If you want to drive readers to your blog, and hopefully convert them into customers, the key is creating high quality content—both text and visual. No matter the format—article, infographic or video—your content needs to be engaging, informative and relevant to your audience’s interests. Ready to get started by but need a little help? No problem! Here are 10 content creation tools and marketplaces for creating quality content.
Video Content Tools and Marketplaces
Video is becoming the most popular way of creating content on the web. It’s instant, fun, and one of the quickest ways of getting your thoughts and ideas across. Creators on sites such as Youtube have discovered that they can cultivate a following of dedicated fans with a little hard work and creative thinking. These tools can help you do the same.
1. Video Scribe: If you’re just starting out, this too is useful and easy to use. It lets you create whiteboard videos using templates, meaning even if you have no experience in video creation, you can still create something fun and engaging without any technical skill. You start with your images and text, add in your animation times, then lay your voiceover and even music, and it’s ready to go! The service offers a 7-day free trial.
2. Pond 5
If you’re in need of footage to create video content, Pond 5 is a great place to source it. Simply search for the kind of footage you need and choose from a large library of clips that you can purchase at varying rates. Best of all, you can also find cost-free, public domain footage, if you’re looking to save money. When choosing your footage, you can mouse over the preview to get a look at how the video plays before buying it.
3. Video Script: Any good video starts with good writing, and if you’re not 100% confident on how to write one, this service can help. The process begins with sending them the basic structure, topics, and products that you want your video to include. With your input, they then write a professional script that you can use with ease to produce your video.
4. Fotalia: This service is perfect for people who are just starting out on their new blogging venture. It offers royalty free videos for a low price, meaning that you can use super high quality clips in your videos without blowing your budget. You can pay for packages from as little as $14, so it’s very accessible for self-employed professionals and micro- and small business owners.
Text Content Marketplaces
The most content that will make up any site will be your blogs and other texts. Writing content can be a real tightrope to walk, as you try and offer useful and interesting articles to read, while ensuring that you’re not filling the site with meaningless bulk. When done well, your text will offer your readers information that they can use, and that they can share with others. If you feel you don’t have the time or resources to create your own text content, these services are a great place for outsourcing.
5.iWriter
This service can not only meet your blog content needs but also match you with writer who can produce press releases, ebooks, article, guest blog content and more. There is no cost to register to the service and content is priced based on length and the writer’s experience, which you can choose to best suit your needs. iWriters currently boasts more than 900,000 global writers on their platform—a huge advantage if you’re looking for a fast turnaround.
6. Contentmart
Contentmart is another great platform to source quality blog content. One of their unique advantages is that they offer content in 20 different languages. Like iWriter, Contentmart has a pricing model based on length and the writer’s experience. As an added service, also offer a unique SEO analysis tool that reviews the writer’s content for relevancy, readability, plagiarism and other important factors to ensure quality content.
7. Go To Media
Go To Media is specifically designed to produce made-to-order marketing content for various purposes including content marketing, social media, blogging, whitepapers and more. Unlike other platforms, their price model is based on the type of content you seek, with blog content starting from $1.60 per 100 words. They also impressively boast clients like Sotheby’s, Slidely, and ING.
Photo and Illustration Marketplaces
Photos and images are the icing on the cake for your site. The visuals you use will reflect your values and vision, so picking the right ones to use can be a minefield. You can, of course, go out there and create your own images, but what if your photography or illustration skills aren’t up to scratch? These services are the best places to buy in those all important images.
8. Photodune
If you’re on a tight budget, this is a great service to use. It has a huge library of royalty-free stock images, some that cost as low as $1. The images are good quality and are easy to download and try out in your own content.
9. EyeEm
This service uses the work of some of the most creative photographers on the web. If you’re aiming to create an artistic, bespoke look to your website or blog, this is the service that you’ll want to use. Their pricing plans are great if you just want to buy a couple of photos, as they price per photo. If you’re handy with a camera, you can even sell your own photos through the site.
10. Creative Market
This site offers some of the best tools available, including fonts, PowerPoint templates, and logo creators. Buying them and implementing them with your own content is simple to do, and really does make a difference to your site.
With these tools now at your disposal, your content will now be high quality, interesting, and most importantly, keep your readers coming back. You’ll also find that with the right combination of outsourced copywriters, images and video creators, you’ll have the time to oversee your site, all while getting on with what you do best.
