In online marketing, content is EVERYTHING. Especially when it comes to creating it, the funnier, more relevant, more useful and more emotionally appealing content you can create, the better.

(image source: http://www.undergroundmarketing.co.uk/inbound-marketing-vs-outbound-marketing/)

However, despite being floded with images, photos, videos, mash-ups and the like, it is often hard to find the best content creation websites when you, as a communicator, a policy expert, an inbound marketer, or a simple concerned citizen wish to create something useful for your community.

As a marketer (ie: all of us selling ‘ideas that stick’), here is a 4-step plan:

1) Find us (creative content creation in all forms – tons of new knowledge, tips, tricks, videos, infographics, plus SEO, PPC, business partnerships and other)

2) Convert visitors (use A/B testing, conduct usability studies, check your website design, add new products/services, add confidence boosting elements, revive passive users and free users, improve conversion rates in checkout, upsell, cross-sell, nurture leads)

3) Retain (live chat, great customer service, user satisfaction survey, ask for feedback, add product improvements, provide exclusive content/services/upgrade/gift for loyal and power users)

4) Re-sell (recommend us, bring referrals, bring a friend, upgrade, analyse patterns: if x user bought y product will she buy z product too?, provide flash deals)

When it comes to the 1st step, that is often the hardest: gain the attention.

So here are my favorite tools to create posters, images and useful content for your website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, Pinterest page or other – also for future reference (I will be updating the list every once in a while):

Infographic maker: http://www.piktochart.com
Diagram and charts maker: http://app.cheezburger.com/FlashBuilder/GraphJam
Animated video maker:  http://www.goanimate.com
And another one: http://www.xtranormal.com/
Cartoon maker (easy & fun): http://www.cambridgeenglishonline.com/Cartoon_Maker/CM/
E-card maker with funny captions: http://www.someecards.com/
Interactive speaking avatars: http://www.sitepal.com/
A novel way of presenting slides (a fellow Hungarian company): http://www.prezi.com
Church, Uncle Sam and other funny poster maker: http://www.says-it.com/
Einstein at the blackboard poster maker: http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php
Uncle Sam poster maker: http://www.hetemeel.com/unclesamform.php
Dictionary entry image maker: http://www.hetemeel.com/dictionaryform.php
Bus poster image maker: http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/
Fake iPhone text message image creator: http://www.fakeiphonetext.com/
Fake Facebook conversation image maker: http://www.snaphow.com/4861/create-fake-facebook-comments-twitter-conversation-iphone-sms-text
Keep-Calm-o-Matic poster maker: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/
VideoScribe maker: http://www.sparkol.com/home.php
Tag cloud maker: http://www.wordle.net/

Share all your visual content and PDFs on http://www.slidershare.com and http://www.scribd.com

…and the ultimate content marketing chart (from here):

…any other websites or tools you would recommend?

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