There’s a lot writers need to do nowadays–create great graphics for sharing on social media, having an email newsletter, creating ebooks, and sharing professional images on their blog.

But where do you begin? How do you achieve all of this without spending a ton of money?

In today’s post, I’m sharing some of my favorite free tools that I use for my own business. Don’t forget to grab your free cheat sheet with even more resources for you! The sign-up link is at the bottom of the post.

// Image Creation

Creating images for social media and your website doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. Two of my favorite tools for social media images are free for you to use.

The first, Canva, has thousands of templates for you to choose from. Whether you need Pinterest graphics, Instagram templates, a new cover for your Facebook page, or anything else you can imagine, it’s probably available on Canva. The pre-designed templates are customizable and still provide a professional look, even if you aren’t a designer.

Adobe Spark is similar to Canva in that you can create social media images from templates. The other thing I really like about Adobe Spark is that you can create and edit videos. I’m starting to create short videos for my website, and I use Adobe Spark to do so. You do have watermarks on the videos from the free version of the program, but I’m totally cool with that.

// Free Stock Photos

As you begin to create social media graphics and add photos to your blog posts, it’s important that you don’t break any copyright laws. Grabbing an image from a Google search is not okay, but don’t worry–there are plenty of amazing free stock photos for you to use.

My favorite websites for royalty-free images are Unsplash and KaboomPics.

Unsplash is amazing and has millions of photos for everything you could imagine. Just search by key word and see what pops up. You can even create an account and curate collections of images for easy reference as you need them.

KaboomPics, while less robust than Unsplash, has some fantastic options. What I really like about KaboomPics is that you can search by color and by photoshoots. Many of the images available are from photoshoots, providing you with a variety of size, orientation, and detail options for the images.

// Email Newsletters

Having an email newsletter is an important part of keeping in touch with your audience. MailChimp is a great free option to get you started.

I personally use ConvertKit for my email list because I need the functions it provides, but I do have a large list with courses, sequences, and more.

If you need something simple to get started, MailChimp is the way to go.

// Social Media Scheduling

Social media scheduling is an easy way to keep up with your marketing and branding. I use the free version of RecurPost to publish blog posts and other content to my Twitter feed. I’ve considered upgrading to their paid version to host more accounts, but currently, the free version meets my needs. It’s fairly easy to set up, too.

// Anything I missed?

What are some of your favorite tools? Did I miss anything fantastic and free? I’m always looking for great new tools and resources for my own use and for other writers. Let me know in the comments below!

Don’t forget to grab your free cheat sheet with even more resources for you!