I came across an excellent resource providing information on 100 different online resources and tools for freelancers.

I wanted to internalize the information in a way that I could rapidly work with in multiple settings in the future if I ever needed to find the right tool for the job. So of course I mindmapped out the tools listed, plus I added in the tools suggested in the comments and I added a bunch of my own.

Now I have a great starting point for the future whenever I need to build up the list or find something I need quickly. I linked back to the original article from my MindMap Central topic and I created sub maps for each of the categories identified. This kept each category of items viewable at a single glance.

I’ve provided snapshots of these maps below. For more details about each of the tools I suggest a quick visit over to the site yourself as it really does have a great deal of information.

In the meantime, I did this experiment in part to internalize the info as I mentioned, but also in part to find a more rapid way of mindmapping this type of information from primary sources on the web. I hope to find more efficient ways to achieve this goal in the future.

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If Google is banishing your content to the “supplemental index” gulag you might just have this problem … and need this solution!
Great article.

Each time I consider this problem I keep thinking that we are fixing something that isn’t broken. Google is the problem here not the website owners. Google is essentially missing important information on the web that their google bots have mistakenly dumped into a supplemental file (reminds me of a ‘I will file it later stack that never gets filed’).

If Google doesn’t get around to getting a better grip on this, their search engine results will continue to degrade and eventually the market will offer up some company that can do the job more effectively (again).

It would also seem that Google already has some of the technology to deal with this scenario present in Google News. Instead of penalizing a site for perceived duplicate content, Google should offer up an alternative option with these listings with a link in their results like ‘All 1,534 Pages of similar content’.

If I am searching the web and I find the version of content that Google deems to be correct, its possible and often likely that Google is wrong. I’d much rather have the ability to drill into a look up of other sites with similar content and find the source (possibly the primary source that isn’t as search engine friendly).

From a webmaster’s perspective this is a great article, from a web researcher’s perspective it shows the failing of Google to get things right and opens the door for competition. Isn’t it about time someone knocked off the king of the hill for search? Its been a few years now. . .

read more | digg story

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The LinkyLoveArmy.com is launching a beta program this week.  Today, they released several insights into their Internet marketing 2.0 of strategies.  They are forming an army of bloggers to leverage the numbers of bloggers and blog campaigns in the direction and shape reminiscent of a wedge formation.

You lazy this type of structure they hope to penetrate advertising campaigns and in particular keyword searches that generates large amounts of traffic such that the bloggers can directly market to business-to-business and business-to-customer groups.

Up until this point in time, those Internet marketing 2.0 firms have offered up a bit of a free-for-all where advertisers come to purchase reviews with contextual links inside of his and bloggers respond acting as individuals in the marketplace offering up individual benefits.  The LinkyLoveArmy hopes to organize those bloggers with a much more focused strategic objective and at the same time harness a new revenue model for bloggers yielding a higher return on effort.

Here is a short video that they are offering on their website today:

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So I had been using Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 9 for about four days, and I was wondering just how fast I was actually typing.  I knew it was easier, my hands and arms were much more relaxed not doing half as much work, I was multitasking and doing many other things while I was typing just like I am right now.  (I’m currently were adding spy sweeper on a different computer and going to the simple mouse clicks required for that.).

So, I looked online to try to find a free typing test program that I could use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  The trick was I needed a typing test that would actually receive the text input from the program but wouldn’t have to be triggered by a keyboard key press.  I found a program on a United Kingdom site called typeonline.co.uk.  This was not the perfect typing test program for my needs, but it got the job done.

The test was designed to throw in some curveball type of words from 19th century English that sounded slightly archaic and outdated, along with capitalization, punctuation and other items that I wouldn’t normally type myself.  It reminded me a lot of typing class back in high school, so it was basically your normal typing test.  I ran through three or four tests initially, and I made a bunch of errors because I was learning how the typing test worked with the program Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

So I threw out the first few tests.  I then did five tests in a row, and captured screenshots of the results.  Which you can see below.  My results range from typing speeds of 135 words per minute.  Up to 157 words per minute.  In the early typing tests I had 14 to 20 errors, and in the later tests I was able to get down to six to seven errors.  Most of these errors were due to the peculiarity of the typing test program.  To do it error-free I would probably have to slow down by half to a measly 60 to 80 words a minute. 

However, if I were to use a combination of voice recognition and typing, I could still probably hang in there at over a hundred words a minute.

There was a slight flaw or slowness in my computer system that probably decrease the speed by 20 words per minute.  I would often read a typing test paragraph and wait 10 to 20 seconds before my computer caught up with me and printed the text in the typing test program, at that point I would hit the submit button to in the typing test.  I’m running a gig of RAM on my new duo century no machine, but I suspect if I had a slightly faster machine and more RAM.  I could get my words per minute 180 maybe 200 words a minute.

I can type 70 to 90 words a minute myself, however fatigue will eventually set in, and doing that day in and day out for many years increases the chance of a repetitive stress injury.  If nothing else, Dragon NaturallySpeaking pays for itself when it enables your average person to type in over a hundred words per minute.  As a further disclaimer I’ve only taken two of the training exercises in Dragon, and so my accuracy and speed would probably increase the more I improve my profile.

I will do that over time, but I’m in no rush since the program works.  So damn good already.

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I’m working on my third day using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  Today I’ve been getting better at using a digital recorder in conjunction with dragon.  I can record anything on my digital recorder, transfer the wave file over to my computer, and use the Dragon NaturallySpeaking transcription capability to convert it into text.

Keep The Recording Rate High Enough to Transcribe

I’ve used a digital recorder for quite a few years for lots of different purposes.  In the past, I always used the lowest compression method of proximally 16 kB per second.  This allowed me to maximize the amount of recording time I can get on a memory card.

The quality is just fine for my purposes at this recording rate.  However, recently after I’ve started use Dragon NaturallySpeaking I’ve learned that if I use a higher compression rate 43 kb or higher fat dragon can then transcribe the sound files I make with my digital recorder automatically.

This is extremely convenient now. I can take my voice notes transcribe them into text and they can be searched through various different search tools on my computer, such as Google desktop. 

Don’t Forget the Punctuation

The only downside is that if I want to utilize Dragon NaturallySpeaking I need to remember to make my voice notes with punctuation such as, saying the word ‘Period’ or ‘Coma’. 

I’m truthfully very amazed at just how well this system and software works with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  When I was attempting to do research on the product, several of the reviews led me to believe that the digital recorder device might not be compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  It’s now my experience with one device, but as long as you’re wave compression rate is high enough to probably be okay.

Potential Usage

With this capability I can write a paper or an e-mail or dozens of e-mails.  I can read an e-mail that comes in on my phone and I can respond to it in full without having to type my thumbs into nubs.  I can respond by a voice file. 

I can then transfer it to my computer and convert it to transcribed text. Then I can copy paste it into e-mail and send it back.  This may not work for every short little e-mail.  However in those cases were an important e-mail comes in on my phone and a short response won’t work, I can give it a detailed response, while the topic is fresh in my mind.

Hands Free Phone Microphone

Now I just need to find a hands-free microphone for my phone, and I could write lengthy e-mails while driving.

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