlus is a highly accurate tool that not only verifies your spelling but also your grammar usage. This can be a very helpful tool.
Summary
There are a number of free tools available online that can help freelance writers succeed. These are a few that will help. Please feel free to leave comments if you are aware of other tools that you think can benefit other freelance writers.
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Your blog is so informative ¡ keep up the good work!!!!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Freelancing & More , Doreen Martel. Doreen Martel said: New Blog Post: Freelance writing tools – available for free http://bit.ly/cYJDYt [...]
To check plagiarism, I often use aafter.com that provides a stringiest checking facility. The website has many tools for freelancers to help them write better.
Stephen
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Freelancing & More , Doreen Martel. Doreen Martel said: New Blog Post: Freelance writing tools – available for free http://bit.ly/cYJDYt [...]