Since last year, I have been on a bit of a blogging spree. This trend continues in 2021 as well. Thanks to some awesome content creation tools, my writing and publishing is off to a flying start. In this post, I write about the tools I use for my blogging.
Background How I blogged till Mid-2020
Till the end of 2020, I used a few different tools in a mix and match’ manner. The different tools performed a variety of tasks, typically one for each function. These included
| Keyword Search | Content Brief or outline | Content Writing |
| Content Optimization | Images (with optimization or compression) | Video or Audio |
| Publish on Blogging Sites | Social Media Promotions / content calendar | Repurposing content |
There are plenty of SAAS tools that can handle one or two of the above tasks rather well.Next, there are some good tools like Content Studio and Storychief, that can perform many of these tasks (e.g. SEo, publishing, post promotion) with aplomb. However, there is no “Super App” or a tool that will cover the above steps end to end. Some claim they can, others may have the ability but with limited effectiveness.
Experimenting with Content Tools: Late 2020
By late 2020, I had experimented with several content tools ranging from:
- Markdown for drafting new posts
- Image search and optimization
- Content Optimization
- Social Media Automation
- Speech to Text
- Using AI tools
I had published a post about my workflow in a previous blog post, and also in a facebook group for Markerers. Over time, I tried a few other options, and starting January 2021, the below became my default workflow.
How I write and publish a New Blog post
a. Identify a topic and relevant keywords (I use getkeywords or Ahrefs)
b. Enter the search query in Frase + nichess to scout the available works.
c. Develop the content brief in Frase
d. Record the rough draft using speech to text in Otter.ai
e. Paste the text output in Ink or Copywritely and Optimize for grammar, structure, length of paragraph or sentences, etc. (these tools also suggest optimization based on the full post)
g. Add images – I use Crello or Stencil (for adding text overlay to images) , or Zoommy Mac App (USD 10) for searching from over 20 different free stock images sites.
h. Publish the post on the blog site – LinkedIn, Medium, Quora, WordPress – as per the blogging platform’s requirements.
i. I use missinglettr for setting up prmotion for posts that are published on my blog.
Optimize and update an existing Blog post
For previously published blog posts, below is my workflow
a. post the URL in Copywritely or Ink for re-optimization.
b. I have not used Frase to refining an existing post, but it can also do that.
Typically, I do content refresh on the 8 or 10 most popular posts every 6 months.
If you blog to promote a product or a service, a you may have to update your posts at shorter intervals. With increasing competition, it might make sense to run these posts in either tool every quarter or even monthly.
Promoting the content via Social Media Posts
Till recently, Missinglettr was my tool of choice for promoting my blog posts via social media. As on January 2021, I am liking Nichess more and more, we will take a look at this SAAS tool in a separate post! Particularly since they now offer a multi lingual or translation option.
Feature Image: PXHere using Creative Commons CC0 License