If you google “online tools for writers” you’re bound to experience some overwhelm. First off that term is broad, and encompasses online presence, but for editing, blogging, social media, and more.

First, I’m going to focus on online tools for writers to help establish your online presence, then we’ll discuss tools for editing, blogging, and the best uses for various social media platforms.

Here are some favorite online tools for writers I frequently recommend for your website, social media, and brand. But first, let’s talk about how it’s paramount to have an author website, even if an aspiring author website right now.

All our online tools for writers start with your author website, so if you’re wondering where to start, do this first!

Author Website

Let’s start by discussing why you actually need an author website. The point of your website:

To show you’re a real legitimate person

A place where readers (and publishers, agents, employers, etc) can learn about you after hearing about you elsewhere.

To be a step in the process of a reader hearing about you, researching you, and eventually buying your book.

That’s right. It’s a step in the process of showing your book to readers. Very few, if any readers will click on and purchase your book after one exposure.

This isn’t bad news. It’s good news!

If the goal was to write copy so amazing readers can’t help but instantly buy. Well… that’s a ton of pressure!

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Read more: what should your author website include and why your website hosting doesn’t matter as much as you think

Okay, now I’m going to assume you’re thoroughly convinced you need that website. Here are some online tools for writers you really need to go along with it!

Online tools for writers to establish online presence

1. Self-hosted WordPress

Here’s the scenario: I meet someone impressive in a facebook group.

Wow, this person has really got it together. This is someone I need to be following.

Then…I go to their site and realize they have a blogspot address.

If this is you, know your presence is sending a mixed message. Your words and work tell me you’re someone to be reckoned with. But your online presence is saying something else.

To be taken seriously you need to go self-hosted.

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Buy into that and it’s time to choose a hosting provider.

For many bloggers and writers, this is where the analysis paralysis starts. You go to Pinterest and search “best hosting” or read the advice of your favorite blogger. Then before you know it, three hours have passed and you’re no closer to your goal.

Why it’s not your fault:

The problem? Many of the top bloggers and writers are basically making commercials for hosting providers such as Siteground and Bluehost because of an affiliate relationship.

While they’re not doing anything wrong, these posts make it seem like you’re making a pivotal decision: choose wrong and you’ll destroy your blog’s credibility.

Knowing there are tons of legit hosting options out there means you can make an easy decision. Just pick one!

If you’re stuck in analysis paralysis about choosing a hosting provider, then see why, unless you have a bazil monthly visitors, your hosting provider doesn’t matter that much.

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If you want to check out HostGator, use this link to receive hosting for as low as 2.95/month. My site’s never gone down, I’ve never had real issues, and the one time I called for support they were quick and helpful.

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2. A Premium WordPress Theme

The next part of your website is the actual content. This is the easy part for you, right author?

Here are the basics you need to include:

Homepage – Who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. Links to your writing and portfolio, and social media accounts.

About Page – This is one of the top visited pages on your site, so pay attention to this one. This is a more complete telling of your story.

Book or Portfolio Page – Have a link to your books (or works-in-progress) page. If you’re a freelance writer, you need a place to link your work. If you’re an unpublished author, you can include some writing samples or a blurb about your WIP.

Blog – A blog is a place to connect with readers, share your interests, and keep everyone up to date on book news.

Before you publish your content you need a premium wordpress theme. Check out all the great options available on Themeisle.

3. Email Marketing Software

Email Optin: You need a place to capture emails. This is configured with email marketing software such as Convertkit, Mailchimp, or similar.

I’ve used all of them and recommend Convertkit, hands-down.

Professional Email Address: Last year while I was writing 400,000 words, I spent a lot of time researching literary agents. And among the dozens of fancy NYC addresses, there are multiple–ostensibly successful–agents out there who have aol email addresses.

Seriously? How can that be?

Set up a professional email to go along with your hosting [ie bethany at bethanyrutledge dot com.] If you can’t do that for some reason, then a simple first.last at gmail will suffice. Nix the hotmail, weirdmail, and definitely the aol.null

4. A Simple, Clean, and Memorable URL

Think about what you want your future brand to be. As a writer or author, it’s likely your best option is your name. Second best option would be your name and author or writes at the end. Dot com is definitely better than dot-anything-else. And, like we discussed in self-hosting, you want to avoid wix.com wordpress.com, etc in your url.

While we’re discussing that, if you’re a blogger you can get away with a wix or wordpress in your title, but if you’re a small business owner you really need to have a url that’s just a straight up dot com.

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The Fix: Use this link to get your new domain, hosting, and email for just $3 to start from Hostgator. You can also have them help you set up a free content migration.

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5. A Pinterest Scheduling Tool

Joining Tailwind and becoming active in tribes increased my pin circulation and visibility by about a billion percent. When I look at my traffic so much comes from Smartloop, Tribes, and pins and saves while I’m sleeping!

6. A Roadmap to Getting Started

If your marketing strategy includes blogging and pinterest, I’d recommend Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic from freelance writer and blogger Elna Cain. This info helped me get started right with blogging and Pinterest.

For something focused more on traditional writers, this ebook covers tons of ideas for online tools for authors [and is either one dollar or free for Kindle Unlimited members!]

Although I typically love figuring things out myself, this kept me from stumbling around for years figuring out how to do things. I would definitely recommend checking it out!

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Also Read: 7 WordPress mistakes to avoid so readers don’t bail in a hurry.

Online Tools for Writers to Save Time

Now let’s turn our attention to time saving online tools for writers. Here are a few I use personally that I can’t live without:

1. Google Docs

Google Docs has become my go-to for writing projects under (or currently under) 50k words.

Why? It’s portable, so your draft is available wherever you go. It backs up, so you don’t have to worry about lost docs in your word processor. Also, it’s great for collaboration.

Not only can you easily work on a project with a partner, you can share notes back and forth in real time. For instance, my podcast partner and I used to type quick notes back and forth while we were interviewing from different locations.

Google Docs also has little known uses such as using Google Docs to read your manuscript aloud. This is a fantastic revision hack that really helps while editing.

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2. Keep Notes

I don’t know about you, but when I plop down in front of the computer with–say–an hour to write, I have a ton of trouble focusing on what I want to do most. So instead I keep a simple note with ideas using Google Keep.

Though this article is about online tips for writing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend my favorite book for paper notes!

3. Use Templates in Canva

Use a tool like Canva to make beautiful images for your blog and social media accounts. If you have Canva for work, you can start with an image that already uses your fonts, colors, and overall look to speed up the process of making your new image.

4. Ubersuggest

If you’re writing for SEO, ubersuggest, a great tool from SEO guru Neil Patel, can help you find relevant keywords, assess search volume, and identify high ranking similar articles. Best of all, it’s free!

5. Keywords Everywhere

A free chrome extension to show search volume and related keywords. This is great for a quick in-window search if you, say, want to find if your topic has any interest.

6. ProWritingAid

Prowritingaid has a number of great features, but I use it to identify word crutches in later drafts. For example, “just,” “so,” and other words I tend to repeat twenty trillion times.

P.S. If you’re a writer looking to save time, be sure to check out these blog workflow tips that will save you tons of it.

7.Use plugins to streamline further

Special note: don’t go too crazy with the plugins. Not only will readers get bored and click off while your page is loading your organic traffic is affected by google pagespeed insights score. What does that mean? Basically, if you have too many plugins, your site is slow, penalized, then everyone loses.

That said here are a few of my favorite plugins you NEED to speed up your own workflow:

• Yoast
• WP Post Clone
• Simple Image Sizes
• W3 Total Cache

I won’t go into this more here, but if you’d like a complete list of the plugins I use–and those I ditched–on a path to take my google pagespeed insights score from 60 to 94 (out of 100), just tell me where to send the swipe file.

8. Use Convertkit forms to organize email captures

 I post about writing, but I also like to post about endurance training and even mom-life. Although I hope there is crossover between the three categories, I can’t expect that everyone into wordpress tips will also be into breast pumps. This is the beauty of segmenting in Convertkit.

9. Reusable blocks in Gutenberg 

 I have calls to action and my author bio saved as reusable blocks in Gutenberg. That way it only takes one click to deposit a nicely formatted bio, suggested readings, call to action and email capture, etc into a post.

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Pro tip: Don’t get a special plugin for related posts, instead use the Gutenberg recent posts and a header, like this at the bottom of your post

Social Media Platforms for Authors

1. Facebook

Although facebook is much maligned and everyone complains about how business pages don’t get much reach, I’d still argue authors need a facebook page [in addition to a personal profile] as a social media platform.

Why? It’s kind of like having a website and the credibility factors I spoke about earlier. It serves as a sort of “hub” where readers can go to find out more about your work. It helps legitimize you and shows credibility.

Because of that, I’d focus on setting up a simple and professional author profile and not worrying about it all that much.

I should also mention facebook groups. If you have an established audience of fans, you can get tons of engagement using these.

I often see authors asking should I have a page OR a group? It’s not an either/or thing. Also, if you’re a new author without fans, no one wants to be in your group. I’d recommend growing your online presence through other means, then starting your group.

The above advice applies only if your group is going called “Nora Roberts Fans” and you are the actual Nora Roberts. As a new author, you can think of a genre or topic based group instead.

For example, I have a tribe on tailwind called “thriller and mystery books fans.”

2. Twitter

Twitter has a great writing community that I’ve only recently gotten more involved in. In my opinion, writing twitter is much better for connecting with fellow writers than readers.

You can commiserate, get support, and ask for feedback on your writing. There are also the very popular pitchfests happening several times per year that may help you connect with a literary agent or publisher.

3. Instagram

I should head up this section by admitting I’m not a huge fan of Insta. Why? Well, I’m not visual and also have propopagnosia, so looking at a bunch of selfies is like my personal hell.

That said I’ve recently become a touch more active on IG. They have a great bookstagram community, and it seems possible to effectively connect with potential readers.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is my favorite social network. I enjoy it because people show up looking for specific answers, and if you can provide them then there’s a match.

It seems to lack a certain fakeness that propogates the other platforms.

For example, if you’re an author and search “online tools for writers” this article pops up and [hopefully] gives you some information that can help.

5. Pinterest keyword tool  

I use a tool like this one to quickly find relevant keywords for my pinnable image alt-text and description.

See: Should you be using Pinterest to share your writing?

6. Use a social scheduler 

Whichever social media platforms you use to share you writing, use a social scheduler to keep everything organized.

Personally, I use Tailwind to schedule Pinterest, Instagram, and my Facebook Business Page. It’s convenient for facebook and IG, but Pinterest is where Tailwind really shines, and makes it possible to, say, go from 24–170,000+ views in only a month.

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What are your favorite online tools for writers whether they’re online editing tools for writers, social media tools for authors, or other? Let me know in the comments!

Looking for more online tools for writers? Check out this video:

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Looking for even more online tools for writers?

Here’s some great resources from around the web.

• 20 fantastic free online tools for writers
• 20 more online tools for writers
• Top 10 online tools for writers

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