You like to talk and while you have writer's block, you never seem to have talking block. You think like lightning and words are always available. The alternatives to talking are slow in comparison and include writing, typing, sign language, and morse code. You look at a keyboard and say "no thanks" (But the smart phone looks very appealing.)
Since the average human hand-writes at 31 words per minute for memorized text and 22 words per minute while copying, writing is out of the question. Much too slow.
An average professional typist types usually in speeds of 50 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm.
If you are not a professional typist, you may feel like a slug with 30 to 40 words per minute.
The range that people comfortably hear and vocalize words is about 150–160 words per minute. That's you and much faster than typing out words. (If you are an auctioneer, you will top 250 words per minute)
If you hope to be the world's fastest talker, you will have to be much quicker than both John Moschitta, Jr., who was listed in Guinness World Records for a time as the world's fastest speaker, being able to talk at 586 wpm. He has since been surpassed by Steve Woodmore, who achieved a rate of 637 wpm. (More than 10 words per second)
We are in a new world of media where everyone is a potential publisher. Since data shows that 51% of web traffic is via search, anyone in business will find it beneficial to have written content on website pages.
If you can't type fast, love to talk... here is another solution.
Hire someone to transcribe the audio for you
There are many online services where people will transcribe audio for you for between a dollar and two dollars per minute. You can also find professional transcribers on Linkedin or hire college students to do it for you.
Check out Speechpad.
Speechpad offers a Video SEO Transcription option. Once you sign up (it’s free), you can upload your video files or provide links to them from the web. They will email you the cost of each transcription ($1.00 per minute) and you can approve or decline the audio transcription for each video. This saves you the time of separating the audio files from video.
Pros:
- This is the best way to save time by delegating to an audio transcription firm.
- Can be cost effective if you have short videos to transcribe.
Cons:
- It costs a little more for fast turnaround.
- It could be expensive if you too many long videos, (such as webinars) to transcribe.
Use a software based tool
There are many new software packages available to automatically translate speech to text. The Nuance brand of dictation software, which includes the popular Dragon package is most popular.
Turn Talk into Text with Nuance on Amazon here
If you’re on a Mac, you can use MacSpeech Scribe, which allows you to upload re-recorded files. They also offer a medical and legal versions which offers more accurate technical transcriptions.
If you want to learn about how Nuance software works, watch this video:
MacSpeech Scribe is very popular and has a reputation to be effective. The technology continues to evolve and improve.
Pros:
- One time cost for a software package vs paying for transcription services each time.
Cons:
- It is still necessary to transcribe the audio yourself.
- The software needs to be trained before it can be used – this takes time.
- The software works only for single-speaker audio sources. The software will have difficulty with interview style audio.
- Speech recognition software is a viable option but there are still people who find the experience frustrating.
Windows 7 has speech to text dictation. Did you know?
You can use your voice to dictate text to your computer. For example, you can dictate text to fill out online forms; or you can dictate text to a word-processing program, such as WordPad, to type a letter.
Dictating text
When you speak into the microphone, Windows Speech Recognition converts your spoken words into text that appears on your screen.
To dictate text
- Open Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Windows Speech Recognition.
- Say "start listening" or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.
- Open the program you want to use or select the text box you want to dictate text into.
- Say the text that you want dictate.
Keep talking, use software or hire someone to transcribe your audio (or video) into text and share your excellent content to get found.
