Top 10 Free Online Tools for Writers – As Chosen by YOU!

By on March 27th, 2009

A little while ago I asked you (and readers elsewhere) to nominate your favorite free online tools for writers and then vote on the top ten. The results weren’t completely surprising, but at the same time they didn’t turn out quite as I expected. Here are your must-have free online tools!

1. Paypal – Okay. This one was my biggest surprise (although maybe it shouldn’t have been). I almost didn’t include it in the actual list. Because there is technically a free option without the fees though, I did, and apparently people love their Paypal!

Tied for 2nd place in our list were:

2. WordPress – Can’t say I’m surprised (WordPress rocks), and

3. Gmail – I’m not a Gmail user myself (have an account but don’t use it for anything). I wasn’t surprised to see it nominated, but was surprised it was so high on your list.

Next we had:

4. Google Docs – With several nominations, I wasn’t surprised this made the list.

5. Open Office – If anything, I was surprised OO wasn’t higher.

Then we had a three-way tie for sixth place:

6. Skype – I don’t use this as much as I used to, but okay, it’s spot-worthy (especially if you need to talk to clients overseas a lot).

7. AVG Antivirus – This was a nomination I didn’t expect to see on the top ten list, but I do suppose we need something to take care of any nasty little buggers that might destroy our work!

8. Thunderbird – I was very surprised to see Thunderbird on the top ten list (an email client for those not familiar with it).

And then we had yet another tie, for 9th place (both related to the images you may need to find and / or edit for your blog posts, sites, or articles):

9. Stock Xchng – This is the free stock photo site I personally love (and if you need better quality, their premium site StockXpert.com is excellent as well).

10. GIMP – I think GIMP is absolutely worthy of a top ten spot, but honestly I was surprised it made the cut. I’m glad to see others agreed with me. If you aren’t familiar with GIMP, it’s a pretty robust image editor (free replacement for Photoshop essentially).

So a big thank you to everyone who voted in the survey and everyone who nominated great freebies for freelance writers! It was interesting to see what tools and services other writers get the most value from.

If you haven’t taken a look yet, this is also just a reminder that there’s a new “stuff for writers” link at the top of this site. Be sure to check out the free section of that for free reports and more that I’ve released.

http://3bm.co/oWp1aK

About Jennifer Mattern

Jenn is a professional blogger and freelance business writer. She has worked as a writer since 1999, and began blogging in 2004. She owns All Freelance Writing as well as several other sites and blogs covering indie publishing, social media, and small business. She expects to release her first book for freelance writers, The Query-Free Freelancer, in 2012 and she is the author of the Web Writer's Guide e-book series.

Posted 1044 days ago by Jennifer Mattern
This entry was posted in Writers Resources and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Top 10 Free Online Tools for Writers – As Chosen by YOU!

  1. Ed says:
    March 27, 2009 at 9:11 am

    I am not surprised PayPal was ranked as the No. 1 friend of writers. Not having to wait weeks for payment is a big advantage – even if you have to pay fees to transfer your money into your bank. I put the e-mail announcement “you have a payment” right up there with “Merry Christmas.”

    As a Mac user, I use fewer free apps than Windows owners. However, gmail has become my address for second or third-tier e-mail that I don’t want cluttering up my main work e-mail space, Microsoft Entourage. If I used the Windows side of my Mac more often, I’d probably use Thunderbird, but despite its name, Entourage just does mail better.

    I’d love it if OpenOffice made it to the Mac without all the hoop-jumping now required. The application gives Word a run for its money. The same can be said for Gimp and Photoshop.

  2. Mark says:
    March 28, 2009 at 11:17 am

    A very nice list. I was surprised that Open Office wasn’t higher. There are a couple of options I am going to have to look into that I haven’t tried before.

  3. Multima$tery ~ Get Paid to Write says:
    April 19, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    Nice list I’ve been also following your DP thread grreat stuff!
    As far as that stock xchge I don’t think it’s free anymore (if I’m not mistake) seems you have to buy credit to download the pics now.

    • Jennifer Mattern says:
      April 19, 2009 at 5:17 pm

      Stock Xchng is absolutely free. You probably accidentally clicked on the banner at the top of their site that goes to their sister site – Stock Xpert. That one requires credits to buy the photos, but they’re of a higher quality (and it’s definitely worth buying credits there if you need nicer images – about $1 per image for a decent size for blog posts).

  4. Jason Stoddard, Strange and Happy » Blog Archive » 10 Useful Non-Writing Tools for Writers

  5. AndyAndersen says:
    January 1, 2010 at 7:38 am

    I had never heard of GIMP or the free stock site! Thanks for the list. I use OO and would have voted it above gmail for sure. I’m still leary of the mining that gmail does but I am trying it out anyway.