Everyone could use a helping hand. With so many online publishing tools available right now, there’s no reason not to try some of them out.
As we all work to navigate the new normal we’ve found ourselves in this year, now is a good time to take a step back and evaluate how you can streamline your business. The best online publishing tools give you a leg up on the competition by making it easier to add new revenue generating programs to your business.
Because online publishing is such a large space, the tools being developed for our industry serve all different needs. Some online publishing tools are designed to help marketing and design, while others focus on monetizing news websites or integrating new social media channels.
In this guide, we have put together a list of the best online publishing tools that make life easier for publishers, editors, and reporters. These tools cover a spectrum of uses. What they have in common is that they can all be used by digital publishers to streamline operations and hopefully increase profitability.
Let’s check out the list.
1. Otter
Digital publishers are all about saving time. With the Otter tool, digital reporters can quickly generate rich notes from their interviews and other important voice conversations. Otter is AI-powered. Not only can reporters use the app to record and review their conversations in real-time, but they can also search, play, edit, organize, and share those voice interviews from any device. Otter includes 600 minutes of transcription free per month. Plans for teams, and larger news organizations, are also available.
2. TimelineJS
Digital news publishers often struggle to create interactive visualizations to go along with the articles on their websites. TimelineJS was built to address that issue. The open-source tool can be used to create visually rich, interactive timelines. The visual timelines that publishers create with TimelineJS work best for telling stories that have a strong chronological narrative, where each event is written as part of a larger story. Creating a timeline requires nothing more than a Google spreadsheet, so anyone can do it. Larger publishers who have in-house designers can get even more creative using JSON skills to create custom installations.
3. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the No. 1 most popular WordPress plugin because it does so much for digital publishers. If you can’t already tell from the name, Yoast SEO is a tool for improving search engine optimization. Yoast offers simple tips for keyword optimization that can have a major impact on a publisher’s rankings on Google and Bing. Publishers who use Yoast’s WordPress plugin are usually able to attract more visitors from social media and increase their readers’ engagement. Yoast SEO offers both free and paid plans.
4. Pico
Every successful digital publication has sign-up forms somewhere on its website. Pico is a tool that makes it easier to create and track those forms. This intelligent signup form tool is perfectly designed for landing pages, popups, and HTML forms. With Pico, publishers can add social login options to their forms. They can also incentivize signups by offering exclusive freebies, like enhanced newsletters, VIP content, and downloads, to people who signup using their forms. These types of incentives have been shown to increase conversions, which is incredibly important to publishers who rely on the revenue generated from their online audience.
5. Grammarly
Grammarly is a free online writing assistant that reporters and editors will want to try. Once they’ve added a simple Chrome extension, writers will start seeing Grammarly’s edits on all the content they write, including in emails and posts written on the WordPress platform. Grammarly goes way beyond a simple spell check. The digital tool actually uses artificial intelligence to eliminate grammar and punctuation errors, make sentences concise, and check for tone. Grammarly integrates with most of the tools that digital publishers already use, including most email clients and MS Office tools.
6. Anchor
Podcasts are trending big time right now. If you’re a publisher who wants to add a podcast, then Anchor can make that process easier. Anchor is an all-in-one platform that anyone can use to create, distribute, and monetize podcasts. The platform includes tools for recording and uploading audio, with one-click distribution that makes it possible to post new podcast episodes on major podcast platforms, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Anchor works on any device, and it’s completely free.
7. UpWord
Are your reporters taking notes on the fly? You might suggest the UpWord mobile app. The quick and simple app is an ideal tool for notetaking and jotting down story ideas. Quickly type interview notes and format lists for future reference. UpWord works well with the iPhone’s built-in dictation tool. The app also includes reminder features and gives users the ability to categorize their notes based on story idea or topic.
Last Thoughts on Online Publishing Tools
This list of online publishing tools is just the beginning. It’s definitely not exhaustive. We hope it serves as a good starting point as you look at new solutions to help grow your publishing business.
If you have any questions about publishing, designing, or marketing your digital publication to reach the largest possible audience, contact us today. We’re happy to go over the services we offer at Web Publisher PRO and recommend any other tools that will help you generate more profit from your website.
