I’ve written previously about my blogging workflow. In this post I’m sharing ten websites I use pretty much all the time. They’re bookmarked on all my devices, so wherever I’m working I can reach them in no more than a couple of clicks. A few offer paid options but you can use all of them for free.
1. Capitalise Titles and Headings
I’m a stickler for consistency. Capitalize My Title makes it easy to apply a consistent style to blog post titles, headings, and sub-headings. Simply paste or type your title or heading and it will automatically capitalise and convert it. You can select Title Case (according to different style guides such as AP, APA, Chicago, MLA, BB, AMA), sentence case, UPPERCASE, lowercase, and more.
2. Italics or Quotes?
Can’t remember whether to use italics, quotation marks, or neither for the titles of books, movies, songs, poems, newspapers, and other media? Capitalize My Title has a quick reference table covering the key style guides.
3. Optimise Your Blog Post Titles
An effective title can make all the difference when it comes to engaging your readers. Coschedule offers a range of tools and suggestions to improve the title for your latest blog post.
4. Punctuation
If you can’t remember where to use a semicolon, or if you suspect you’re overusing commas (I’m guilty of this one!) keep The Punctuation Guide close to hand. It’s a great quick reference guide for basic punctuation. It also offers notes on style guides, the differences between British and American styles, and top tips for good punctuation.
5. Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is one of several well-respected style guides. The full guide is behind a paywall (at the time of writing, an individual subscription is $44 for one year) but I considered it good value when Fran and I were working on our first book. There’s a 30-day free trial if you want to try it out or just need access for a specific project. There’s a lot of very useful information available for free, including an extensive Q&A section.
6. Unsplash
I’ve written before about how to choose the perfect image for your blog posts. Unsplash is the first place I visit for images and inspiration. All their images are free to download and use for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Check the Unsplash licence page for full details.
7. Awareness Days Calendar
Blogging in the mental health space as I do, it’s important to keep an eye on upcoming awareness days and events. The calendar I refer to most often is the listing of mental health awareness days at Mental Health UK. For a broader perspective, Awareness Days is searchable by country (UK, US, International) and category.
8. Quotations
Looking for that perfect quotation to illustrate your blog post? Brainy Quote is a free searchable database of quotations organised by theme and author.
9. HTML and CSS Guide
I restrict myself to a small number of HTML and CSS tags and attributes in my blog posts. If I want to try something different or can’t recall the syntax to achieve the results I’m after, I turn to W3 Schools. This free resource has tons of reference material and tutorials covering HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, Python, and more.
10. Dead Link Checker
There are few things more annoying than encountering a dead link on your website. Dead Link Checker offers free checks of the first 2,000 links on any website.
Image by Ian Dooley at Unsplash.
