3 FREE Online Tools for Your Digital Marketing Side-Hustle

If you’d like to see the content I’ve been creating, here’s my Pinterest.

A digital marketing or affiliate marketing side hustle requires much more effort than what many affiliates advertise.

Have you seen Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or TikToks with people saying something like, “I started doing X three months ago and was able to make Y amount of money and quit my job. If you started doing the same, you’d be able to also quit your job, but you keep scrolling.”

These posts are not necessarily misleading per se but somewhat unrealistic about the work, time, and effort most affiliate marketers put into their side hustles to make the amount of money that indeed allows them to say goodbye to their boss.

Learning as you go is the best method to figure out what works for you. Good old trial and error is a great teacher.

But let’s get to the point.

I’ve used these three tools to learn how to make money online. Each of them falls into different categories.

The first is education, the second is design, and the third is language grammar.

And without further ado, here are the three free online tools I’ve used to create and improve my content.

1. Alison

I don’t know why we don’t hear of FREE learning platforms and courses more often.

I got lucky when I stumbled upon this website, and let me tell you. So far, I have found courses in various fields. From SEO basics to Forensic Accounting to Parenting Skills.

The list of topics is endless.

Alison.com is an excellent way to expand your knowledge and access free quality learning content and education!

By the way, this is not sponsored. This is a tool that I found online, and I want to share it with you because it’s tough to find quality education content at no cost.

Currently, I’m taking a course on the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

This is a trending topic, especially for freelancers, affiliate marketers, and anyone who makes or wants to make money online.

I want to add this to my list of skills to grow my income.

2. Canva

Do I need to say anything about this one?

Canva is amazing! I could stop here because I’m sure many of you have used the platform at least once.

For those who may not know, Canva.com is a free (and paid) online designing tool.

It allows you to create content, from Instagram reels to Pinterest Pins to presentations, short videos, etc.

It’s got stock-free and paid images and videos that you can use to create whatever content you want.

I use it daily to spruce up my Pinterest Pins, and I love it.

It’s very straightforward, and the editing process is simple, in my opinion.

One of my favorite aspects of Canva is that it allows access to a lot of free templates and add-ons.

This is hard to find.

I’ve searched designing tool alternatives for Canva, and even though they say they are free, as soon as I try to download or share a design I’ve created, they won’t allow me to do it unless I purchase a subscription.

I highly recommend Canva if you want to make quality designs at no cost.

If you want access to other tools, you can pay for Canva Pro, but if their free templates are good enough (they are for me), keep rocking with it.

3. Grammarly

This is another popular online tool that I don’t think I need to say much about. But I will anyways because I like it and use it so darn much.

And there may be a person or two that may come across this blog and not know what Grammarly is.

Grammarly is a free and paid online writing tool that helps you create quality written content.

I’m currently using Grammarly Pro (the paid version, which I’m sure you got by the word Pro) to edit this blog.

I’ve also used it for countless other blogs I’ve written and freelancing projects I’ve worked on.

I used the free version for a long time until I started freelancing as a writer. Until then, it was a great free tool to double-check my spelling and sentence structure, among other grammar rules.

Like Canva, I really like and recommend Grammarly because you can get so much out of the free version.

It’s simple to use — you write your sentence and let Grammarly’s AI check it.

You can also use it as a plugin on your computer or laptop, so anything you type out automatically gets spell checked. It’s pretty awesome.

The tool goes over my entire draft when I write a blog on Medium or any other platform. It lets me know of better sentence structures I could use, spell checks, and offers synonym options to improve my paragraphs, all without the need to leave the website I’m on.

So if you want to ensure you’re writing quality blogs and articles with good grammar, Grammarly is the tool you should use.

And there you have it. Alison, Canva, and Grammarly are three free online tools that you can use to improve your content.

As I said earlier, none of the links posted are sponsored or affiliated. I wanted to share with you some resources to help you get started on your affiliate and digital marketing journey at no initial cost.

Tell me, what other free online tools do you know of that help you create quality content?