Every day, I come across dozens of websites that have fun, interesting, educational, or inspiring content, but very rarely do I land on websites that are actualy useful. Sure, there are plenty of informational blog posts out there and I see plenty of those, but I’m talking about what the website itself does, not just the information it contains.
That’s why I’ve compiled this list of 13 amazing websites that can save you time (and frustration) in your marketing, whether you’re designing a new web page, writing a blog post, looking for a perfectly customized image, or working on a new marketing offer.
1. I MUST have that font for my design project!
We’ve all been there – doing a little research and coming across the perfect font for your design. The problem is, the font is in an image or not showing up in the page info. The best you can do is try to find a close replica by going through every font you have.
Or, take a screenshot of the font and upload it to WhatTheFont, the tool that take a picture and finds the font you’re looking for. It’s like magic!
2. The word-lover’s heaven
Ever wanted to know the origin of a word, either for your writing or just because you are strangely fascinated with the word masticate? Wonder no longer, my nerdy friend. The Online Etymology Dictionary most likely has the etymology of the word your looking for, and quite possible a very interesting backstory.
3. Easily create a how-to screencast to share with the world
Screencasts are great ways to provide useful content to your audience. It can give a simple overview of a product or service, or it can provide a detailed step-by-step process. Either way, developing them are easy, thanks to screenr.
This web-based screen recorder captures your screen and voice with no downloads or software necessary. Just record, capture, and share.
4. Delete old or bad social media accounts
Have you ever spent an hour trying to figure out how to permanently close an old or unused social media account? It can be a nightmare! Luckily, Account Killer understands our pain and has created instructions on how to delete any kind of account, from email, to social media, to cloud services.
Go ahead: clean up your internet presence. I promise it won’t take long.
5. Calculate the time between events
Okay, maybe this one isn’t useful on a regular basis, but when you do want to know the time between two dates, it can be a pain in the butt to figure it out manually. That’s where Time and Date’s date-to-date calculator comes in handy.
You just never know when you’ll need to know how long the Harry Potter movies were filmed, from the beginning of The Sorcerer’s Stone to the last day of The Deathly Hallows Part 2. (Note: it was 3,743 days, or 10 years and 3 months)
Time and Date also has tons of other useful time- and date-related information (go figure).
6. Typography for super nerds cool people
Typography is actually an important part of the internet, but highly underrated and overlooked by most people. Larry wrote a great article on typography basics recently, but if you want to dive deeper, you can check out Practical Typography and wow your boss and coworkers with your extensive knowledge.
7. Create customized cartoons
Sometimes finding the right image for a blog post can take almost as much time as writing the blog post itself. Sometimes you have the perfect commentary for a social media post but want to present it in a different way.
Insert your customized cartoon here. Strip Creator has made cartoon creation simple yet flexible enough to get your point across smoothly. They can be good for adding a plithy comment to your blog post or for drawing attention to yourself away from your website.
Once I created an account, it took me 5 minutes to create the cartoon at the top of this blog.
8. Get colorful
For those of us who don’t have a natural knack for design and color, this tool is perfect for you. Adobe Kuler helps you choose color schemes and shades, then gives you the RGB and Hex code for each color. I haven’t quite figured out all its uses yet, but the applications seem endless.
9. Put your content on Word Watchers
When was the last time you were reading a blog or article and noticed the writer over-uses a particlar word or phrase to the point of obnoxiousness? For me, it happens frequently. However, we can also fall prey to our go-to words and phrases without even realizing it.
WriteWords’ Word Frequency Counter can help us reduce the proliferation of overused words in our content by telling us exactly how many times we’ve used each word. For example, the most frequently used word in this blog post is the at 56 uses, but my most used less common word is time at only 10 uses. Not bad!
10. Brings your quotes to life
Marketers love a good quote. They justify what you’re saying, provide social proof, and add copy that you don’t have to take the time to write on your own. But quotes can become too commonplace and stop standing out. That’s when you put it into a new medium: an image.
There are thousands of those image quotes flooding pinterest and tumblr by the minute. And they get read. And shared. To make an image quote in less time than it takes to find the quote itself, use Quozio. It’s super fast and easy.
11. ¿ʇxǝʇ uʍop ǝpısdn
Admittedly, some of these websites are a little harder to find a practical use for. However, I’m sure every marketer, at some point, has thought I really wish I could turn this text upside down without fliddling with it for 10 minutes on Photoshop. Am I right? Of course I am. And lo, FlipText was born (or so I assume). ˙ɟןǝsʇı ɹoɟ sʞɐǝds ǝןʇıʇ ǝɥʇ ʇnq ɹǝɥʇɹnɟ ʇı uıɐןdxǝ pןnoʍ ı
12. Make ANY web page printer-friendly
If only I could get a refund on all the wasted pages of banner ads, CTAs, and other nonsense when all I want is a readable copy of the web page. I’d have a whole $5.
Anyways, PrintFriendly helps you turn any page into a…you guessed it…print-friendly format to skip the ads and wasted space and make the font large enough to comfortably read.
13. Become a Zen marketer
We all know things like meditation and relaxation can not only rejuvinate the mind and body, but can also inspire creativity, make our lives happier and our work easier. However, actually implementing that isn’t always so simple, and most people aren’t willing to through their current lifestyle on its head just to get some mental R&R.
That’s why Stephen Niedzwiecki, founder and CCO of creative agency YARD, recommends Lodro Rinzler’s book Walk Like A Buddha: Even if Your Boss Sucks, Your Ex Is Torturing You, and You’re Hungover Again.
It’s a contemporary look at how we can incorporate some Buddha practices without changing everything, and find some zen in the things that are really important to us.
14. Escape reality
These last two entries aren’t quite as tangibly helpful as the previous ones, but health and mental wellbeing are also significant to keep our busy lives from spinning to complete chaos.
For those times when you need to ‘check out’ for a few minutes and recooperate, put on some soothing music and watch the live video feed from the Space Station as it orbits earth. Just don’t think about the movie Gravity while you do it.
Do you have other websites or tools that you use to you git ‘r done? Let us know in the comments below!
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