Diary of a Mad Editor

Posts Tagged ‘software for writers’

Can Dragon Naturally Speaking Really Turn You into a More Productive Writer?

I don’t know any writers who use Dragon Naturally Speaking software but professional blogger and writer, Brett Bumeter, has produced a white paper and video explaining how using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 can increase your productivity (and profits):

This is an excerpt from a white paper discussing how bloggers can earn more money through several different monetization and freelance writing services. It shows that bloggers that utilize Dragon Naturally Speaking can earn more money through these various services and how fast these extra earnings will pay for the software itself.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Blogger break even analysis with TextBroker.com earnings I would like to walk you through several different scenarios to help all of us to better understand what our words are worth.

I would like to start first by talking about a company that pays people to write. They pay them to write based on the number of words that are written. The company is called text broker.com and they are out of Germany and relatively new. I’m starting with TextBroker.com because the business model is very simple. The models will get more complex as I go through some of the other popular blog revenue sources.

Text broker.com will pay a person approximately 7/10 of a cent for a single word. They charge their customers approximately 1 penny per word. And they sell this service at increments starting at 100 words and go up from there.

That’s what they do; now let’s see how Dragon Naturally Speaking can pay for itself!

So, I’d really like to talk about how much you can earn from them based on how fast you type. If you type 35 words per minute, and you typed for 50 minutes straight, you could theoretically type 1750 words.

Now at seven tenths of a penny per word, that work would be $12.25 per hour assuming that you take a ten minute break every hour. If you work four hours a day doing this, that would be forty-nine dollars per day.

If you could type 105 words per minute, that would be 5250 words in a fifty minute period of time. At that rate, you would earn $36.75 per hour assuming the same ten minute breaks every hour.

Obviously you can earn more if you can type faster.

If you could type 150 words per minute, then under this formula you could earn $52.50 per hour. That’s almost 5 times more than you can earn if you type thirty-five words per hour. So in this example there is definitely a value in typing faster!

There is a cost associated with being able to type as fast as well. You could go and take a typing class and learn how to type 150 words per minute. That might take you many months of school, and many years of practice.

It’s also possible, that you may never be able to achieve that speed with your fingers. Alternatively, you could buy Dragon Naturally Speaking and be able to do it before the night was out. Dragon Naturally Speaking costs $99 for the basic version and $199 for the preferred version.

As I write this, there are coupon code or discount code offers that you can use to save more money off that price. The coupon codes vary from $25-$50 off the price. Typically a bigger discount is offered for the preferred version, which I use myself.

Now in our example, if you bought Dragon Naturally Speaking for ninety-nine dollars, and you did not use the coupon code to save twenty-five dollars, you would be able type 150 words per minute, and if you could previously type 35 words per minute, then based on the extra money that you could earn by typing faster, you would be able to pay for Dragon Naturally Speaking in less than three hours of work using textbroker.com.

It kind of seems like a no-brainer. In many ways, it is a no-brainer with one exception. Not everybody writes for textbroker.com.

If you consider how much additional money you might earn by using Dragon Naturally Speaking, and consider how much more work you could do by being able to type at 150 words per minute, then you might be able to figure out how long it will take you to pay off the software with your earnings. I will cover a number of other situations, which will highlight this using other examples where people that typically write a great deal, could benefit from using Dragon Naturally Speaking.

If you have an example that you would like to share, please let me know, and I will be more than happy to share it with everyone.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me say that I am not endorsing this product since I have not personally used it. The above text and video are provided for informational purposes only. However, if you found the information useful and would like to purchase Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, Nuance is currently offering my readers a special discount coupon for 25% off Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard. Please note, however, that you must click the image below and use this code: (DNSMSBG) together as the code will not work from other sources.

Get Dragon Naturally Speaking using Discount code DNSMBG

10 Best Free Stuff for Writers

If you’re like me, you like your toys. For me that’s my computers and other gadgets that make my life — especially my writing life more manageable. Here’s some of the best free tools available online — some you may have used yourself or have heard of before and some you may not be aware of:

Stickies is a neat little program gives you access to virtual “Post-it” notes that you can use to collect odd bits of information. I use this one all the time.

Celtx is a free screenwriting program that also formats stories for stage plays, radio/TV scripts, and graphic novels. Pre-production and storyboarding features are also available. Why spend hundreds of dollars on similar programs?

HTML Kit is a powerful, easy-to-use text editor for web designers.

Keynote is a flexible, mult-featured tabbed virtual notebook that will help you keep your writing projects organized and on track. You’ll never use pen and paper again!

Instant Press Release is not software, but a free resource that allows you to create a press release to help you promote your book, book signing, or poetry reading.

Sonar is a nifty little program that makes tracking manuscript submissions a snap. And if you’re like me — a master of “submit and forget,” you need all the help you can get!

Wordweb is a one-click English thesaurus and dictionary that can look up words in almost any program, but also works offline and online in reference sites on the web.

StorYBook is an open source story writing program for novelists and authors of all types.

yWriter is another novel writing wordprocessor. Quite popular with many writers.

Scribefire is a blog editing program that allows you to blog any webpage through Mozilla Firefox Internet browser and post it to your own blog.