Computer Chit Chat

Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

In February Entrecard announced two big changes. The first was the opening of the Entrecard Marketplace. All Entrecard members are sellers and it is free to create listings. Members have the ability to sell products and services and they do not have to be blogging related. Payment is made with Entrecard credits using an escrow system. The second big change was the inclusion of popular social networks within member profiles, to facilitate interaction between members.

• Entrecard Credits News
• Entrecard
• Amplify your feedback with Wagwire

I have known about the software named Dragon Naturally Speaking for many years. When I was in computer sales I sold more than a few copies. Never having used it, I thought that what it did was type what you say. I didn’t know until I saw the below video, which was made by a fellow blogger named Brett, that Dragon can also transcribe recordings.

How cool is that! Brett’s also shared some information on how Dragon will quickly pay for itself, part of which I’ve shared below.

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 understand better 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 NaturallySpeaking and be able to do it before the night was out. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 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 NaturallySpeaking 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 NaturallySpeaking 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 NaturallySpeaking, 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 NaturallySpeaking.
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.

Nuance is allowing us to offer our readers a 25% Discount Coupon CODE Exclusive for Dragon Naturally Speaking, but you must click the image below and use this code (DNSMSBG) Together. Code will not work from other sources.

Get Dragon Naturally Speaking using Discount code DNSMBG. You can get 25% off Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred.

If you’re interested in reading the rest of the white paper, it’s available at http://www.softduit.com/mavenmappersinformation/category/software/dragon-naturally-speaking/

Thanks Brett, for the terrific info and letting me share it! I found the video and white paper very interesting and informative, and it gave me food for thought. I plan on picking up Dragon for myself after my next computer upgrade.

This post sponsored by Nuance.

• Work smarter and healthier with Dragon
• The cost of software
• OIO Publisher on sale for $20

On October 30 Blogrush members received an email that the service was shutting down. When Blogrush started a year ago many bloggers, myself included, had hoped that by placing the widget on our blogs traffic would increase. The widget would offer blog post headlines, which in theory would tempt site visitors to click on them to read the accompanying story. It was free to join so it only made sense to give it a try. I received almost no hits at all from the servicce, from the time I placed the widget on my blog until last week when I removed it.

• Skribit
• Add This - How to add social bookmarking options to your post
• Blogatiser social bookmarking

Wagwire allows visitors to your site to leave audio messages just by clicking a button. It’s free to create an account. It’s easy to make the button for your site and all you need to do to install it is copy and paste the code. Wagwire can be installed on blogs, websites and social network profiles.

• Feedjit
• Entrecard Marketplace and Social Media Integration
• How to install Wordpress using cpanel 11 on your own domain

I hate when I hit a site, particularly my own, and I see that message that tells me the wp mysql has gone away. Where has it gone? Obviously it doesn’t leave the server. Why does it come back? Really though, I’m only kidding. I don’t know the super technical aspect of it but if I understand what I’ve read apparently it happens when queries to the MySQL server don’t reopen a previously established connection. I just wanted to see if it bugged anyone else besides me?

• Bloggers Choice Awards nominations
• Journyx, free time and expense management software
• Blog comment policies

At the end of June Entrecard announced that it would be offering a weekly comment rush. Each week a different blog will be highlighted on the Entrecard blog. One post will be selected and the Entrecard community would be invited to visit the post with the hopes that they would leave a comment on that blog. What a terrific idea! It’s sort of like a carnival of comments in reverse, if you know what I mean. I wonder how one’s blog gets chosen?

• Entrecard Credits News
• Blog comment policies
• Who sez your comments

Entrecard announced that it’s partnering with Sez Who. Just log in to your Entrecard dashboard to register for SezWho. Then install the plugin on your blog and activate. That’s it. Now when people leave a comment on one of your posts a link saying Who am I will appear by their name. If you hover over it a box opens showing the comment author’s website, blog, an about blurb and their most recent comments. Entrecard droppers will be able to search for blogs with Sez Who enabled, and will receive credits for commenting.

• Entrecard Credits News
• Entrecard Marketplace and Social Media Integration
• Entrecard Comment Rush

Ever searched for something on a blog and didn’t find it? It’s awful to see that 404 message and not have anywhere to go from there. Have you tested your blog’s 404 page? Try testing it out by trying to go to yourblog.com/testpage or some other page you know isn’t there. If you only see Not found go into your dashboard now and get to work. It only takes a few minutes to customize a 404 page and it might keep someone on your sight longer. You can include a number of things on your 404 page including categories and monthly archives, a listing of all your pages and an offer to subscribe to your feed. So rather than seeing “page not found” a visitor could now see something like ” the page you requested wasn’t found but feel free to browse the pages listed below for what you’re looking for”.

To customize your Wordpress 404 page, log in to your dashboard and click on presentation. Click on Theme Editor and then click on the 404 Template link on your right. Find the message you just saw when you tested your 404 page and replace it with a customized message. You can even include the php code to show your categories, pages and archives. Click update and you’re finished. As always, go one step at a time and test, that way if there’s a problem you can undo your last step. And always backup your files.

• How to clean up your blog archives
• How to add your Home page to your sidebar
• How to install a Wordpress plugin

I just heard of a new blog widget called Skribit. Skribit is an application that allows people to make suggestions on things they’d like to see you write about. Once you’ve signed up for a Skribit account you need to configure and install the customizable Skribit widget on your blog. Once the widget is installed your blog readers can suggest topics, ask questions and find other blogs to read with similar subject matter. The widget can be configured so that users must be logged in to Skribit to leave a suggestion or so that anyone can leave a suggestion anonymously. Readers are able to vote on others suggestions. Bloggers logged in to their Skribit account page can see what suggestions have been left, who left them and how many votes suggestions have received.

I can see where Skribit would be great for some blogs. I don’t think it’s a good match for me. I have a contact form in place and I don’t really want to have to deal with logging in to yet another site. I also would not leave comments on anonymous, which mean my readers would need to log in to use it and I won’t ask readers to log in to something. Are you using Skribit? How do you like it?

• Add This - How to add social bookmarking options to your post
• Blogrush shut down
• Scratchback. Are you in my top spots?

I received an email a couple of weeks ago promoting a new site called Blogatiser. I finally checked it out yesterday, and here’s the story. Blogatiser allows members to submit articles they’ve written. Other members can vote on the articles. The more votes an article gets the higher it rises in visibility on the site, sending the author more traffic. Right now only seven votes are needed to get onto the front page. Yes, I know you’re thinking that it sounds like Digg. Here’s how it’s different than Digg. Blogatiser is a revenue sharing website, sharing 75% of Adsense revenue with its members. Also, Blogatiser is do follow, that is to say that it does not use redirects for your links so get free back links.

• 6 tips to getting your new blog indexed quickly in search engines
• Entrecard Marketplace and Social Media Integration
• Spock