These books, services, articles and apps are useful tools for any writer trying to make a great living online. Use them to sharpen your skills so you can get more done in less time, and live the writer’s life you’ve always wanted.
You can also download our FREE Writer’s Toolbox for future reference.
SEO & Marketing
Sales Letter Sellout: Step by step template for writing sales letters that convert.
Millionaire Mailbox: Get an insider’s perspective on the journey to becoming a successful online entrepreneur.
Popup Domination: Increase your signups dramatically by using this highly customizable pop-up application.
Premise: Build highly effective WordPress landing pages using Premise’s intuitive tools.
ScribeSeo: Find keywords, optimize content and insert links using this powerful tool.
SEOMoz: Software, tools and resources to help you maximize your search engine optimization.
BuildMyRank: Build natural, high quality, permanent links to your sites.
SEO Copywriting Made Simple: Writers can’t afford to ignore SEO. This article has the basics to get you started.
Keyword Research: This free report on keyword research for web writers and content producers by Copyblogger is a can’t miss resource.
Landing Page Case Studies: A collection of articles to help you create effective landing pages.
Fear of Selling: Many writers have an innate fear of selling. Learn how to get over it.
Email Lists
Autoresponder Madness: Take this six week course to master email marketing for yourself and your clients.
Aweber: Manage your email lists with one of the most powerful mailing services around.
Webhosting and Domain Names
Hostgator Easy and affordable webhosting. The business plan allows you to host unlimited domains on a shared server for less than eleven bucks a month. You can also find more basic plans as well as VPS and dedicated servers.
NameCheap Buy and transfer domain names with no hassle.
Buy and Sell Content
Writers Access Hires US based content providers for custom writing jobs for website owners and more. Clients are able to order work done to their specifications and only pay for content that they approve.
Ghostbloggers.net a marketplace for bloggers and writers to buy and sell unique blog posts.
Social Media/Networking
Hootsuite: Manage all of your Twitter and Facebook accounts easily using hootsuite. You can schedule tweets and status updates, view analytics and allow multiple team members to work on accounts.
Social Oomph Provides free and paid solutions for Twitter and Facebook management. These include scheduling tweets and posts, auto-follow and DM features, keyword searches and multiple account management.
Retweetable Headlines: Do you know how to craft a headline that begs to be retweeted? You will after you read this article!
Twitter Search: Searching Twitter can give you the scoop on what’s happening on how real people feel about it.
weFollow Twitter Directory: Find Twitter users in your own niche to follow and add yourself to the directory so that others can find you!
Twellow (the Twitter Yellow Pages): Another highly useful Twitter directory.
Useful Articles for Writers and Content Marketers
Editing Hacks: Learn to hack the flab from your writing using the techniques taught on this site which includes tutorial videos and interviews with professional editors.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Learning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs gives copy writers a leg up in getting to the heart of what their readers want. Understand what motivates your customers is the first step to helping them find the product that meets their needs.
Authority Rules: A free guide by Brian Clark on how to harness authority to create copy that sells.
Time Management for Creative People: Even artsy types need to learn how to get and stay organized and make the most out of their time. This PDF will guide you into how to use your time wisely so that you can create more.
The Zen of Getting Things Done: Forget elaborate schedules and charts, simplicity is at the heart of getting things done.
The Pomodoro Technique: This method for enhancing focus and concentration helps writers get more done.
Hierarchy of the Self Employed: Where do you land on this self-employment pyramid?
Content Models for Writers: An overview of the different models that writers can use to earn a living online, including the pros and cons of each.
For Fun
Meetup.Com: Meetup can help you find a group that shares your interests. Can’t find one? You can also use Meetup to sponsor your own gathering. Great for writer’s groups.
Google Blog Search: Looking for inspiration and ideas? Google Blog Search can help you find out what other blogs in your niche are talking about. It’s also very useful for finding other writers to learn from and network with.
Creative Copy Challenge: The Creative Copy Challenge offers a biweekly 10 word writing prompt. It’s up to you to craft a story using those 10 words and post it in the comments section. It’s an awesome way to defeat writer’s block, exercise your creative muscles and have fun with fellow writers!
Books for Writers
On Writing by Stephen King
Widely regarded as one of the best books for an aspiring author, and my absolute favorite, King’s book is half instructional manual for writers, half engaging memoir. “This is a short book, because most books about writing are filled with bullshit,” the book begins. King stands as a fantastic example of how to deliver a lifetime’s worth of consistency and quality.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White
This book is nonnegotiable – a must have for anyone who writes for pleasure or profit. This is the standard for proper grammar. It’s short, concise, and every bit as relevant today as the year it was written, even if some people debate the book’s strict adherence to rules.
Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You by Ray Bradbury
Most writers are familiar with Bradbury, but this isn’t his usual science fiction or fantastical fare. Zen is Bradbury’s brain stew on the literary and commercial aspects of writing and serves as high-motivational octane for aspiring writers.
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Though this book tends to feed into the myth of the tortured writer more than I like, it is a great book for helping writers understand the need to break big projects into bite-sized chunks.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss
The placement of your comma is everything. Unfortunately, it’s also my weak spot. A hysterical tutorial written by a proud pedant on punctuation, will show you why misplacing punctuation can have unintended consequences.
Influence by Robert Cialdiani
Other than King’s tome, this is the one writing book that truly changed my life. Influence details the seven triggers everyone shares. Whether writing sales copy, conversational blog posts, or fiction, you must know what makes people tick to drive behavior, create believable characters, or connect emotionally with your reader. Everyone has different currencies and incentives, but understanding our common denominators is key to becoming a great writer.
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Goldberg argues that great sex and great writing have a lot in common. Don’t think, lose control, and keep your hands moving. Be present and work with what you have. When it comes to writing, record your first thoughts, listen deep, and use verbs to make your sentences “pop.” Above all, conquer self-doubt and use writing to comprehend the value of your life.
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers by Betsey Lerner
An editor’s view on writing and publishing, Lerner reveals that editors love concise, articulate cover letters and shares the thrill of discovering a new writer. But she also discusses the things that editors loathe and that good writing isn’t enough. The book covers everything from handling rejection and writer’s block, to interacting with agents and submitting effective query letters.
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
A unique look at creativity and the creative process, based on the idea that creative expression is life’s most natural direction. The book includes a 12-week program designed to stimulate the creative process. It’s a terrific book to help writers replace blocks or self-destructive behaviors with confidence and productivity.
Letters to a Young Novelist by Mario Vargas Llosa
A meditation on writing and its relationship to life. Great books, through their powers of persuasion, lead readers to live and share in their words and experiences. Llosa writes, “The literary vocation is not a hobby, a sport, or a pleasant leisure-time activity. It is an all-encompassing, all-excluding occupation, an urgent priority, a freely chosen servitude that turns its victims (its lucky victims) into slaves.”
Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within by Janet Conner
An instructional book that reads like a novel, with a psycho-spiritual approach to creativity. The book asserts that writing works as a means to engage in meaningful “dialogue” with the inner, personal, powerful wisdom that resides just a thin membrane below your conscious awareness.
Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff
Though the book doesn’t offer specific writing advice, it is highly relevant to effective writing. Metaphor is presented as a primal, persuasive, core element to human culture. Lakoff encourages writers to notice the metaphors before them and to consider their language. Our expression shapes our thoughts, not the other way around.
Word Painting: A Guide to Write More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan
Description is the unifying thread that knits meaning and detail together. McClanahan examines description in its many forms, using examples from master authors and poets. She provides exercises to help writers tap into their senses, enhance their observational powers, and unearth the powerful, deeply meaningful words needed to effectively portray the images in their minds.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Written in the late 1940’s, Hero was George Lucas’ inspiration for Star Wars. The book discusses the portrayal of heroes throughout literary history and how they have inspired countless writers and storytellers. Hero makes the bold claim that all stories have already been told and that the retelling of those stories is relevant and necessary. The human journey is experienced through primal passion; and the heroes, heroines, and universal myths that have preceded the current era.
Books by GWD Staff
How To Write A Sales Letter That Works! (without wasting your time) by Sean Platt
Learning to write an effective sales letter is a shortcut to leaving keyword copy behind forever so you can finally start making the money you deserve! Ask any seasoned copywriter – there’s no skill more lucrative than being able to write an effective sales letter. Yet most writers never even try. Writing a sales letter is EASY, so long as someone is willing to show you the way.
Writing Online by Sean Platt
Writing Online teaches you not only how to write copy that sells, but also marketing, blogging, social media, SEO, list building, and how to build a strong reader or fan base. This is the book I wish I’d read when I first started writing for a living. A book that would have saved me lots of wasted time and money and made me realize my dreams a bit earlier. I want to help you realize your dreams without stumbling as I did.
