Eight years of freelancing teaches you to cut what doesn’t earn its place. I’ve had subscriptions I barely opened, tools I paid for because everyone else seemed to be using them, and software I genuinely couldn’t do without. Over time, the list gets leaner and more deliberate.
The clients have followed a similar pattern. Some have been with me for almost the full eight years. Others have come and gone; the shortest engagement I’ve had ran for six months. What I’ve learned across all of them is that the relationships matter as much as the work. I can tell a long-standing client I need to push a deadline or take a week away without it threatening the whole arrangement. That kind of trust takes time to build, but it also means the work itself runs more smoothly.
The software below is what I actually use, day to day, week to week. I’ve cut anything that stopped earning its place. Some of it is free. Some of it I pay for and would not give up. I’ve broken it into categories so you can skip to whatever’s relevant to you.
I’m also aware there is an unending list of potential software out there that I will have missed, but this is what I use, so if you’re thinking about moving into freelancing as a content writer, digital marketing, or something similar, these are a great place to start.
Getting Work
A website builder I used to host my freelance site (separate to this one). Honestly, I don't find I need it much anymore. Most of my work now comes through word of mouth, and when clients decide to work with me, they're usually around for years, so my client turnover is minimal. It's worth having early on, but not essential once you've built a reputation. I mostly keep mine as a sort of resume, but I'm overpaying as procrastinating getting rid of it.
Facebook Groups
Still a surprisingly effective channel for finding freelance work, particularly in Australian-based marketing and writing communities. Search for groups relevant to your niche and show up consistently.
The jobs board is useful, but LinkedIn earns its place more as a visibility tool than a job search engine. Keeping your profile current and engaging with industry content brings opportunities to you rather than the other way around.
Temp Agencies
An underrated starting point. My first serious SEO role came through a temp agency, a placement with a nationwide business that threw me into the deep end of technical SEO and content at scale. If you're early in your freelance career, this is worth considering as a bridge, until you can start drawing clients in and scale back on temp roles.
Getting Paid
Free invoicing software that does everything a freelancer needs: client management, recurring invoices, payment tracking, and basic reporting. I switched to this and haven't looked back. No good reason to pay for invoicing software when this exists.
I have used this since day 1! Time tracking for freelancers. If you bill by the hour, or just want to understand where your time actually goes, Toggl is the easiest tool I've found for it. The free version covers everything a solo operator needs. I've never paid, and have used it for (as Schmidt would say) just shy of half of 2 decades
Day to Day
At US$50 a month it is not cheap, but as someone whose output is words, it earns its keep. It catches things a tired eye misses and gives a useful second pass on tone and clarity. Worth it if writing is your primary deliverable. Outside of work, I use it for proofing my fiction writing and it's a lifesaver.
I had Photoshop for years. As Adobe kept bundling in software I didn't need and pushing the price up, I let it go. Canva filled that gap and then some. I have a premium account and three clients who also use it and share their accounts with me. Working inside a client's brand kit makes everything faster and more cohesive. Worth every cent of the subscription, though, of course you can use it for free.
My AI tool of choice for longer-form thinking, drafting, analysis, and research tasks. It handles nuance better than most, and I find it more useful for content work specifically than the alternatives. I used ChatGPT on a paid subscription for a while, but I found its misinformation more of an inconvenience that non-answers. And, despite how often I told it not to lie, it ignored me. I find Claude's design easier to use, and the results a million times better.
I use the free version as a secondary tool. Useful for quick tasks and brainstorming. I wouldn't rely on it as a primary content tool, but it has a place in the workflow.
Teams / Slack / WhatsApp
Whichever one your client uses, you use -- that part is non-negotiable. But if you're asking which I actually prefer, it goes WhatsApp, then Slack, then Teams, in that order. WhatsApp is instant and human. Slack is tidy and searchable. Teams feels like it was designed by a committee who had never sent a casual message in their lives. The tool matters less than the habit of actually checking it, but I know which one I open with more enthusiasm.
I moved over from Dropbox and haven't missed it. The free storage tier is generous enough for day-to-day freelance use, and the integration with Docs and Sheets makes collaboration with clients straightforward.
SEO Specific
My primary SEO platform. Keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, backlink tracking. It does the lot. You might think you don't need an SEO background for content writing, and you'd be wrong. SEMRush, unfortunately is not cheap, even for a single-person business, but if SEO is a core part of your offering (and as a content writer, it's almost impossible to avoid), it is hard to do the job properly without something in this category.
I use the free version via Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. It is genuinely useful for site-level data and backlink checks without needing a full subscription. A solid complement to SEMrush rather than a replacement.
Google's own tool is useful for additional SEO reporting.
For checking that structured data is correctly implemented. Not something every client needs, but when they do, this is the tool I use to confirm it's working as expected.
Additional
A drag-and-drop email design tool. The free version is enough for designing and exporting HTML emails for clients. A much friendlier option than building emails from scratch in code. And for those clients who don't yet have something like Klaviyo. I use the free account, which offers 5 HTML downloads a month, which is all my client needs.
Worth Knowing How to Use
These aren't tools I own subscriptions to, they're platforms clients bring me into. Knowing your way around them makes you a more useful person to have on a team.
The dominant CRM in enterprise and mid-market businesses. You may not use it directly, but understanding how it's structured helps when you're working alongside sales and marketing teams who live in it. It's huge, and honestly, you could have a degree in Salesforce, alone.
CRM, email marketing, landing pages, social scheduling, HubSpot does a lot. It appears across a wide range of client setups, and knowing your way around it opens doors. It's the younger, hotter competitor to Salesforce and I have more clients on H than S.
Non-negotiable. If you are doing any kind of content or digital marketing work, you need to be able to read GA4 data. Understanding what's performing and why is what separates a content person from a content strategist. Though, I do miss UA, sniff, miss you, buddy.
Pairs with GA4. Where Analytics tells you what people do on the site, Search Console tells you how they found it. Essential for any SEO-adjacent work.
Social Scheduling (Buffer, Hootsuite, HubSpot)
The specific tool depends on the client. Buffer is clean and easy to pick up. Hootsuite is more feature-heavy. HubSpot handles it as part of its broader suite. Know at least one well. There are plenty of others. Some I've used (Postly), and some I haven't.
The default for collaborative writing and editing. If you are not fluent in suggesting mode, comments, and version history, get there quickly -- most clients expect it.
Design and prototyping tool that's become standard in product and marketing teams. As a content person, you may be working alongside designers in Figma rather than creating in it yourself. Being able to navigate it and leave comments is enough to start.
Facebook and Instagram advertising, audience targeting, campaign management. Clients with paid social budgets will expect you to know this environment. The platform changes frequently, so staying current matters.
Chrome Extensions
These live in my browser and do their job quietly. A few are essential; the rest are useful enough to keep installed.
Colour picker and gradient editor. Useful for matching brand colours exactly from any page.
The browser extension pairs with the desktop app. Catches errors inline as you type, across Gmail, Docs, and most CMS platforms.
Full-page screenshots in one click. Handy for documenting client sites or sharing page layouts for review.
Google's extension for verifying that GA4, GTM, and other tags are firing correctly on a page.
Quick on-page SEO audit without leaving the browser tab. Headings, meta, canonical tags, and more at a glance.
Screen and webcam recording via Vimeo. Useful for recording walkthroughs, feedback videos, or client-facing explainers.
Displays alt text for images on any page. A quick accessibility and SEO check without opening DevTools.
Password manager. Non-negotiable when you are logging into multiple client accounts across different platforms.
Does exactly what it says. Useful for benchmarking competitor page length or checking your own published content.
Time tracking that integrates directly with project management tools. An alternative to Toggl if you prefer something that sits inside your workflow.
Identify any font on any website instantly. Helpful when matching a client's typography or researching competitor design choices.
Quick structured data validation without opening a separate tool. Good for a fast sanity check before flagging schema issues to a client.
Scans any page for broken links and highlights them. A quick first pass before reporting link issues to a client or publishing new content.
