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.

Former related articles(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7)

Or download the full report in this pdf white paper

25% Discount Coupon CODE Exclusive for Dragon Naturally Speaking, but you must click the image below and use this code (DNSMSBG) Together

Years ago, I first became a consultant after working in an environment for several years as an accountant.  The environment was such that the IT partners I had in several organizations including a Fortune five hundred company, as well as an startup company, both typically failed to find a way to an able the enterprise team comprised of the accounting, business and marketing, and logistics organizations, to work effectively with the IT team.

The IT team was unable to communicate in terms of the business problems that the enterprise teams were facing.  Those same enterprise teams were well versed in IT, and as a group would tend to dominate over the IT team.  We did this out of necessity to get things done in advance the company, but often times we neglected important messages from the IT team because they were unable to communicate with the enterprise team.

Our inability to communicate in a common language foiled us on more than one occasion.  This would always result in the enterprise team having to go to extraordinary manual processes to fix whatever was wrong.  We were able to evolve over time, but it was never an easy nor a clean process.

I’ve been investigating the technology by a company called Active Endpoints.  They create a technology solution called ActiveVOS.  I’m still learning how this technology works, but I will attempt to put it into layman’s terms.  I’m doing this because I find the technology and the solution extremely interesting and useful.

If I understand how it works correctly, the enterprise team such as an accounting group or business group or both working together, can map out a business process using Visio.  They can walk this process into ActiveVOS, which you can think of is a software program to conceptualize it right now.  It’s actually a little bit more than that, but just think software program for now.

Once you walk the process from Visio into ActiveVOS, you can then begin to build the actual system that will run that process.  The whole concept is based on business process execution language solutions.  It employs business process management techniques that enable the two different teams of the enterprise and IT to not only talk together in a common language, but work together in a common system.  That system being ActiveVOS, essentially a SOA Software development, design and improvement solution for Service Orientated Archictectures (SOA).   This enables enterprises and developers to:

1. Automate business processes
2. Collaborate across IT and business boundaries
3. Control the overall state of the business
4. Adapt rapidly and easily to change

Click Image to See Video Demo (about 9 minutes, gets good at about 4 minutes)

Now the thing that sold me on this concept, and made me very interested in this service solution, is a quick video demonstration that Active Endpoints provides.  In the presentation, they show you the simple diagram of a business process, and they walk you through the real world case study or example of a business that’s attempting to take a request for an estimate from a customer online, in turn that estimate into real-world action within a company, that generates an estimate using multiple contributors to have to create that estimate, and track the entire process.  In this particular example, they utilize not only the business’ website, but they also utilize Google docs as the engine behind the CRM system.

That aspect alone was enough to pique my interest in this particular tool.  Now, this is not necessarily a tool that you can flip on and start working with within a few minutes.  However they do offer a free thirty day trial, and you can test drive the program before you buy.  With that in mind, they have a very deep support system including many different training videos, and documents to help you figure out exactly what you need to do, and how you can do it.  If their educational section is lacking, you can also hire their services to come in and trained yourself or your team.  They can also help with the implementation of the system in this regards as consultants.

You can find more on this software and the Business Process Management philosophy and practice that drives it at their website ( www.activevos.com ) .

The company also manages a well orchestrated blog called Vosibilities or the ActiveVos Blog (www.vosibilities.com ).

For the last couple of weeks, I have been traveling the country from coast to coast. I started my recent journey by heading to Los Angeles. From there, I then traveled to Laughlin Nevada followed by Las Vegas Nevada. And then back home to Belmont North Carolina. This week I’ve been took another trip to Myrtle Beach South Carolina.

Through all this traveling, I’ve learned something about myself. I’ve learned something that’s changed about myself. I have learned how to traveling get work done.

In past years, whenever I would travel almost anywhere, I would have difficulty sleeping in hotels and it would be much less productive while I was on the road. These days, I have found a way to relax more and sleep better in hotels, and after much effort I’ve put together a set of tools that help me to be productive in a matter where it is that I might be working.

These tools include the following items:

• A Verizon wireless air card-this is become one of the keys to my success while I’m traveling very I’ve tried to play the game of picking up wi-fi hotspots wherever I might find them, but the hassle of having to set up an account or pay for service poll is stymied my efforts to rapidly get some work done while I had some battery life left in my laptop.
• A 3G wireless router-I don’t use this all the time when traveling, however when I use this in conjunction with my Verizon wireless air card, I can rapidly set up a WiFi network and help those around me to work efficiently as well which definitely helps my team efforts.
• The digital camera with about 8 GB of flash cards-as a writer and a blogger this is just essential, but all that extra flash card space makes it very easy for me to capture information whether it’s a good picture, or even a snapshot of an important document that I can’t lug around with me. When I attend conferences, they tend to load you down with a lot of garbage that you don’t need physically, but you do need the digital information that’s contained on top of all those printouts. So I snapped a picture of it and have it in my computer ready to go when I’m repaired to read.
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10-using this program not actually write this article, but for several reasons it is invaluable when I’m on the road. When I’m in the airport, I can plug my laptop in any given wall, set my laptop on the ground, plug in my headset and type away without having to keep things on my lap or crowded around me. This is fantastic when I need to read something, and take notes on it with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.
• A Sony voice recorder-when I don’t have time to get my laptop out, I can take voice notes and have been converted into text with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 after-the-fact. This is great for writing e-mails or even drafting articles or reports. It’s even good if he does have a good idea that you don’t want to miss a chance to document.
• A PayPal card-to heck with a pain in the neck American Express card that charges you a yearly fee so that you can accumulate points for airliners that are just about out of business and won’t let you redeem them when you want to, I’ll take my PayPal card any day of the week. PayPal operates in the easily understood business of cash. You get 1% cashback on all of your purchases, and you can easily download a spreadsheet version of your expenses whenever you like or even import those expenses directly into QuickBooks. It’s easy, it’s fast, and they give you cash back that you can actually spend.
• A portable Western Digital 320 GB hard drive-I have a large hard drive in my laptop, but I find these little bitty hard drives that connect to your computer via USB to be exceptionally handy, even more so than the little USB drives that I used to carry. I don’t have to constantly put things onto a USB drive and take him back off again. I just put everything on the portable hard drive and what I need to make a transfer it’s all right there ready to be transferred or copied.

These are the tools that have made it possible for me to be much more effective when traveling on the road. There’s one item on here that is probably a notable exception, and that any mention of a cell phone.

A cell phone is definitely essential, but I’m currently in between cell phones. I’m not one of those crazy people that doesn’t have a cell phone. I’m one of those people that had to give up their smart phone or a small little Nokia while I look for a replacement smart phone.

I used to be hooked on my Treo, but Verizon Wireless’s extremely poor service and even worse execution of configuring the Treo 700 P. to work on the Verizon wireless network as we me off the use of my smart phone of choice. Verizon wireless loaded down the trail was so much garbage software that the device barely took a phone call or record a voicemail let alone send or receive e-mail successfully or any of the other things the smartphone should be able to do.

So these days, I’m shopping around for new smart phone. I refuse to do business with AT&T so iPhone is out of the question. AT&T stole thousand dollars from a few years back and it just won’t do business with them ever again. Right now I have a cell plan through T-Mobile, which has been an excellent service provider for me over the years even though their network is now not as fast as some of their competitors. They are reliable and in my experience they have been very honest. These days I’ll choose honesty and reliability over speed, corruption, and terrible service.

So I’m looking for a good smartphone that will work on T-Mobile’s network. I think I might try the Nokia N95. I’ve been very impressed by the capabilities of this particular phone. It’s a little pricey, but if I can use it on the T-Mobile network it might just be the next tool to be added to my list above.

Now, all I need to do is find a way to beat my diet coke habit and learn how to exercise on a regular basis while I’m traveling.  If I could achieve those goals, I’d be very happy with my ability to travel well.  I don’t like packing extra exercise clothes and shoes, but it is a necessary evil.  I haven’t found a good way to get off Diet Coke either, even though I’ve tried about everything from green tea to bottled water.  I’ve even considered but not tried supplement drinks like Orovo and various vitamin and energy drinks, but they just seem like I’d be swapping the devil I know for the one I do not.

Regardless, I am happy that I have gotten better at getting things done on the road, and will start finding a way to get better in these new areas going forward.

I ran into a set back in the Website Upgrade about a week ago.  I was working to include a dynamic css menu system that would automatically update every time I added a page into my content management system.

I compared several different tools and pulled the trigger on CSS Menu Writer a Dreamweaver extension.

To make a long story short, the software did not do what I expected nor did it do much of anything the way I expected it to do it!

That said after essentially walking through one user issue after the next all week long, by the end of the week, I had figured out how the tool actually works, and I had conceived a way to achieve my goal anyway, even though the software isn’t actually designed to make things such as I wanted, easy.

Fortunately, I have some strengths in working with content management systems and databases, and so I was able to compensate for the software programs shortcomings and still use some of its capability to achieve the same result.  So now, I am back off to the races to work to finish migrating the site over into the new system and make up for the week I lost with the wisdom that I gained.

One of my primary goals is to have the new site up and tuned heavily before August when I will fly out to LA and Vegas for back to back conventions.  By the time those events come around, I want to insure that my website is reliable and make the least of my worries be the search for some good hotel deals.

Foonz is a new internet service that allows users to establish a free account.  From this Account you can setup a contact list with contacts, then whenever you like, you can call Foonz to start a group conference call. 

Foonz then sends out a message to everyone in you invite group.  They send messages via text messages or by email or even by instant messaging services.

The members of your group can then call in to the number provided in the Foonz message notification.  When they call in they are joined to the group call.

Sign up for free at the foonz web site

Foonz has separate agreements with existing phone companies that covers the expense of the call, which is how they receive funding and keep their service free to the end user.  Foonz has a policy of not sharing or using your personal information nor that of your contacts, other than the occasional promotion for a new Foonz service or upgrade.

Foonz does push for users to utilize their cell phones, which seems to work best with their system allowing for users to automatically log in as soon as they phone into the system to establish a new call.  This does not stop the service from being available from any phone you may wish to utilize. 

Foonz is available for service in the US and abroad as well, however text message notifications to people in the intended conference group will only be delivered to US based cell phones.  That won’t stop notifications through IM or email.

There are many services that will charge $50 a month or more for similar functionality plus the foonz service can rapidly allow users to establish a conference call rapidly at anytime with out having to schedule the conference online or through outlook.  The convenience is fast, friendly and definitely geared towards spontaneous conversations of groups, associates or even friends just catching up with each other or hoping on the phone after an online conversation.

Growthink has recently added some very useful web based tools on their new Business Planning Help Center section.  I’ve mapped out some of these tools which include their Start-Up Cost Calculator, Cash Flow Calulator, Discounted Cash Flow Calculator, and even a graphical Break Even Calculator. 

If you are looking for a little help in writing a business plan utilizing the tools below will help you develop a more comprehensive response within your plan.

They have also provided some excellent resources that include some sample business plans, a directory of of top venture capital and angel investor firms.  Plus they have a free Small Business class available and a calendar of key entreprenuerial events. 

I covered ViaTalk the other day and completely missed a pretty cool service they have called BrainCasting.

BrainCast is in beta and basically its an online voice messaging service.  However, its got the potential to do a lot more than just that.

How it Works

You sign up for a quick and free account, providing a phone number that is allowed to call in messages, and an email account that will be notified whenever a message is recieved.

You then recieve a toll free (866) number that you can plug into your cell phone and save as a contact.  You call the number and a voice mail beep clicks off right away and you record a voice message.

The message is then saved online with BrainCast at ViaTalk and you can access it through the internet to listen to it with a program like MediaPlayer.

You can also forward messages from the online storage to any email address.

I find this pretty cool.  I think I can even incorporate this into my upcoming Podcast shows.  I can record a thought while I’m out and about, and then convert the wav file later and edit into my show.  The sound quality is excellent.

If you are keeping track of a project in MindManager you can even link to the files with the voice notes, and essentially maintain a voice message with your mapped out project.

A good deal of VOIP hype centers around Skype and Vonage, but the truth is that there are many other providers that offer some very comprehensive packages at attractive prices and with extra solid service packages.

ViaTalk provides internet phone service at rates that start out at $10 per month to $200 year for service that starts off with 500 minutes of calls per month all the way up to unlimited calls and a large set of features.

These plans like their competitors cover calls in the US and in Canada and ViaTalk is currently offering a 6 month free service plan, which as of today (Nov 7) actually makes the plan more attractive than Skype’s free offer, which expires in 2 months at the end of the year.

They also offer broadband phone service plans for businesses with rates based on the term of contracts.  Contract time frames can be as short as 1 month or extend out 24 months with rates that run from $35/ month down to $30/month respectively.