The Productive Writer s Toolbox

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1 The Productive Writer s Toolbox By Bryan Collins BECOME A WRITER TODAY 1

2 What s in my toolbox? I understand people s preferences vary so I ve also included alternatives to each of the tools that I recommend. Hi there, Write on, It s always exciting to read about the tools other people use to become more creative and productive. Bryan Collins I love this type of information because it gives me a chance to compare what I use with what other people use. If you find the Productive Writer s Toolbox helpful, please share it with friends or connect with me on Twitter. P.S. Just remember, the tools you use are less important than what you write and promote. Do you? In this toolbox, you can find the tools and books I use or refer to regularly. They help me organise my ideas, write faster and finish writing what I started. Some of these writing and blogging tools are free, some are premium and you may already own or use a few. 2

3 Pen and paper 1 The most basic and versatile writing tool ever created. If it was good enough for Ernest Hemingway, it s good enough for us. Ummm... a computer

4 Word 2 The most popular word processor in the world. Use what works! It s the default wordprocessor in most offices, and Word creates the most popular file format today:.doc. Pages for OS X, a plain text editor

5 Scrivener 3 A Windows and OS X software tool for writing long form works. Scrivener makes it easy to handle lengthy works like a book or a thesis. You can also use Scrivener to organise your research, Ulysses

Google Apps for work 4 Email and cloud storage that professional

Send emails from [yourname]@[yourdomain].co m using Gmail.

6 Google Apps for work 4 and cloud storage that professional writers and bloggers can afford. Send s from [yourname]@[yourdomain].co m using Gmail. Plus, save your files on Google Drive and share calendars with teams. Outlook/Mail for Dropbox for storage

7 99 Designs 5 A crowdsourcing design service for finding affordable book covers, website logos and more. Check out my detailed review Canva.com

8 Dragon Speech Recognition 6 Software for transcribing what you say. I ve used dictation software to double my daily word count. With the right microphone and set up, you can too. Your computer s built-in dictation tool.

9 Siteground 7 A hosting company that specialises in managing WordPress websites and blogs. Get premium security, support and other services for your growing website. They ll take care of the technical headaches for you. New Rainmaker Platform

10 Buzzsumo 8 A premium tool that helps bloggers find popular ideas and reverse engineer them. You can write blog posts and even books based on what people have shared on social media. Google Trends

11 KindleSpy 9 A tool for seeing what books sell on Amazon and how much they earn. Find out the most popular books on Amazon and use this information to come up with profitable ideas and to sell more of your books. Amazon s list of best-sellers

The Pomodoro Technique 10 A productivity time management technique technique perfect for writers. How will it make you more productive? How will it help you You can chart become morethe productive?

12 The Pomodoro Technique 10 A productivity time management technique technique perfect for writers. How will it make you more productive? How will it help you You can chart become morethe productive? progress of yourcan You writing create projects a productive and your creativeroutine writing output.and to chart your creative output. A dailyelse What word-count, can youdon t use? BreakBreak Don t the Chain the Chain

13 Don t Break the Chain 11 XXX A productivity technique whereby you mark an X on a calendar for every day that you write and build up a chain of Xs. You can build up a chain of Xs and become more productive. The Pomodoro Technique

14 A whiteboard 12 A place for brainstorming your writing projects. You can jot down ideas and expand on them quickly. An A4 pad

15 Freedom 13 An app that disables internet access for predefined periods so you focus on writing. Work on one task at length, without becoming distracted by the internet. Plug out your modem

16 Buffer 14 A social media tool for sharing your blog posts across multiple networks at different times. You can share your blog posts and favourite articles wherever and whenever it suits. HootSuite

17 ConvertKit 15 ConvertKit is an marketing service provider for bloggers and writers. You can send your latest blog posts to people on your mailing list for free. You can also send chapters of your book and customise who receives what and when. MailChimp

LeadPages 16 A tool for creating landing pages for your books, squeeze pages and encouraging email

18 LeadPages 16 A tool for creating landing pages for your books, squeeze pages and encouraging sign-ups. You can spend less time trying to create webpages and more time writing great posts and books. Unbounce

19 Evernote 17 A tool for creating a personal, digital library, where you can organise your research. You can use Evernote to build a swipe file of articles and ideas for your books. Tip: Save giveaways like this into Evernote for future use. OneNote

20 Textexpander 18 An app that expands snippets of frequently typed text into words and sentences. Use the code writer to get 20% off. You can avoid having to type the same lines of text repeatedly. Phase Express

21 Wunderlist 19 A cloud-based To Do list manager for you and your team. Get ideas and tasks out of your head and into a trusted system and then act on them. Read my review. What else can you use? Nozbe

22 A Kindle 20 The most popular, budgetfriendly e-reader available today. You can read samples of ebooks before you buy them and save money and time. It s also great for research because you review your notes in one place using the Kindle app for Mac/PC. What should you read? Check out my list of great books to read

23 Audile 21 Audible is the most popular audiobook service with the widest range of books. You can listen to books while driving, during your commute or while exercising. Check out my review. itunes, Google Play

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SIDE GIG BRANDON COX 33 Big Tips for Launching & Scaling Your Side Gig Brandon Cox SideGigStrategies.com 2018 All rights reserved. Consider these my tips from the hip, the kind of advice I often find myself