20 Must-Have Freelance Tools of 2020
You can’t start a new decade as a freelancing professional without having the best resources at your fingertips. That means tools that are:
Easy to use
Effective
Value for money
Here’s my top 12. They’ve all stood the test of time AND my exhaustive research processes. Plus, the vast majority are FREE. Perfect for any freelance business.
Project management
1. Google Drive is the backbone of my business. I’ve written before about Why Google Drive is Awesome for Freelancers.
It’s so much more than a Microsoft alternative for word processing and spreadsheets. I can organise my whole business with it, thanks to the free 15GB cloud storage. I create all my copywriting projects in Google Docs, keep track of clients, finances and marketing results with Google Sheets and organise my client production processes on Drive.
Truly amazing value for the $0 price tag.
I’ve also dabbled in Dubsado as a project management tool and, despite multiple reviews to the contrary, here’s why I don’t like Dubsado for my business.
2. Asana is another great project management tool, especially if you enjoy the placebo effect of ticking off tasks and an occasional flying unicorn. Asana basically has 2 ways of working: on your own, you can use it to manage projects by breaking them down into tasks. You can set due dates, get reminders, never forget a step and have the satisfaction of checking tasks off.
The 2nd way to work with Asana is in a team, ie with a single client or a group who all work on the same project. You can assign tasks to people and keep track of how the project moves through its stages. Everyone is kept accountable and on target. This is where Asana as a project management tool really shines. Oh, and it’s free!
3. Toggl is an awesome time tracking tool that provides a simple overview of how you spend your week via a weekly email report.
The free version (I’ve never tried or needed the paid one) has both an online and desktop version. The interface is minimal but pleasing. You can easily track individual projects, clients, tasks and anything else you like.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
4. There’s loads of comprehensive SEO tools and I’ve tried free versions of all of them. My favourite is Moz Pro. The Site Crawler (for audits), Keyword Explorer and backlink analysis are all top notch and can be customised to an Australian audience. Also, the graphs are pretty and I love screenshotting them into client reports.
My biggest issue with Moz Pro is the price. At $A150/month for the standard (lowest) plan, it’s a hard cost to justify as a freelance unless you’re doing regular SEO reports and client research.
Luckily, there are so many great free SEO tools too.
5. Like, ABCya, a fun and useful little word cloud tool. Actually it’s a school resource so the interface is simple and friendly (there’s even sound!). I use it when writing SEO content on client sites - to check keyword proximity in page content. It helps you to see if you’re sticking to the main keywords in your webpage.
You simply copy and paste the text into the screen and click Create. Up pops the top number of words used in a random design. If you’re a visual person, you can even change the colour and layout.
6. If you’ve ever despaired at understanding Google Analytics, Quill Engage is the tool for you. Simple, powerful and requires minimal input from you, Quill scoops up all your Google data and summarises it in one simple, weekly email. You’ll find out about popular pages and posts, where traffic comes from, and whether readers are new or returning. It’s nifty and FREE and definitely worth signing up to.
7. For a quick ‘how’s my site going’ check, you can’t go past the cool and free SEO tool, Woorank. Drop your site URL into Woorank for a quick overview on the pros and cons of your site, with no strings attached.
As with all SEO tools, Woorank shows a snapshot of a site at a time and place and puts emphasis on things that may or may not matter to you. It’s always best to cross-check any issues with another tool, preferably a paid one.
Writing
8. If you’re a writer, you probably already know and love Hemingway App. It’s a free online editor for readability, passive sentences and grammar. Once you start using it, your sentences will become tighter, shorter and more focused. I love editing so I enjoy the finicky tweaking and fine tuning to wriggle my readability score down to 2 or 3.
Proposals
I spent years writing up project proposals in Word. Then a dabbled briefly in Canva’s fancy library of templates but it was a pain to edit the text. Then, another copywriter suggested Qwilr and I was hooked.
9. Qwilr is a paid app that creates aesthetic proposals that the client can view online (and print, if they want to). I loved Qwilr instantly because it’s very visual, easy to use and allows up to 3 proposals completely free of charge while you try out the app. You can set up Stripe payments for immediate initial invoices and digital signatures to close those deals faster. Save proposals as future template (even on a free trial) and use accordions to open and close lengthy portions of text, like your terms and conditions. There are loads of responsive templates and an integration with Unsplash means easy access to beautiful images for your proposals.
The first two proposals I did in Qwilr were worth about 20k collectively. I won both. That’s a big tick in my book for value for money. And customer service are super nice too.
Design & Branding
10. As you know, Squarespace is my go-to website platform thanks to its beautiful, professional and functional templates, and ease of use. The backend interface is easily identifiable and intuitive. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that includes domain name, hosting, security, updates and 24/7 customer service.
Squarespace also has a members-only group for designers like me, called (ironically), the Circle. We get bonuses that we can pass onto our clients such as extra long trial periods and new member discounts. I love that Squarespace brings its existing fan-base along with them as they grow. They’re developing new features all the time.
Squarespace website packages start from $A192/year all inclusive.
If you’re designing your own website, or hiring a designer, you need to think about branding.
11. That’s where an app like Coolors is awesome. It’s a free colour scheme generator that matches colour combinations. Maybe you have one key colour for your logo and want to add a second or third colour but have no idea how to start. Whether you know what you like or have no idea, this is a great app to check out.
Images
Whatever you do in your business, you’re going to need images. Check out my post on how to make the best use of images on your website.
There are so many ways you can use images - on your website, social media, blogging, marketing and more.
12. Canva is my go-to design program for all my blog post images, business card designs, marketing materials and custom designs on my website.
Canva is a free online design program for social media headers, blog post graphics, invitations, marketing materials and more. There are templates, customisable layouts and free “elements” (graphics) such as photos, charts and illustrations. The homepage opens with all your saved designs, fonts and colours so it’s super easy to find and edit branded images.
Basically, there are a bazillion things you can do with Canva - here’s 17 ways I use Canva in my business.
13. Oh, TinyJPG, I couldn’t optimise an image without you. TinyJPG is an amazing image compression site that’s beyond easy to use. Just drag and drop your file into the highlighted box and it squeezes the file size down by up to 80%. Best of all, there is no discernable quality difference and (you guessed it), it’s totally free.
As a web designer, I use TinyJPG for all my client images, as well as my own blog post images, videos, website graphics and any other digital image work. It’s quite addictive watching that cute, chubby panda churn through files, cutting them down to a workable size.
14. Not for images but PDF Compressor is the exact same tool for PDFs. So long chunky, image-filled client PDFs, this app squeezes them down to a much more respectable size. And yep, it’s free.
15. If you want a bit more control over your images, try Pixlr. It’s like a free online version of Photoshop. So, if you’ve got a few design skills under your belt, Pixlr is great for editing images, such as changing backgrounds. Or creating logos. There's also lots of support and videos online.
16. For sourcing free images, I recommend both Unsplash and Pixabay. They have thousands of generic images for non-commercial use (eg blog posts and websites). You can also choose from a variety of sizes so you won’t need to resize the image again, or to download a massive file when you don’t need to. Attribution is appreciated but not essential.
These are both great options for freelancers who can’t afford the big stock photo sites like Shutterstock.
Finance & Legal
17. QuickBooks Online is my accounting software of choice these days. I used WaveApps for years but as my business grew, I needed to start introducing GST and Wave, unfortunately, didn’t allow for that.
QBO is a paid monthly service with loads of features including accounting, payroll and financial reporting and secure banking connections. You can also create templates and send professional invoices to clients, and of course, tally and pay your GST, BAS and tax.
18. For payment gateways, I’ve used PayPal for years. I’ve never had any problems with it. More recently, I started using Stripe as well. Neither requires membership, both accept credit card payments, and the fee structure is fairly similar.
They’re not my ideal form of payment because they charge a percentage of the payment but using them gives my clients more payment options. And they integrate with apps like QuickBooks and Qwilr.
Legalities are one of those set and forget things but it’s important to have strong policies in place should you ever need them.
19. I’ve adopted all my legal online policies from Legal123 (affiliate link), an Australian company who have developed customisable online legal templates.
Australian law now requires all websites to have legal disclaimers, privacy policies and terms and conditions where necessary. A lot of people still don’t realise this though and have no idea where to start. I like Legal123 because they’re straightforward and easy to use, you pay a one-off fee and you get free updates if any of the legal mumbo jumbo changes.
Email marketing
Last but definitely not least, email marketing. I’ve tried my fair share of email marketing apps, including Mailchimp and ConvertKit.
20. And now I go with MailerLite. Much as the name suggests, it’s a simple app with few features so you can just get on with writing and sending posts. It’s got the standard features of tagging and creating opt-in forms to place on your site. It’s also free for the first 1,000 subscribers, which is perfect for a freelancer subscription list like mine.
And there you have it, my top 20 freelance apps for 2020.
Tell me, do you have these? Or is there something you love that should be on this list? I love trying out new apps.
About the author: Lilani Goonesena is a digital communications specialist and the director of LIGO Creative. Based in Canberra, LIGO delivers content, editing, SEO copywriting, web design, strategy, social media and branding for government, the development sector and businesses. Contact LIGO today.