2 Programs to help you become a more productive blogger

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Photo by: Toufeeq

Recently a really big focus I’ve been getting from bloggers has been productivity (productivity blogging) – how to increase your own productivity for your blog and become a better blogger.  So, I’ve been constantly on the look out for items (books, ebooks, software and ‘things’) to help me become a more productive blogger.  With the objectives that I set myself for my online portfolio, I really needed to look at a few tools that would help me cut down two crucial areas that I do spend a lot of time on:

Reading blogs and ebooks

Writing blog posts and articles

I needed one or two tools that would solve the two issues that I had above, so that I could read and consume content at a faster rate and another (or the same tool) to help me type articles and blog posts a hell of a lot quicker than what I’m currently doing – I really am a slow typer, a two fingered drone at the keyboard type, who has numerous mistakes in their written copy and has a mind that thinks ten times faster than what my measly two fingers can type out!  I also needed a tool that would help me read blog posts and ebooks (more the latter), so that I didn’t spend hours on end reading content and then trying to process the information.  I’m the type of person that really doesn’t like to stand around and wait for the information to be given to me – I reach out and grab it and I love to read, sometimes a little too much.

How to read quicker than your old English Teacher

So, I came across a lot of different programs that would tell me I could increase this and that by doing various techniques – using a ruler when I read and printing out the copy and following it could be much quicker.  I already knew how to do this and I really didn’t think doing either of these two processes actually meant I was reading any quicker – I’d also already had some experience of this when I had been reading for my dissertations during my first and masters degree.  I admit that at the best of time I am a slow reader, I like to consume the meaning of the writing and not just get the meaning of the story – example: I still remember the story (in depth) of one of the first ‘adult’ books I read (runaway jury by John Grisham) I loved it and it took me an age to read.  It wasn’t because I spent little time reading the book, or I wasn’t interested in the story, but that I am such a slow reader.  Also, I remember becoming annoyed with myself when I would read journal articles and ebooks online during my degree, so, I was really happy when I was pointed to a resource that increased the amount that I could actually read in a specific amount of time – speed me up Scotty, wahoo!

RapidReader is software that you load onto your computer and drop in a pdf report, your email client, and even webpages – it helps you to increase the speed you read a page or email.  I tested the program out a couple of weeks ago and after the demo I really didn’t mind parting with the $50 – not because it was so low, but that I thought about how I could leverage the time I was reducing by reading faster, to the time that I could produce more content for my blogs and sites online.  The program is simple yet complex, plus the tutorial is kind of funny – it’s just like you are actually reading pages of content, but the words are coming at you individually, one-by-one, so fast that you don’t think you can cope with it, but you can!  I would really check it out if I was you.

Typing faster than a Road-Runner Secretary

If you’re like me you’ll be typing your blog posts and websites visit in the browser bar with two digits – it seems slow at first when I see other people producing a crazy amount of posts and articles on the web and I’ve always been interested how I could type a bazillion times faster like a secretary on crack.  No, I really do mean it, typing faster means that I can produce a lot more content (for this blog and others), thus allowing me to have more time for other tasks – mainly marketing and promotion.  Well, if I’m a whizz at publishing all this great content to numerous sites I’d be a little silly if I didn’t let people know about them wouldn’t ?

I’ve always been interested in how fast I can write an article, why?  Well, during my university life I was a little lazy, I used to research all the material for a project and then leave the essay until the night before handing it in (I know not well organised, what what student is?).  I would have about 12 hours to write a 3,000 word essay and it was really tuff, if I could have even typed at twice the speed I was doing, then I could complete the work in half the time couldn’t I?  This got me thinking the other week when I was reflecting how different my life was a few years later from when I was at university. 

I decided only last week to take a look around a few blogs to see if they had any hints on using a program to help them become a faster typer.  Ed Dale, over at the thirty day challenge – which I would suggest you take a trip over to as it is fab and has taught me a lot over the last 6 months.  Ed produced a blog post on how he was getting one of his daughters set up for high school.  He mentioned that he researched and asked around about how to type faster – the ironic thing is he was researching a topic of ‘free speed reading’ for the thirty day challenge back in August.  He pointed me to a resource called Mavis Beacon teaches touch typing – the program is simple but effective and it cost me £10 ($20).  I took a little look around and it is similarly priced on amazon.com and other sites – you’re probably going to want to purchase this product because it has already surprised me, and I’ve only just begun.  Hopefully I’ll be producing a lot of articles and blog posts a lot faster now, which will help me drive traffic to this and other blogs (and hopefully convert readers).  I might even have a chance at getting a few of my ebook ideas that I’ve started to sketch out, you just never know!

So, there you have it.  A few tools that I believe no one should do without, especially if you’re a blogger, writer or even a web publisher – I might go into them both a little more in later posts, but for now I urge you to not go out for that meal on Saturday and buy these two tools.  They do cost a little bit of money, but for $60 I think it is money well spent and will increase both my own and your productivity in the future – here’s to productivity blogging!

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