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By Creatory Team on November 25, 2022

20+ Free and Paid Content Creation Tools To Create Eye-Grabbing Content in 2022

As a novice content creator, you may think that you need sophisticated and expensive tools to create content that attracts thousands of followers, brand collaborations, and big commissions.

While some fancy tools help and make your job easier, you definitely do not need them to keep your content business running (especially if you’re just starting). Even with the most basic tools, you can still create valuable content for your audience and attract your dream brands for partnership.

In this article, we list over 20 content creation tools that:

  • Don’t require hours of tutorials to use.
  • Cost very little (or are free).
  • Help you make high-quality content with limited free time.
  • Create high-quality content your audience loves (and shares with their friends).
  • Help you monetise your content and grow your business using metrics that matter.

We’ll be writing about:

  1. Tools for growing your income as a creator
  2. Free content creation tools
  3. Tools for boosting content quality
  4. Tools for attracting more viewers and followers

Note: Want a tool to help you monetise your content even with a small audience? Creatory’s big-name brands and unique rewards journey help get your audience’s attention and boost your income. Try Creatory now.

Tools for growing your income as a creator

If you’re ready to make consistent revenue, these tools will help you monetise your content and give your audience plenty of ways to buy from you:

Tools for video content creators

1. Creatory: an easy-to-use monetisation tool for content creators

Creatory is a self-serve affiliate platform that lets you start monetising your content even if your follower numbers aren’t huge.

content creation tools for content creators

You’ll find big-name brands and purchase rewards to fit your audience (and higher-than-average commissions too).

With Creatory, you can:

  • Promote well-known products with better commissions.
    content creation tools for content creators
  • Talk about affiliate products designed to grab your followers’ attention.
  • See how well each piece of content does with accurate tracking links for each social media platform.
  • Choose between one-time and per-sale commissions, even if you’re new to Creatory.

Note: It only takes 3 minutes to sign up for Creatory. Try it out now.

Pros

  • It’s free and easy to set up in just a few minutes.
  • You get ready-to-go product promotions with tracking links and social media graphics.
  • The information you need to create unique content for your audience is easy to understand.
  • Your audience already wants these products from brands like Apple, Nintendo, and Sony.

Cons

  • You can receive commission payments only by bank transfer for now.

Read more: How to Earn $1,000 Per Month As a Content Creator With Creatory

2. Linktree: an essential social media monetisation tool

content creation tools for content creatorsSource

Platforms like Instagram or TikTok only allow you to use one link in your profile, which leads to some monetisation challenges for most creators.

A tool like Linktree lets you include all your affiliate links, brand collaboration links, or other social media, webinars, podcasts, and website links in a single landing page. This way, you can use your Linktree link in your social profiles.

Best feature: The Starter paid plan gives you analytics data about which links your audience clicks (and other valuable insights).

Good for: Any content creator ready to monetise their Instagram or TikTok accounts.

Pros

  • Include affiliate links and monetisation tools like Patreon or Ko-fi in one place.
  • Get details on which links get the most clicks with detailed 90-day analytics (with the Starter plan).
  • It has tons of templates you can use as inspiration to build your pages.
  • You can use gifs, any fonts you like, infographics, or any visual of your choice to make your pages even more attractive.

Cons

  • You can create a links page on your website for no additional cost.

Read more: Top 6 Linktree Alternatives for Your Bio Links.

3. Ko-fi: a low-cost monetisation tool for social media creators

content creation tools for content creators

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If you want to test how your audience responds to exclusive paid content, Ko-fi is a low-risk, mostly free monetisation tool you can try. You can sell individual digital or physical products, personalised services or products, and paid memberships (no matter how many followers you have).

Best feature: You can offer one-off products and personalised services in addition to membership.

Good for: Content creators ready to test selling products or memberships to their audience.

Pros

  • Start monetising your audience for a low price.
  • Sell one-off products and services to let your audience “try out” your paid offers.

Cons

  • Your followers must leave your social media account to go to Ko-fi.

4. Patreon: a full-featured community platform for paid memberships

content creation tools for influencersSource 

When you want to offer your followers a large variety of paid content, you can use Patreon (even if your follower or subscriber numbers aren’t huge).

This monetisation tool lets you create unique videos, live streams, and real-time chats, many other types of content just for your members paying a monthly subscription. Patreon takes a small percentage of your monthly revenue (so you only pay if you have members).

Best feature: You choose the type of content you want to give your members (including community forums, content libraries, or recorded and live video).

Good for: Content creators ready to monetise their audience with their own products.

Pros

  • You can create any type of exclusive content on this platform.
  • Patreon’s membership costs are lower than Youtube and TikTok.
  • You can start a Patreon membership before you have thousands of followers or subscribers.

Cons

  • Patreon doesn’t integrate with Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.

Read more: Top 9 Best Products to Sell Affiliate Marketing in 2022 (By Niche)

Tools for content creators who write

5. Affiliate networks

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways creators make money. If you’re ready to test out affiliate marketing for your niche audience, we reviewed the top 5 Asia affiliate networks and what to look out for when promoting affiliate products.

6. Agencies and ad networks

Wondering when the right time to check out agencies, influencer marketplaces, or ad networks is? We go into the details about what you need and when in Agency vs Self-Serve Platforms: Which Ones Are Best for Creators?

Free content creation tools

If you’ve got a limited budget, these free and cheap content creation tools will help you put together eye-catching content for less than S$10:

Tools for video content creators

7. Instagram App camera and editor: Shoot anywhere without a pro setup

content creation tools for content creatorsAre you looking for an inexpensive way to shoot Instagram videos your viewers will comment on, like, or share?

You can record Instagram Reels, Stories, and live videos (or create posts) inside the Instagram App on your Android or Apple mobile phone or tablet, even if you don’t have a professional video setup.

Instagram’s built-in camera feature gives you access to the following:

  • Camera filters that make you look great on camera.
  • Trending music or royalty-free sound clips.
  • Split screen and picture-in-picture videos.

After you’ve created your video, you can edit your clips and add stickers, captions, and animations.

And if you need inspiration, you can browse the Instagram platform to see how other social media users structure and edit their content. This will also give you tons of content ideas for the future.

You can also save your videos as a draft (backup copy) and post them to other platforms or post it directly to Instagram.

Best feature: The filters do a fantastic job of making you look great — and you can find the right one to fit your look and personality.

Good for: Content creators focused on building an Instagram audience — and doing more with less.

Pros

  • It’s free and relatively easy to use once you’ve made a few videos.
  • You can access plenty of popular music and sound clips.
  • You can repost Instagram reel video drafts as YouTube shorts, TikTok videos, or Facebook videos.
  • It’s like a graphic design tool, but specifically for Instagram.

Cons

  • Sometimes the Instagram App has glitches, so it’s best to save your videos as drafts.
  • It takes time to learn to edit and animate captions quickly.

8. TikTok video feature and editor: Shoot videos easily and leverage trending effects

content creation tools for influencersIf you’re more active on TikTok, you can create and edit your videos directly on its native app for Android or Apple. When you use the TikTok camera and editor, you can make more entertaining videos with:

  • Trending effects, filters, and transitions your audience loves.
  • Copyrighted music and sound bites that won’t get your content blocked.
  • Shared-screen tools like Duet and Stitch.

Before saving them as a draft or posting, you can edit your clips with text, emojis, and stickers. If you have accounts on Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram, you can post your TikTok drafts to these platforms too.

Best feature: You get access to all the trending effects, sound, hashtags, and filters TikTok users search for.

Good for: Creators building an audience mainly on TikTok.

Pros

  • TikTok recommends music and sound clips for your videos.
  • With the app, you can choose your music before recording a video (making it easier to plan what you’ll do).
  • The app has so many fun effects, filters, and transitions.
  • You can post videos made with the TikTok app on other social media platforms.

Cons

  • Your videos will have the TikTok logo on them.

Read more: How to Make Money With TikTok: 6 Proven Ways From An Experienced Creator

Tools for content creators who write

9. Google Workspace: low-cost collaboration tools

Especially if you collaborate with other writers, experts, or editors, Google Workspace is a practical and affordable place to keep your documents. You’ll also have access to business tools like:

  • Professional email accounts
  • Video conferencing tools
  • Document storage you can share with others
  • Chat
  • Spreadsheets
  • Slides

Best feature: You get access to many tools for just $6 a month.

Good for: Bloggers and website owners who often collaborate with other creators, experts or a team.

Pros

  • Google workspace gives you a lot of storage space and collaboration tools for a low price.
  • These easy-to-use tools rarely require how-to tutorials (compared with similar programs).
  • You can easily add other word processing docs and pdfs into your workspace.

Cons

  • This tool was free in the past, but not anymore.
  • Writers who don’t work with others may not get as much value from this tool.

10. Otter.ai: time-saving interview tool

content creation tools for video influencersIf you’re a creator who interviews experts or influencers, you’ll probably save tremendous time (and money) with Otter.ai.

The tool connects with popular video conferencing tools like Google Meet and Zoom and accurately transcribes your conversations. This way, you can concentrate on the discussion, ask better questions, and copy-paste the best segments into your document later.

Best feature: The free plan is rather generous if you only do a few weekly interviews or meetings.

Good for: Content writers and bloggers who interview experts regularly for articles.

Pros

  • Otter.ai works with in-person, mobile phone, or video conversations.
  • It’s more accurate than many other automated transcription tools.
  • You can find the details you need from your interview much faster.

Cons

  • The free plan only allows 30-minute long recordings.

Tools for boosting content quality

You don’t need to spend much or any money (in some cases) if you’re looking to upgrade your content quality:

Tools for video content creators

11. CapCut: Free, high-quality video editor

content creation tools for video content creators

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ByteDance, the company that created TikTok, released its TikTok-friendly editor, Capcut, in 2020. You can produce simple, short videos on your phone or computer for free with CapCut. It may be free and easy to use, but this editor still makes impressive videos.

You can use it to make videos for TikTok, Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram. If you’re new to video editing, this is a great way to learn about the essential tools before jumping into a more complicated editor (if you need one).

Best feature: The easy-to-use remove background tool.

Good for: New video creators looking for a free editor that makes high-quality videos quickly.

Pros

  • It can create videos for Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
  • You can make up to 15-minute videos.
  • Use it on your mobile phone or computer.
  • Its library contains tons of stickers, sounds, filters, effects, transitions, and copyrighted songs.
  • It’s simple to use but also has advanced features for more experienced users.

Cons

  • It only allows one video and audio track.
  • It’s not a full-featured video editor (if you’re looking for all the bells and whistles).

12. Inshot: All-in-one mobile video and photo editor

content creation tools for written content creators

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On the market since 2014, Inshot is a free video editor for your iOS or Android mobile phone or tablet and is popular with social media content creators. You can use most of this editor’s features for free with a few affordable paid options.

Best feature: Edit photos, make collages, or create videos in one mobile phone app fast and with little fuss.

Good for: Time-crunched content creators who need visual content for social media or websites.

Pros

  • Do all your photo and video editing on one app
  • There’s no time limit for video creation.
  • It has all video and photo sizes for different social platforms.
  • It gives you a wide choice of filters, stickers, transitions, sounds, effects, and music.
  • It’s an easy-to-use editor with advanced features for more experienced editors.

Cons

  • It only works on mobile phones and tablets.
  • Export times can be long if your video is long.
  • Not 100% free.

13. Filmora: Pro-level video editor that even beginners can use

content creation tools for influencersSource 

Filmora is a full-featured video editor that doesn’t require hours of tutorials to learn. You can make simple videos easily with this editor or watch a few easy-to-understand Filmora tutorials to learn how to use its more advanced tools (including zooming in or out with still photos). This program is especially for beginner video editors.

Best feature: The price. The $69 lifetime price is very affordable for such a powerful video editor.

Good for: Beginner or more experienced video creators who want an easy-to-use advanced video editor.

Pros

  • There’s a large selection of stock photos and videos.
  • Free and paid special effects are available.
  • It supports video sizes for TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook.
  • It also stores hundreds of effects, transitions, text animations, stickers, filters, sounds, and royalty-free music.
  • It offers advanced features like a screen recorder, colour correction, video stabilisation, motion tracking, and chroma key (green screen).

Cons

  • It’s a computer-only video editor (for Mac or PC).

Tools for content creators who write

14. Grammarly: a convenient free and paid tool for mistake-free content

content creation tools for video content creators

Grammarly’s free tool helps you write clear, error-free pieces of content.

It’ll point out any typos or grammar mistakes you make and show you which parts of your writing need a second look (and maybe an edit). You can upgrade to the paid version and get a better sentence and synonym recommendations.

Best feature: The free tool catches typos and basic grammar mistakes (in case you don’t notice them).

Good for: Anyone who has trouble catching typos or needs help following English grammar rules.

Pros

  • The free version checks your content for plagiarism on top of everything it does.
  • It spots big and small grammar mistakes and typos.
  • If you’re a native writer, you mainly don’t need the paid version.

Cons

  • It’s not as sophisticated as a human writer and will flag error-free text sometimes.

15. Hemingway: free editing tool for concise writing

content creation tools for visual content creatorsThe Hemingway App won’t likely catch your grammar mistakes or typos, but it helps you be more straightforward and concise (so your readers understand your message better).

The free web version will show you unclear sentences, unnecessary adverbs or other words, and passive voice. Just copy-paste it directly onto the page.

The downloadable paid version does the same thing on top of:

  • Working offline.
  • Letting you export in different formats like Word, PDF, and HTML.
  • Saving your work progress.

Best feature: The free version highlights the same unclear writing as the paid version.

Good for: Anyone who likes to write long, rambling sentences (but most writers will benefit from this app’s recommendations).

Pros

  • This tool will show you the unnecessary words in your content.
  • It can help you write better when using the tool regularly.

Cons

  • This tool doesn’t mark grammar mistakes or typos.
  • It doesn’t make recommendations and only shows you what to remove or change.

16. Coschedule headline analyzer: a free headline evaluation tool to increase engagement

content creation tools for influencersSource

Your headline should grab your readers’ attention and give them a clear reason to read your article. But what if you can’t think of anything good right away?

Start with an extensive list of headline formulas (like these 101 headline formulas) and write a few, then check them with Coschedule’s free analyzer to pick the best one or tweak them to increase your score.

Remember that the best headline is about what your specific audience wants. This headline tool can’t evaluate that for you, but it can check things like:

  • Headline length
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) score
  • Use of emotional and power words

The more you write headlines, the more effective you get at doing it (and eventually, you won’t need any tools).

Best feature: The synonym search tool, power word, and emotion word banks are convenient when looking for alternative words for your headlines.

Good for: Anyone who gets stuck when it’s time to write a headline.

Pros

  • You get plenty of help with the free version.
  • It helps you learn to write better headlines and subheadings over time.
  • Your new headlines can attract more viewers.

Cons

  • It only evaluates your headlines. You won’t get any headline suggestions.

Tools for attracting more viewers and followers

These tools will help you see exactly which content performs best, find hidden opportunities for audience growth, spy on your competition, and take your content business to the next level:

Tools for video content creators

17. Later: social media scheduler and analytics tool for easy IG content creation

content creation tools for influencersSource

Later is a social media management tool for all platforms, but in reality, it’s hyper-focused on Instagram and TikTok. You can use it to:

  • Schedule all your social media posts (along with FB, TikTok, Linkedin, Twitter, and Pinterest).
  • See what’s working (or not) with detailed insights.
  • Repurpose your posts on multiple platforms and save time.

Bottom line: Instagram doesn’t play well with third-party tools. This one is the most effective way to avoid time-wasting IG headaches while growing your audience.

Best feature: It makes IG scheduling and strategy more manageable than other tools.

Good for: Anyone with dreams of growing an Instagram or TikTok audience with limited time and budget.

Pros

  • You can moderate, read, reply or delete comments in-app.
  • It’s like Linktree for TikTok and Instagram.
  • You can plan and manage content for Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
  • You can schedule and auto-publish your posts, videos, reels, and other types of social media content.
  • Their hashtag tool helps you find new ones, while the analytics tool keeps track of your results.
  • Get hashtag, story, and post engagement analytics for three months up to one year (based on your plan).

Cons

  • Instagram story posts can’t be auto-published (on any scheduler).

18. Tubebuddy: an affordable Youtube analytics tool to grow faster

content creation tools for influencersSource 

Tubebuddy will help you optimise your Youtube channel and find which video content gets you more views and subscribers faster with a long list of time-saving tools. You can drastically reduce your Youtube admin time with tools that:

  • Help you find new Youtube keywords.
  • Show your Youtube and Google Search video rankings
  • Bulk create, edit, and delete Youtube cards, end screens, and other elements.

Best feature: The price starts at $4.80 per month. You get a ton of tools for free (and if you’re under 1000 subscribers, you get a 50% discount on an already low price).

Good for: Every Youtuber looking to grow their channel (from beginner to Youtube superstar).

Pros

  • Free and affordable paid plans work for new Youtube channels.
  • Find the best keywords for your video titles, tags, and descriptions.
  • Test different titles and thumbnails to see which ones get clicked the most.
  • Do repetitive Youtube tasks that take up your time in bulk.
  • Keep track of your competitors and what they’re doing.

Cons

  • You can only add one Youtube channel per subscription

Read more: How to Make Money with Youtube (based on an Interview with a Youtuber with 15.5K Subscribers

Tools for content creators who write

19. Google Analytics: your most essential website analytics tool

content creation tools for influencersSource

Google Analytics is a free tool that shows you who your site visitors are and how they find you (Google Search, social media, or other referral sources).

It holds all the essential website data you need to decide what to optimise, completely change, and do next.

Best feature: It has all your important (and up-to-date) website data and connects with all other website analytics tools.

Good for: Every website owner who wants to optimise their website.

Pros

  • It has the most accurate information about your website.
  • It’s free and can share your website data with other optimisation tools.

Cons

  • It doesn’t include keyword discovery tools.
  • You can’t see competing websites’ data.
  • You’ll probably need to watch a few tutorials to learn how to set it up and use it well.

Read more: How to Improve Affiliate Conversion Rates on Articles: Expert tips

20. Ubersuggest: a beginner-friendly optimisation tool for creators

content creation tools for creator analytics

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If you’re new to keyword research and optimisation, Ubersuggest is easier to use than most search engine optimisation tools (and far less expensive if you have a limited budget). You can use Ubersuggest to:

  • Get keyword suggestions with approximate monthly search volume.
  • See what content topics get the most traffic or social media engagement in your niche.
  • Compare your site with competing sites to find new article topics.
  • Do a site audit to find technical SEO errors, like missing Google Search headlines and meta descriptions.

Best feature: The price. You get so much helpful data for a low price.

Good for: Creators new to website optimisation (or on a tight budget).

Pros

  • The free version includes three free searches per day.
  • It’s one of the most beginner-friendly website optimisation tools available.
  • It has many easy-to-use features for an affordable monthly (or lifetime) price.
  • A great tool to use while learning search engine optimisation.

Cons

  • It doesn’t have all the features of professional SEO tools.

21. Semrush: advanced analytics and optimisation tool for your website

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If you’re ready for a website optimization tool with more power, Semrush may be a better choice. You’ll get more in-depth information about your website, each page, competitors, and keywords (so you should already understand why and when you need these details).

It’s a much bigger, more complex tool, so you may need to watch a few tutorials to understand how to use it.

Best feature: This tool gives you a ton of information, but it does it with plenty of charts and graphs that help you understand it quicker.

Good for: A content creator with SEO experience and a bigger budget for content optimisation tools.

Pros

  • Use the free version for ten searches per day.
  • Get detailed information about your competitors’ websites.
  • Make sure your site and individual web pages are optimised with ongoing audits.
  • Track Google ranking for your web pages and your competitors.

Cons

  • You must have some SEO experience to make full use of this tool.
  • It’s an expensive tool for most content creators.

Which content creation tools do you need right now?

As a busy content creator managing a family, a full-time job, your content business, and probably many other things, you need to speed up your content creation process and workflow to be efficient.

The above free and low-cost tools can help you produce great content in less time (and with less frustration).

If you’d love to earn extra income with your content, Creatory’s self-serve platform will help you get started even if you don’t have thousands of followers or viewers yet. Using Creatory, you can:

  • Promote big-brand products regardless of your audience size or niche.
  • Receive higher-than-average commission rates even if you’re new to the platform.
  • Choose different types of commissions on each product offer.
  • Get your audience’s attention with brands like Apple, Nintendo, and Dyson.

Try Creaotry now.

Published by Creatory Team November 25, 2022