5 best and worst things to buy online

Going to a store can be a smart way to ensure you're getting what you're paying for, negotiate a better deal with the salesperson, or avoid hefty shipping charges. But some purchases are better made online because you can get a much lower price than at a brick-and-mortar retailer — and you can save yourself the time and hassle of going to the store.

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Uber, Lyft will be allowed to operate at McCarran

Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft will be allowed to operate at McCarran International Airport and when they do, they'll have designated pickup areas for customers to find their rides.

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Hundreds rally for union at Trump International -- PHOTOS

Culinary Union Local 226 members and supporters protest in front of Trump International on Friday.

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The making of a ghost town

THE mining downturn is devastating Australian towns, with entire populations are disappearing and leaving virtual ghost towns behind.

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Now you can Yelp about that rude TSA agent

No longer must you limit your scathing, one-star reviews to that overpriced Italian restaurant with the lousy osso buco. Yelp has announced an agreement with the federal government to allow the TSA and other federal agencies to claim Yelp pages and respond to reviews.

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Las Vegas bid for NHL franchise advances

Businessman Bill Foley's bid for a National Hockey League team in Las Vegas has reportedly moved to the next phase of consideration. The NHL will continue evaluating Foley's business plan for a franchise, which could potentially start playing at the new $375 million MGM Resorts International-AEG arena on the Strip by the 2017-18 season.

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Entrepreneur realizes dream of launching her own business

Lisa Escobar traded velvet ropes for vintage chairs. Escobar had a quintessential Vegas dream job managing high-end nightclubs Tryst and XS inside the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore. But as much as Escobar loved it, that job wasn't a calling.

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Cold coffee heats up Las Vegas retailers' sales

For U.S. coffee shops, business usually cools down as the weather heats up. However, Americans' year-round thirst for cold coffee has been rising for years.

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Justice Department sued for Web gambling documents

WASHINGTON — A conservative legal foundation has sued the Justice Department for documents that might shed light on a controversial 2011 policy change legalizing gambling over the Internet.

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Why Bunnings crushes Masters

MASTERS is the huge Woolworth-owned hardware chain that was supposed to brawl with Bunnings. But it hasn’t landed a punch.

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Mount Airy table revenues on a roll

Temperatures weren’t the only thing on fire in July.Mount Airy Casino Resort’s table games revenues jumped by nearly a third to $4.2 million last month. That’s 33 percent higher than a year ago, when it was at $3.1 million.The Paradise Township casino also more than doubled the state's 13.9 percent average growth rate for July table games. Revenues came in at $69.2 million last month, $8 million higher than in July 2014, when it was $61.1 million. [...]

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Caesars shares rise as other gaming stocks slip

Shares of Wynn Resorts Ltd. hit a 52-week low as gaming industry stock prices slid with the rest of the stock market during Friday's 530 point Down Jones tumble.

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Marketing Day: Tweets Hit Google Search Results, WordPress 4.3 & Facebook Brand Pages Get GIFs

Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Tweets Officially Hit Google Desktop Search Results, Giving Brands Another Way In

Feature is now available for all English language users globally. Tweets from brands with active Twitter accounts are showing up in a carousel unit.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Bizible Adds Offline Events To B2B Sales Attribution Platform

Offline events, conferences and more can be tracked and modeled along with online activities to understand sales impact from all channels.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Survey: Teens Spend 2X More Time With Mobile Than PCs Or TVs

American teens, (so-called “Millennial teens”) spend more than twice as much time per day with mobile devices than they do with conventional TV or desktop computers. That may be no surprise to anyone but it’s still sobering for marketers trying to reach this audience. That data comes from a...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Thrilling Job for an Outdoor Enthusiast: Director of Toughness for Columbia Sportswear

Think you’re tough?

Then we have the job for you.

Columbia Sportswear is hiring two Directors of Toughness. Yes, that’s the actual job title. Who wouldn’t want to put that on their resume?

This isn’t a military gig. You won’t run boot camps or whip people into shape. Instead, you’ll test Columbia’s gear in some of the most inhospitable conditions imaginable. We’re talking extreme skiing, trekking in frigid sub-zero temps, and other exploration of harsh terrain, which no doubt comes with unpredictable weather conditions.

This six-month gig, which runs Sept. 21, 2015 to March 18, 2016, involves traveling the world to iconic locations to see what the gear — and, let’s be honest, you — are really made of.

And that’s only part of it. You’ll also share your adventures with the world via social media, television, and other mediums.

Who Should Apply for This Tough Job?

“If you feel alive in the wild, dream of Snapchatting a 100 ft. cliff-dive, Instagramming from the top of Mount Rainier and putting gear to the ultimate test, this position is for you!” the application reads.

In other words, hiring managers are looking for adventurous, outgoing, social media-savvy folks who are willing to get into some grit-testing situations.

How Much Can You Earn?

If you’re selected for one of the two positions available, you’ll earn $26,000 over the six-month term of employment (with an opportunity for an extension if you and Columbia agree).

And no need to look for a place to live. The Portland, Oregon-based company will provide housing if don’t already live nearby.

But don’t count on spending much time in Portland. The job involves 85% travel throughout the U.S. and around the world. You’ll also receive health insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits during your six-month stint.

What Does the Director of Toughness Do?

Since this isn’t a job title most of us have heard before, what exactly will this person do?

In short, your job will be testing Columbia Sportswear’s equipment in “the most challenging weather and daunting topography [you] can find.”

But you won’t keep that knowledge to yourself. The other crucial part of the job is being able to convey those adventures to the world, so you should have solid communication and sharing skills, too.

And your first day of work will be on national TV (no pressure). The two Directors of Toughness will appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show first thing after they’re hired. This is a high-profile gig for sure!

What Skills Do You Need to Be Director of Toughness?

Columbia is looking for “anyone who lives and breathes adventure.” They also want people with concrete outdoor skills, including skiing and/or snowboarding skills (resort or backcountry), hiking, and a passion for sharing adventures.

Of course, you also need to be tough. They want people who can test their gear with confidence and prove it will withstand the harshest conditions.

“We are seeking those who possess perseverance, creativity and an irrepressible spirit to help them survive, thrive and, most importantly, expertly share their journey across unusual and challenging environments,” the application reads.

For this reason, Columbia is looking for applicants who are okay with more than a little bit of attention. If you’re outgoing, media-savvy, and excited at the idea of sharing your adventures with the world via television, social media, and other mediums, this job could be a great fit.

How Do You Apply?

The application is open until August 31.

To throw your hat into the ring, you’ll need to tell them about your last great adventure, answer a few other questions, and attach a resume and photo. How’s that for a fun application?

If you make it to the second round, you’ll head to an in-person screening at your own expense. The Portland screening will be Sept. 8, and East Coasters can plan on heading to New York on September 12.

If you’re one of the two individuals selected for the job, you’ll quickly pack your bags and relocate to Portland, Oregon by Sept. 20. Then you’ll appear on Jimmy Kimmel… and get to show the world just how tough you are.

Your Turn: Is this the kind of job you’d apply for?  

Kristen Pope is a freelance writer and editor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The post Thrilling Job for an Outdoor Enthusiast: Director of Toughness for Columbia Sportswear appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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NV Energy says cap on net metering reached

CARSON CITY — NV Energy says the 235-megawatt cap on net metering capacity was reached as of 8 p.m. Thursday.

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Why I Can't Get a Mortgage

Last month I bought a house in Potomac, Maryland, a trade up on my current home, and was shocked to learn in the ensuing weeks that I couldn't get a mortgage loan.

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What Smart Investors Know That You Don’t

Here’s how financially savvy investors make their wealth grow faster.

Source U.S. News - Money http://ift.tt/1hwArEa

How to Evaluate an Early Retirement Offer

Carefully consider your retirement finances before accepting a buyout.

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18 Tools for Better Content Creation: Improve Your Writing with Less Effort

I create an immense amount of content.

Currently, I post one massive blog post every weekday, plus I do guest posting. And I have other work too.

The main thing I pride myself on is creating high quality content.

In order to create a high volume of high quality content, you need to be as efficient as possible. 

I’ve shared a few of my secrets with you in the past, but today I’m going to show you a collection of great tools that will help you create better content.

If you use the right tools, you can create better content and more content and do it with ease. That’s the power of using great tools.

Tools go a long way in solving the most common problems of content marketers:

Producing enough content and creating engaging content are the two challenges that affect over 50% of B2B marketers. Similar surveys for marketers in general have found that almost half of marketers struggle with producing enough of engaging content.

In addition, 70% of marketers want to create more content this year than they did last year, which makes this problem even more significant.

Here’s the thing: Tools won’t solve everything, but they’ll get you on the right path.

Some marketers have realized that tools could really help them. Fifty-six percent of marketers use some sort of content marketing tools in their content workflow.

The problem? Only 23% of marketers are satisfied with the variety and quality of tools available to them. Most are either unimpressed (neutral at 65%) or dissatisfied.

While there is definitely room for new and improved tools to come out, there are some great content creation tools out there already. You just need to know what they are.

Luckily, I’ve done some ground work for you. The 18 tools that I’m going to show you in this article are all excellent tools.

See if any of them can eliminate some of your current content bottlenecks, and give them a shot. I promise you can find at least a couple of tools worth your time.

Tools for a great headline

A headline is usually only 5-15 words long, or less than 1% of most articles. And yet, I spend a lot of time writing about how to create better headlines for your content:

• 10 Ways To Create High Converting Headlines
• The Formula for a Perfect Headline
• The Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Powerful Headlines

Writing great headlines is the single skill that separates okay writers from great writers, at least when it comes to content marketing.

We know that on average, eight out of 10 people will read your headline. But only two out of 10 will go on to read the article.

If you can’t capture a reader’s attention with your headline, you’ll lose them to the thousands of other competing pieces of content that have more enticing headlines.

In addition, tests done at Upworthy found that traffic varies by up to 500% based on the headline.

Pick the right headline, and you’ll get five times as much traffic as you would have with a bad headline. Imagine if that difference affected every single article you wrote.

If you had two identical sites—one with mediocre titles and one with great titles—over time, the site with great headlines would leave the other site in the dust.

Suffice to say: the headline is crucial. That’s why I created this section specifically for tools that will help you write better headlines.

1. ContentIdeator headline generator

This headline generator can be used not only to come up with headline ideas but also content ideas.

It’s simple to use. Enter a keyword into the search bar, and press Submit. Give it a second to retrieve results, and scroll down to see a ton of headline ideas.

There are many headline generators out there. But the reason why I like this one is because the titles it produces are actually relevant.

Look at the sample search above: all these titles are clearly SEO-related rather than randomly generated by general title-generators like most tools are.

One important thing to keep in mind – don’t copy these: To be fair, there’re a few solid headlines in most batches of results. However, if you’re using a fairly common keyword, chances are many other marketers are seeing the same titles.

You don’t want to end up using the same headline as someone else.

The more important reason why you shouldn’t copy any of these suggestions is because you can do better. Use these headlines as a starting point and inspiration, and then come up with an even better headline.

2. Emotional Marketing Headline Analyzer

How do you evaluate whether your headline is good or not?

There’re a few different ways to do so, and this tool is one of them.

It may not look fancy, but it gets the job done. Enter your potential headline into the text box, and pick a category from the dropdown menu below. Finally, press Submit:

Once you submit your headline, a new page will load with your EMV (Emotional Marketing Value) Score:

Your EMV score is expressed as a percentage. The maximum possible percentage is obviously 100.

My example headline from an old post scored 60% on the scale. At first, this might seem bad, but when you learn more about how this calculator works, it’s not bad.

From the author’s own explanation (included in the above picture), only top headlines score greater than 50%.

The reason why it’s hard to score high is because the tool works by analyzing your headline for the number of “EMV words” that it contains. EMV words are those typically related to emotion.

The ideal time to use this tool: What this score essentially tells you is how likely your headline is to produce an emotional response.

As you might know, most buying decisions are based on emotion.

It follows then that emotional headlines are most important for landing pages, sales pages, case studies, and reviews—any type of content that would ideally lead to a transaction.

Not all blog posts need to evoke emotion, but for the above situations, this tool is quite handy.

3. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

This tool is very useful for critiquing headlines from a variety of different viewpoints. It’s mostly useful for blog posts but could be used for other content as well.

As you’d expect, you enter a headline into the textbox, and click “analyze now”:

What I like about this tool is how in-depth it is.

Your result will appear on the same page just below your entry. It will start with an overall score:

In a random example headline that I took from a past article, I scored 77.

Again, the maximum score is 100, but it’s also incredibly difficult to get near it.

The actual score that you get doesn’t matter, but the score relative to different headlines does.

What I mean by this is that if you enter in a bunch of old blog posts that score 50 on the tool, don’t aim to get 90 on your next headline, but try to get 55 or 60. Over time, as you get better at writing headlines, your score will keep creeping up.

Eventually, you won’t need the tool to tell you if you have a good headline or not.

Further down, you will see a breakdown of the words within your headline into main categories:

Common words are self-explanatory; they include words such as “that”, “a”, “me”, etc.

It’s good to have some common words in your headline. They’re words that nearly everyone understands.

Uncommon are the opposite: they aren’t used often in everyday writing. It’s okay to have some because they often stand out and attract attention, but don’t go overboard with them because they can make your headline confusing.

The last two types of words are the most important.

Power words (or phrases) are words that cause readers to take action. According to CoSchedule, most great headlines have at least one of these in them:

Finally, there are emotional words. These are the words that are associated with—you guessed it—emotional responses.

In my opinion, there’s some overlap between power words and emotional words, but as long as you have at least a few of one type or the other, you can craft a solid headline:

Become a better writer

If you’re like me, you were never keen on English classes in school.

But while those classes might not have been much fun, they likely taught you something about writing well.

I’m the first to admit that you don’t need to be a great writer to create great web content. My writing is far from perfect, but it clearly does what I need it to.

That being said, you should always try to be a better writer. The better you are at communicating your ideas, the more you will connect with your audience, and the better results you will get.

4. Hemingway Editor

This is a beautiful little tool that highlights common problems in weak writing.

Not only does it identify issues, but it also classifies them into different categories so you know how to fix them. Here’s an example passage that shows all the different errors. Pay special attention to the readability score in the next few pictures.

I pasted a small passage from my Beginner’s Guide to Online Marketing into the tool.

It gets automatically graded and highlighted:

Quite a few areas for improvement! (even though none are critical).

Look at the readability there: it’s at grade 8 level. This is fairly high for web writing. In general, you want to write as simply as possible to reach the biggest audience.

I quickly fixed those highlighted problems so that I had no more errors. Look what happened to the readability level:

Now it’s at grade 7 level—still on the high side, but better.

In general, when you fix your mistakes and make your content more concise, your readability goes up.

If you want, you can paste your whole post into this tool. Or you can paste a part of it each time (I recommend the introduction). This way, you will get a little bit better at writing each post and eventually won’t make the same mistakes.

5. Grammarly

This is another tool you can use to learn how to write better. To start, you will need to create an account (free).

Once you create an account, you can either click New to paste your text there, or you can upload a full document:

The main thing that Grammarly does is, shockingly, find grammar mistakes. If English isn’t your native language, this could be a very useful tool.

As you can see in the demo document below, the tool outlines grammar and spelling mistakes:

You can click on the correction in the sidebar (in green) to apply the fix.

The one drawback with this tool is that the free plan is fairly limited. It will catch the basic mistakes, which is good, but you don’t get to see the advanced mistakes unless you upgrade to a paid account.

Great content requires research

I strongly encourage all marketers and bloggers to write posts that are data-driven.

Supporting your content with statistics and case studies will make it much more useful for your readers.

Here are a few tools that you can use to create more credible content:

6. Google with a twist

Not only is Google an incredible traffic source, but it’s also one of the best research tools out there.

There are hundreds of ways in which you can use Google for research, but I’d like to go over two in particular.

Tactic #1 – Basic search for statistics: When you write a data-driven post, there’s one thing you always need: statistics.

Luckily, Google makes it easy to find large collections of relevant statistics. Search for:

keyword + statistics

Let’s say I’m writing about content marketing. This is what my query and the results would look like:

As long as you picked a fairly well-known keyword, you’ll likely have multiple results of useful statistics about the topic you’re writing about.

Tactic #2 – Feature an expert: Experts are an invaluable resource. You can quote them in your article to add credibility to it, and then you can reach out to them and ask them to share the post.

In addition, experts know their subject matter better than anyone else. So, when you’re trying to fill in gaps in your knowledge, their content can clear things up.

For example, if you were writing a post about content marketing, you might want to read a few posts on the topic on Quick Sprout.

You can find these posts by searching for:

site:URL + keyword

You can then read these articles, learn a bit, and maybe find a few quotes or resources that will help make your article better.

With this particular tactic, it’s good to get specific. Don’t just type “content marketing.” Search for something more specific such as “content marketing tools” or “content marketing principles.”

7. Google Docs research tool

If you’re a fan of Google Docs, you may or may not know about the built-in research panel.

When you go to “Tools > Research” or press “Ctrl + Alt + Shift + I”, a research panel pops up on the right side of the content:

This allows you to search any part of Google for a resource and then either quickly view it or insert a link into your article.

For example, if I just wrote “how to write better headlines” and wanted to find a good link for the phrase, I could highlight that text, bring up the research panel, take a peek at an article, and then insert a link to that article:

Once you get good with this, you will save quite a bit of time.

8. Evernote

Evernote is an awesome tool in general, but it can also be used to create better content.

If you’re not familiar with Evernote, it’s basically a personal notebook that you can access on any of your devices. You can save content for later, make notes, make reminders, and a lot more.

While there’s a ton to Evernote, there’re a few features in particular that are great for content writing.

First, you can compose posts in Evernote. It features a simple text editor, and you can expand your writing page to full screen.

One of the main uses for Evernote is to save a great piece of content for later. Writers can use this to save posts and pages that have great research, statistics, or ideas for posts so that they can refer to them later.

This is better than simply bookmarking a page because you can add personal notes (e.g., “this would be a great idea for a post”) or tag anything that you save (e.g., “statistics”, “research”, etc.). You can then search your notebook for that information when you are ready to use it.

Visual content without a designer

If you’ve ever read any of my posts before, you know I love images.

Images help add value to your content as well as break up content, making it easier to read. For many reasons, visual content improves just about all user metrics (bounce rate, time on page, etc.).

Unless you’re a professional designer, you’ll need some tools to help you. I have some great ones here for you.

9. Canva

Canva is an amazing tool for “design-challenged” bloggers. It allows you to create custom images that look great and take a fraction of the time to create compared to an alternative design software.

Although I can’t go into many details here, I’ll show you the basics.

You can create a custom canvas (of any size) and add shapes, text, pictures, icons, etc. to it with a click of a button.

It’s also extremely easy to edit any elements you add (change color or size):

The built-in search engine lets you find any particular pictures or shapes you’re looking for. You can add them to your canvas with one click:

Once you get familiar with the tool, you can create attractive pictures like this one below in less than 5 minutes (for free):

If you want to learn more about Canva, check out my guide to making custom images for your blog posts without a designer.

10. Piktochart or infogr.am for infographics

I’ve written a lot about how effective infographics are for attracting shares and links.

I typically spend about $1,000 per infographic. I understand that not everyone can afford this.

If you can’t, you have two options: hire a cheaper designer or create infographics yourself.

You won’t get the same results as I do, but it can still be worth it.

Picktochart and infogr.am are two of the most popular infographic creators, but there are many others.

They allow you to use pretty good templates and then type in custom text and sometimes upload custom images.

You’re obviously not going to get the same quality as you would with a professional designer, but you can’t beat these tools when it comes to creating a decent looking infographic quickly.

11. Skitch or the Evernote web clipper

I already showed you the main Evernote program, but there’s more.

Both Skitch and the Evernote web clipper allow you to create beautiful annotated pictures with minimal effort.

You probably see pictures created with these programs all the time in blogs and don’t even know it—pictures like this one:

All the text and arrows in pink were created in under 30 seconds using the web clipper.

Skitch is a program you can download on Apple products, while anyone can use the web clipper in Chrome. Both tools work almost exactly the same, but Skitch is a little more robust.

With the web clipper, you can select a full screenshot, an email, or a full page of content or select a specific part of a webpage.

After you do, the part you selected will open in a new tab, where you can annotate it using the toolbar on the right:

12. Thinglink

Using interactive content is a great way to improve your reader engagement rate. It’s new; it’s fun; and it can be used to achieve better results with your blog.

Thinglink is a tool that allows you to create a specific type of interactive content: clickable images.

I’m not just talking about putting a link on a picture. I’m talking about putting multiple links, images, and more.

Take a look at this picture that VerticalResponse made with Thinglink:

You can hover over different parts of the picture and get a different message, depending on where you hover.

While you wouldn’t want to overdo Thinglink, it’s a fun type of content that can help you add some entertainment to certain blog posts.

13. Quickmeme

If you’ve been on the Internet much, you know what an Internet meme is. Typically, it’s a recognizable picture with large text on it that represents a certain part of Internet culture.

For example:

If you want to learn more about memes, check out this basic guide.

I’ve seen memes creeping into more and more blog posts lately. I believe this is for a few main reasons:

• they’re easy to make – if you use the tools I’m about to show you, you can make a new meme in a minute.
• they’re visual – more visual content is usually a good thing. Memes are an easy way to break up text.
• they’re personal - when you see a meme done right, it comes off as casual and conversational. Both of these are good things for blog posts. Memes are often funny and amusing.

So, how do you make a meme?

Quickmeme is probably the most well known meme-making tool, but there are many more. You can also try:

• Make a Meme
• Meme Generator
• Imgflip

With quickmeme, click “caption a meme” on the top menu:

Then pick an appropriate meme background. You will need to know how each meme is usually used. Refer to this subreddit for examples.

Once you pick a background, fill in the text fields.

The tool will put the text over the image background and let you save it.

14. Haiku Deck

Slideshows can be great additions to your blog content, but you’ll obviously need a tool to create them. You can’t just embed a PowerPoint file into your post.

Haiku Deck is a solid tool that helps you create a beautiful slideshow.

For each slide, you can pick a background image from the Haiku Deck library and then add your text.

It’s very user-friendly, fairly similar to Canva.

Here’s what the slide editor looks like:

Once you’ve created your slideshow, you can download it as a PDF or a PowerPoint file or embed it on your website by pasting some simple HTML code.

Write more efficiently

The final set of tools in this article will help you write more efficiently.

Tools can help you write faster but also enjoy the process more—important if you want to produce good content consistently.

15. Word2CleanHTML

Microsoft Word and Google Docs are the two most common pieces of software used to write posts.

The annoying thing is that when you paste your post into WordPress, things don’t always go according to plan.

Usually there are extra spaces that you need to spend a minute or two sorting out. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it adds up to a few hours over the course of a year.

This tool converts your MS Word or Google Docs text into clean HTML.

To show you what the tool does I pasted a small section of my old post (not created in WordPress) into the tool and clicked “convert”:

Here’s what it would have looked like if I just pasted the original file right into WordPress:

It’s ugly to say the least.

Now look at the code generated by the tool:

Much cleaner.

Now, I can select and copy the HTML code or just click the link in the bottom right corner.

When pasting your posts into WordPress with this method, you’ll typically get much better results.

16. Rainymood

Distractions can cause your writing speed to drop by 50% or more. While the occasional noise won’t impact you much, if you live or work in a noisy area with traffic or kids around most of the time, this tool can help.

As the name implies, this tool plays a constant sound of rain.

For me and many others, rain is a pretty soothing background noise. It obscures distracting sounds and lets you focus on your work.

Background nature sounds have been proven to improve both mood and productivity.

This is a great tool when you just need some peace and quiet.

17. Tomato timer

This tool was built to help you use the Pomodoro technique. It’s a technique that is supposed to help you work more efficiently on a consistent basis.

Here’s the gist of how the technique works:

• You set a timer for 25 minutes
• You work until the timer stops
• You take a 5-minute break
  • All of that is one Pomodoro

Then, you repeat that process four times. After the fourth 30-minute period, you take a longer break.

The Tomato Timer tool is very simple. At the top, you can choose from three options, depending on where you are at: your work period (Pomodoro), short break, or long break.

Based on what you choose, the timer will change. You can start and stop it as you like.

If you’re a fan of this technique, this tool is quite handy.

If you’re intrigued by the Pomodoro technique and would like to learn more, refer to this ultimate guide.

18. Scrivener

Many professional writers use Scrivener. It was created because basic text programs weren’t meeting the writers’ needs.

Although originally designed for Mac, this tool is also available for Windows.

Scrivener is mainly used by writers other than bloggers: novelists, screenplay writers, technical writers, lawyers, and more. However, I think it’s a legitimate option for bloggers as well, especially for those that take writing seriously and spend a lot of time creating long, in-depth content.

The tool is divided into multiple sections. You can easily open different files (which may be part of the same project).

You can also make edits and notes in a “rough draft” window, while previewing the final result on the right:

A word of warning: Scrivener is a powerful writing tool, which means that it has quite a steep learning curve.

Expect to spend some time learning about all the features of the tool, which will save you time in the long run and help you write better content.

You can certainly create great content without Scrivener, but it is an alternative to Word or Google Docs if you find that they aren’t enough for you.

Conclusion

Creating the best content possible for your readers should always be your top priority.

But to produce a sufficient amount of high quality content on a regular basis, you need help.

I’ve given you 18 tools in this article that can be used to strengthen any weak points of your content creation process. You don’t need to try them all at once, but give one or two tools that you find the most intriguing a try.

These are some of the best tools I’ve tried or come across. But there are others.

If I’ve missed any content creation tools that you love, please let me know what they are by leaving a comment below.

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