The life of a freelance copywriter can be a mixed bag. One day you’re getting down and dirty SEO copywriting, the next a ghost blog, a newsletter, a sales letter or web copywriting project – all in the name of helping people make happy decisions.

It’s the way I like it, and if you asked any freelance copywriter they’d probably tell you that it’s the variety, the range of subject matter, the breadth of research plus the application of their own insight and experiences that keeps freelance copywriting interesting.

I’m just coming down from finishing a major project alongside the wonderful Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdóttir, Managing Director of Iceland Music Export – lots of interviews with the great and the good of the Nordic Music Industry – for example Olarfur Arnalds – playing 1st July at Bridgewater Hall Manchester. Freelance copywriter heaven as far as I’m concerned.

The report, on behalf of the Nordic music export offices will hopefully lead to funding enabling them to work closer together and market their acts internationally with even greater success than they do already. Think Sigur Ros, Bjork, Efterklang, Kings of Convenience, Múm.

Well anyway…. I just wanted to share a great piece of software that I happened across that proved really useful.

It’s called G-Recorder and records Skype conversations. They are stored locally but also emailed to your Gmail account as mp3 files. It’s a really tidy piece of kit especially if you’re doing interviews. Highly recommended. Unfortunately the more recordings you make the more work needs transcribing (oh for a magical voice recognition silver bullet that would just instantly turn audio into docs – if anyone knows of anything good please do share).

TurnerInk tweeted recently about her passion for Evernote as a method for collecting and collating ideas. I love Delicious and make a point of tagging and book marking any half interesting page I come across for future use.

What are your essential tools or apps? The kind of easy low/no learning curve tool that you find genuinely useful. Flickr for Creative Commons images? Google Reader for RSS? I like Posterous too as a nice easy outpost blog . Google Insights as keyword inspiration? And of course there’s Twitter. In effect a 24/7 stream of comment, ideas and links to content as relevant an you want it to be. There’s Stumbleupon too which I love stumbling through and finding fresh sites and fresh inspiration.

We pick things up all the time. Play a little.  Too complicated, too much hassle, no good, then they get dropped. What’s stuck for you?

What are your favourite copywriting tools? Software that makes you more productive and your life as a copywriter or content strategist genuinely easier?

Thanks to Tashland for the image