Budget-Friendly Tools To Use While Science Blogging and Life Science Content Marketing

In my previous blog post, I wrote about some free tools that you can use for both your science communication related social media and for content marketing for the sciences. In this blog post, I’d like to introduce you to some tools that will help science bloggers and science-related content marketers that often write content for websites.

In this blog post, I go over 10 must-have tools to help you get started in science blogging and science-related content marketing.

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Ps: I have included some other tools that you could use in my previous blog post on social media marketing/SciComm for social media. Check out the previous post here.

Must-Have Tools To Use While Creating Website (And Blog) Content For The Sciences

1. Grammarly (free; paid versions available)
   When the main job is to write, having someone look over your grammar, spelling, and punctuation isn’t the worst thing, right? Chances are, you type really fast, or use text-to-speech softwares to put your words down before giving your content a thorough edit. Grammarly is a near-perfect writing assistant. Yes, sometimes annoying when it calls you out for a mistake you didn’t make but uhh… nobody’s perfect, right?
   
   Looking for an alternative to Grammarly? Check out Hemingway App!

2. Ahrefs ($$$)
   If you have ever looked up how to get more readers to your website, chances are you have stumbled across Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). Simply speaking, SEO helps your content show up on Google searches – so more people can find your content and thereby consume it! Ahrefs as a tool can help you with keyword research and website ranking, giving you the best chance to show off your content.
   
   Looking for an alternative to ahrefs (I understand Ahrefs is not the most budget-friendly, sorry) ? Try Moz, SE Ranking, or Mangools. I have to say though, Ahrefs is probably the best one I’ve ever used.

3. Google Adwords/Keyword Planner (free)
   If you are still on a tight budget, and can’t (yet) afford Ahrefs or any of the alternatives mentioned above, consider using the Google Keyword Planner. This planner will not give you all the information that Ahrefs (and the others) may, but it does a pretty decent job at giving you basic information that you can leverage. For example, the planner provides you with keyword ideas, average monthly searches, and search competition. If there aren’t many monthly searches at all, consider how important that blog post really is. If there are a lot of monthly searches, and low search competition, write that blog post now!

4. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer (free; paid versions available)
   I can never stop saying good things about the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. This tool helps you analyze your headline by giving it a headline score and SEO score. It provides you with ample suggestions on things you can change to hit the high mark, and honestly, sometimes it’s legitimately fun to keep trying headlines to get into the high-grade level. Ah, can you tell I loved exams once upon a time? Not anymore though!

5. Unsplash/Pexels/Pixabay (free; some paid)
   If you’ve ever wondered where you can get some beautiful images to go with your blogposts, look no further. Sometimes, you want to make them yourselves and may consider using Canva (as per my previous blog post) – but really, sometimes, who has the time? Unplash, Pexels, and Pixabay both offer free stock photos you can use to give that blog post just a little bit extra. What’s more, these photos are incredibly high quality and, did I say, FREE?

6. Flaticon/Pixabay (free; some paid)
   Sometimes, you don’t want a full image but just need an icon without a background. Usually, for this, I use Flaticon or Pixabay. Recently though, I got my friend Mrudula (who is a brilliant illustrator) to make me some icons – I can’t wait to finally use them. Hiring someone to design your icons may cost you some money, but generally, it could be worth it if you’re looking for something super specific or when looking for a family of matching icons! Oddly, I can never find what I’m looking for!

7. Google Trends (free)
   This one is pretty explanatory – Google trends will tell you more about the search trends in particular areas of the world (you get to pick your location). When used correctly with other tools such as Ahrefs and AnswerThePublic.com (which I mention in my previous post), can be used to visualize and discover trends in people’s searches across the Google platform. You can leverage this information for content creation – if a query is not getting many searches, chances are you won’t have much readership!

8. Bitly (free; paid versions available)
   The Bitly tool is quite handy when you have a super long website address, such as http://thesharedmicroscope.com/2021/07/22/what-is-health-literacy-why-is-it-important-with-examples/. Anyone will look at that and know that the webpage is long and lengthy to type (you don’t want that). Bitly helps you change this webpage to a shorter link (like bit.ly/healthliteracywithexamples) – which truth be told, you won’t always need, but if you have a character limit (thanks, Twitter), it may come in quite handy!

9. Google Workspace (free)
   I use this workspace during every working second. Probably more than any other of the tools I’ve mentioned on here. Personally, I love that with the Google Workspace, and more specifically Google Docs, Google Sheet, etc. you can send and receive files without actually having to download them onto your computer (clearly seem to have trust issues, but who has that kind of space anyway? ). Another reason I love the workspace is because it connects to my calendar and also means I can access my files anywhere on any screen.

10. WeTransfer (free)
    This may be the tool I use the least in this list. Personally, I share most of my files with clients via the Google Workspace, but every now and again, some clients aren’t Google mail users or may have to send/receive big files. In that case, WeTransfer will do you a solid! I’ve used this tool more for my illustration services (which I do not offer anymore), than my writing services, but you may find it useful when sending files to anyone anywhere.

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To learn more about the tools that I frequently use for content distribution and content inspiration, check out my previous blog post here.

Are there any tools that you use in your blogging and website content creation practices? Comment below and we will add it to our list!