Freelance Writing Tools: 17 Tools to Help You Grow
There’s more to being a freelance writer than just writing and editing blog posts.
You also need a way to find new work, communicate with clients, stay organized, get paid, and so much more.
Fortunately, there are tons of great tools for freelance writers -- and many of them are 100% free!
I’ve broken them up by category to make it easy to quickly scan and grab what you need.
So without further ado — here are the 17 best tools for freelance writers. Enjoy!
The best tools for finding clients
There’s just no getting around it. If you want to be a successful freelance writer then you’re going to need a way to find new clients.
But you don’t just want any client. You want to find great clients who are going to pay you more than $10 a blog post.
Here are my four favorite resources for finding great clients online.
Upwork
If you aren’t familiar with Upwork, it’s a global freelancing platform.
Businesses post a description of the job they need to be completed, and freelancers can submit a proposal and bid for that work.
I included this first on the list because there’s just no getting around it -- I love Upwork.
How could I not?
I earned over $100,000 just from clients I worked with on Upwork.
I recently worked with a client who hired me to write 5 blog posts for $2,500.
And the best part about finding clients on Upwork?
It’s easy.
I spend roughly 30 minutes a day looking for work, sometimes less.
ProBlogger
I’ve had a lot of success finding good clients from the Problogger Job Board.
Clients pay $70 to post on ProBlogger so most of them are serious about working with freelancers.
Not only is ProBlogger a great way to find freelance work, but it’s also an incredible resource for bloggers.
I highly recommend you check out the ProBlogger blog, podcast, and other resources.
Aside from Upwork, LinkedIn is one of the favorite places to look for new clients.
And there are several ways I go about looking for work on LinkedIn.
The first step is to optimize your profile so it’s easy for potential clients to find you.
The best way to do that is by adding relevant keywords in your headline.
For instance, my headline says, “Personal Finance Freelance Writer.”
I’ve landed several high-profile clients because they looking for freelancers and stumbled across my profile.
Another option is to actively look for work on the LinkedIn job board.
I typically just search for “freelance writer” and only look at the results over the past 24 hours.
You’ll have to do a lot of digging, but I’ve found some of my best long-term clients on the LinkedIn job board.
Contently
Okay, so I haven’t actually found any clients from Contently.
But Contently is where I have my writer’s portfolio which has definitely contributed to my success as a freelancer.
When I first started freelancing, I would send potential clients samples in Word documents.
Every time I would send a new proposal, I would dig through all my documents to try to find the best ones.
Now I can just send my Contently portfolio.
It looks professional, it has a link to my website and LinkedIn profile, and clients have hundreds of samples to choose from.
The best tools for working with clients
Of course, finding a new client is really only the first step.
Now you need to figure out a way to work with them, communicate, and get paid.
Which is exactly what the following tools will help you with.
Calendly
Ever gotten stuck emailing back and forth with a client trying to schedule a call?
Yeah, me too.
You recommend Tuesday at 2:00.
But wait, they have a meeting then, so can you do Wednesday at 9:30?
Um, is that 9:30 ET or 9:30 CT?
The emails continue to ping pong back and forth, wasting both of your time.
This is why you need a scheduler like Calendly.
You set your calendar preferences ahead of time, email your Calendly link or embed it on your website, and the client schedules an appointment when it works for them.
The best part?
Once they pick a time it’s automatically added to your calendar.
Slack
Slack is a great collaboration tool for teams.
It’s a messaging platform that saves you from dealing with endless email chains.
You can message, share files, send direct messages, and more on Slack.
Plus, Slack integrates seamlessly with many other apps.
Pro tip: If you choose to work with clients on Slack, make sure you’re very clear about how often you check it and respond to messages.
For instance, let them know if there are certain times during the day you check messages, or if you don’t respond to messages on the weekends.
This helps you establish boundaries with your clients, and lets them know what to expect while they’re working with you.
Zoom
Emails are great but occasionally, you’ll probably want to have a face-to-face meeting with your clients.
And Zoom is a great way to make that happen.
Zoom lets you host a meeting with multiple people and you can record your meetings to the cloud.
It also lets you chat, upload documents, and share your screen with clients.
Let’s face it — Zoom has been a lifesaver for most of us over the past year!
Quickbooks
Are you clueless when it comes to finances like me?
Then you should definitely check out Quickbooks.
In my opinion, Quickbooks is super easy to use, even if you don’t consider yourself a very tech-savvy person.
You can use the software to track your income and expenses, send invoices, and track how much you owe in taxes.
I’ve tried both Freshbooks and Quickbooks, and of the two, I found Quickbooks to be the much better option.
Catch
There are many benefits to self-employment…but taxes are not one of them!
During my first year in business, I struggled to stay on top of my quarterly taxes.
I never set aside any money from the income I brought in every month, so I was always playing catch up.
Then last year, I learned about Catch and my life was changed forever.
When you sign up for Catch, you’ll link your business bank account to the app and decide what percentage you want to set aside for taxes every month.
From there, you can either manually transfer the money over each time you get paid.
Or you can set up custom rules and Catch will automatically transfer the money for you.
I love Catch because it makes it easy to save for taxes.
Since I never see the money, I’m not tempted to spend it.
The app will remind you when your quarterly taxes are due.
And you can even send in your federal taxes through the app.
The best tools for staying organized
I really struggled with productivity when I first started freelancing.
I had a hard time sticking to a schedule and finding a way to stay focused.
These days, I work from 8:30-2:30 every day while my kids are in school.
That may sound like a lot of time but it’s really easy to get off track and waste time without realizing it.
There is no true hack to being more productive -- you just have to keep working at it.
But these four tools have helped me get there.
Trello
How do I even explain how much I love Trello?
It has helped me become a more productive person over the last couple years and stay on track.
Trello gives you a bird’s eye view of whatever project you’re working on.
When you start a new project, you’ll create a board. Then within each board, you’ll add new cards with to-do list items on them.
You can tag other members on the card, add checklists, add documents or images, and more.
I use Trello for many things but my favorite way to use it is to plan out my week.
I used to use traditional planners but I have found Trello much more useful.
Google Drive
If I had to pick one tool on this list that I couldn’t live without, it would probably be Google Drive.
I use Google Drive to manage all my writing projects for clients, as well as my own blog posts.
When I first started freelancing, I wrote all my blog posts on Microsoft Word.
This wasn’t a big deal when I only had a couple of clients, but soon, I was working with 10-15 different clients every month.
This added up to a lot of blog posts.
Those blog posts took up tons of room on my computer’s hard drive, and I had a hard time keeping it all organized too.
Then a couple years ago, I made the switch to Google Drive and I haven’t looked back since.
Google Drive is cloud-based so I don’t have to save articles on my laptop.
And it’s so easy to keep everything organized.
Every time I get a new client, I create a new folder for that client.
From there, I create additional folders to help me stay organized and keep track of my work for them.
Dropbox
As you start working with clients, you’re going to have files and documents that you need to keep track of.
Personally, I hate saving anything to my hard drive so I use Dropbox to easily store and organize my files.
In Dropbox, you can create multiple folders and organize them by category.
That way, when you need something, you can quickly find what you’re looking for.
DocuSign
DocuSign is a must-have if you regularly sign contracts for clients.
The cloud-based software makes it easy to create, sign, and share documents with other people.
All contracts come with fillable forms and once you’ve signed the contract, DocuSign automatically saves a copy of it.
The best tools to improve your writing
I’ve noticed that many new freelance writers are nervous about their writing skills.
People frequently ask for recommendations for writing courses they can take to improve their writing.
And to be honest, I don’t think that’s necessary.
The best way to become a better writer is to practice writing.
And the four tools listed below will help you tighten up and improve your writing along the way.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how great your blog post if your headline is terrible.
In fact, five times as many people will read the headline than the actual article itself.
And that’s why I am obsessed with the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer.
This free tool checks your headlines for things like unique words, SEO optimization, and length.
It gives you a rating and anything that scores at least a 70 or higher is a good headline.
The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer has been a great tool for me to use on client work, and on my personal blog posts as well.
UberSuggest
At some point, you may want to start doing keyword research for your clients or for your own blogging efforts.
The Google Keyword Planner is a great free tool, but to be honest, I find it a little difficult to use.
That’s why I like UberSuggest, which is a free keyword planner from SEO guru Neil Patel.
It shows you the search volume for a keyword, how difficult it is to rank for, and the top sites that are ranking for that keyword.
I’ve found it to be an excellent source for doing competitor research as well.
You can see what keywords your competitors are ranking for and how much organic traffic they’re getting every month.
Grammarly
If you want to improve your writing and catch grammar and spelling errors you might have missed otherwise, I highly suggest you sign up for Grammarly.
When you check an article in Grammarly, it evaluates your writing for spelling errors, wordy sentences, and grammar mistakes.
I can honestly say Grammarly is one of the only tools on this list that I use pretty much every day without fail.
I currently use the paid version of Grammarly, but I know many writers who are happy with the free version.
Hemingway Editor
The Hemingway Editor is a desktop app, and you’ll have to pay a one-time fee of $19.99 to download it, but I think it’s well worth the money.
It will check your writing for overall readability, and show you what sentences are too wordy or confusing.
The bottom line on freelance writing tools
Investing in yourself is one of the best things you’ll ever do as a freelance writer.
The tools outlined in this blog post will help you find more clients, work with them effectively, manage your money, and become a better writer.
What are you favorite freelance writing tools?
Let me know in the comments!