As you are probably starting to notice, using different tools can really impact your productivity. Speed Writing isn't just about how fast you can type, it's also about the many technical aides that are available now due to the power of modern electronics. Yes, many of them cost money to get, but they also end up being a great investment that can pay you back by freeing up additional time, and some will even help maintain your sanity and health too as you start to mass produce articles for the Internet.
So, without delay, let's get started discussing the great products out there that can boost your productivity into the stratosphere!
Once you start to type article after article, maybe an e-book in between, you might start feeling the beginning symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. This is a very serious disorder that affects the tendons in your hands and can cause a great deal of pain. It can keep you off the keyboard for long periods of time too! So, getting a program that saves your wrists while it increases your writing speed is really a great investment for you as a content developer.
This program, Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, is a godsend for Internet marketers who may have a good idea of what they want to say, but have very poor typing skills. It allows them to speak and have the program type the spoken words into a word processor for you. It may take a while to get used to, but the newer version has about a 99% accuracy rate. You will still need to proofread your work before you send it, but generally that makes it even easier to do. If you type something, you will notice that reading it over for grammatical errors is harder for the writer, and that's why people generally hand off their work to others to proofread. But, if you speak the words, you're eyes will see the words as new and won't be as likely to filter out the mistakes when you proofread.
If you can't imagine how much this program can speed up your writing, think about this. Nuance.com, the makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, estimate that people typically type less than 40 words per minute, but can speak up to 120 words per minute. That's three times faster! So, if you get into the hang of using this program, you will have the potential to be three times faster than normal!
Now, that isn't the only benefit you get with Dragon Naturally Speaking 10. You can also search the web much quicker by using web commands to do your surfing. In fact, you can even create word commands that allow you to insert blocks of texts or images into your documents. This is particularly effective for inserting signatures. The program isn't just used with Microsoft Word. You can also use it with Outlook, Excel, Corel, and WordPerfect. There is even an option to use a hand held device when you're not near the PC to later use with Dragon Naturally Speaking to insert into your documents. It is also compatible with a nuance-approved Bluetooth headsets.
The program is pricey at $199 plus shipping and handling fees. But, it is a software program that is guaranteed to save your wrists and speed up your writing with dramatic effects. Please see the resource section to find a link to this product which is available at http://www.nuance.com .
Another great program that isn't nearly so expensive. The Visual Thesaurus, available at http://www.visualthesaurus.com , generates a blossom of related word branches from a single word that you put into it. As you see them visually, you can also drill down by clicking on any word in that layout. This is great for brainstorming word lists. It is based on a monthly or a yearly subscription of $2.95 per month or $19.95 per year.
This little online tool can help you generate your power words much more quickly. This will help you build customized word lists on any topic that you can imagine or think up. What's even nicer is that this tool is based on a community concept. If you want to look up other people's word lists, you can! That can save you enormous amounts of time creating power word lists. It comes with over 145,000 English words with 115,000 associated meanings. You can even use this tool with several different languages: Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, and French.
We talked briefly about this tool in Chapter 2. It is used in our system to create brainstorming sessions that not only increase the speed with which you do steps two and three, structure and research. This program retails for $349, but is well worth it. You can not only map your ideas, but you can also write your articles within the mind mapping program. You can go across more than one page and see everything at once. It's a great way to create outlines that include all your relevant research notes too as each of the branches allows you to inserts notes. You can include links to website URLs, insert images, spreadsheets, and other types of research information that can be helpful when writing the articles. After you're done you can export it to Word and finalize your copy there.
This is another mind mapping program, but it costs much less: $69. You can do about the same things you would do in MindManager, except for generating a table of contents. These programs are great for representing your brainstorming ideas visually, and Inspiration comes with a symbols library.
Inspiration comes with 65 different templates that can help you jumpstart your projects. Another 60 templates are available from other sites. So, if you're not sure how to get started doing a mind map, you can open one of the templates and let it guide you through a sample one. It will give you an idea of how to organize your ideas and thinking.
A good mind map will help you to visualize the inter-relationship of various aspects of your research and ideas. It will help you to organize your thoughts and even use it to create articles that have a sound structure. Then, you can export it to Microsoft Word to finalize the articles there.
Adjective: A power word descriptive word.
Person 1: The person that the article is geared towards.
Person 2: Another person that the article can be geared towards. The Action: Describes what Person 1 might do, in verb format.
The Action 2: Another verb, this one with a “ing” ending. Thing: This is a noun that relates to Person 1.
Thing 2: Another noun.
Place: A place that might be involved in the topic.
Place 2: Another place that might be involved in the topic. Industry: The type of business this refers to.
Problem: A brief problem statement, typically three to four words.
After you add the words you want, Rack And Write will generate some example titles. Not all of them will make sense, but it's a great way to develop titles easily and quickly.
This browser has some advantages over Internet Explorer. It is free to download, and you can use the tabbed pages features to keep multiple windows open without opening another instance of the browser. This keeps more memory free and allows you to zoom along and not lose your place as your opening articles that you might be interested in reading. You can get a free copy of Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.com .
This product is very much like Microsoft Office, except it is open source and thus available for free to download. It takes much less space in memory, but it doesn't have all the nice features of Microsoft Office. However, if you just need a good word processor that can convert to Word when done, this is the ticket for you. Updates are free, unlike updates for Office and that saves you quite a bit of money in the long run. You can get a free copy of OpenOffice here: http://www.openoffice.org .