Best Tools For Freelance Writers 2022‍

Freelance writing is a sought-after business path, with many professionals ditching the humdrum of 9-5 and embarking on a freelance career. In fact, in 2020, there were around 59 million freelancers in the US alone, and this number is set to rise to 90.1 million by 2028. 

The perks of freelancing are undeniable – creating your own hours, choosing projects that inspire, working from any corner of the world, and avoiding the stress of long commutes and traffic jams. Nonetheless, freelance writers also have to juggle many other business elements and therefore need to be a jack of all trades when entering the freelancing world. Suddenly, you have to do it all when you ditch the office and can no longer access their financial departments and HR teams. 

As a freelance writer, you'll most likely be expected to:

• Generate new ideas 
• Thoroughly research projects 
• Send proposals and pitches 
• Produce high-quality content 
• Manage social media accounts 
• Actively seek out new clients
• Manage your own finances (sending invoices and ensuring all tax information is up to date)
• Handle all administrative tasks 

 While the various hats you have to wear as a freelancer might seem daunting, there are luckily some fantastic online tools that can help freelance writers to hone their craft and manage their business with confidence and ease.

These top tools for 2022 are bound to delight!

Indy

Indy is an all-in-one freelance management platform that offers small business owners a comprehensive suite of 9 essential tools. Indy is certainly worth exploring if you want to build business relationships and deliver high-quality work every time. Most freelancers have to dip their hands into many pots, and this app makes it a breeze. Tools include:

• An invoice generator 
• A proposal generator with professional templates 
• Contract templates 
• Online calendar that can sync with your Google calendar 
• File storage 
• Forms for capturing leads 
• Task tracker with an integrated to-do list 
• Time tracker to track hours worked 
• Centralized communication via the chat feature 

Indy is the app for you if you juggle numerous projects at once and need a centralized dashboard via which to access them all. Since it can be accessed from desktop and mobile devices, you can easily use the app while on the road. Indy thus has it all, allowing freelance writers to manage their business and accounts with peace of mind, professionalism, and ease.

Grammarly

If you write for a living, you will want to curate quality work that is free of error and plagiarism. Grammarly is a comprehensive writing assistant tool for writers and is a must-have if you're going to proofread work prior to submission. 

Grammarly checks your writing by using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Once your text has been scanned, Grammarly will review the entire document and flag any spelling or grammatical errors, rate the piece's readability, offer suggestions based on your writing style of choice and check for any plagiarism. 

Grammarly will also offer suggestions about making work more concise and determine how engaging the piece is based on the language used. This can make your writing more exciting and more accessible for readers to digest. Grammarly is an excellent tool for anyone who writes for a living and is well suited for the following niches:

• Academic writing 
• Blogging 
• Journalistic writing 
• Report writing 
• Writing novels 
• Copywriting 
• Social media content creation
• Any small business owner looking to produce error-free copy

Writers can also set their Grammarly preferences according to the type of English they want to write in, including British English, US English, Canadian English, and Australian English. 

Google Drive

Many small business owners are probably familiar with Google Drive. The storage system gives users 15 GB for free, meaning that you can easily upload and save documents as needed. If you decide to work on Google Drive (In Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides), the app will also save your work as you go. This diminishes the possibility of losing work since all updates will be saved in real-time. 

Some other fantastic features of Google Drive for freelance writers include a tool that allows you to convert your documents to PDF or Word and a range of free templates for budgets, resumes, reports, proposals, and more. 

You can also organize your drive into folders and sub-folders for user ease and pass specific clients and projects to the appropriate folders.  

As an added bonus, Google Drive is easily integrated with other apps, known as 'Drive extensions,' and these include photo editors, document signers, email-to-PDF convertors, and so much more. 

PicMonkey

While not every freelance writer will dabble with graphic design, utilizing a trusty photo editing tool doesn't hurt and can enhance your skill set. Some projects might require the odd graphic, and if you find an editing tool that you can easily use, you can add this service to your repertoire. PicMonkey is far easier to navigate than Photoshop, and users can enjoy a free 7-day trial to get a feel for the platform. If you want to up your branding game and access to boost your visual marketing, it is definitely worth exploring. 

Some of the top features of PicMonkey include:

• Image transfers
• Graphic and text overlays 
• An easy-to-use interface 
• Editing software (in browser)

When it comes to creating images, users have a number of nifty tools at their fingertips, including cropping and resizing tools, decorative frames and text, stylized fonts and templates, filters and effects, and photo editing tools to brighten pictures and change the exposure. If you want to up your social media game and boost graphics, PicMonkey is a great choice. 

Paraphraser 

Checking plagiarism is half part of dealing with SEO content writing. The next goal is to remove plagiarism. With the help of paraphraser.io, marketers and bloggers write unique content with better readability scores.

This online paraphrasing tool provides several options to rephrase the content in different styles. You can write content according to the tone and understanding of your targeted audience by selecting specific modes.

It has a user-friendly interface which makes it convenient to use. It supports multiple file formats to upload a document. Moreover, you can directly copy or download the paraphrased text for further editing.

Moreover, it supports various languages, so you don’t have to translate the content for paraphrasing. Paraphraser.io leaves no grammatical or spelling mistakes in the content. Therefore, you can confidently write content that ranks well and gets more impressions online.

Zoho Invoice 

Whether you are a freelance writer, software developer, designer, or marketer, you need to manage your invoices and accounts with serious business savvy. While the dream might be to hire an accountant, most freelancers do not have the finances to hire an accountant

Zoho is integrated with several popular payment gateways for added convenience, and these include PayPal, 2CheckOut, Authorize.net, and Stripe. The app is also free for your first five customers, allowing you to get a head start when you start out with your freelancer career. As you build your business, you can upgrade your account and add more clients to the mix. Moreover, Zoho also offers several other apps that can be easily integrated with the invoicing system, including HR, marketing, and business processing tools. 

If you want to manage accounts effectively and ensure that clients can pay invoices quickly wherever they are in the world, it is certainly worth a squiz.

In Summary

Freelancing is an exhilarating adventure. However, it also requires a certain amount of business savvy. Luckily, these incredible apps can enhance your administrative savvy and help you manage every aspect of your business with ease. 

What are some of your favorite freelancing tools? Share with us below!