Did you know that your smartphone has a web browser built into it? Did you know that most modern smartphones have a voice to text feature built into the keyboard? That’s right ladies and gentlemen, you can log into your WordPress website and write a new post by using your voice. I’m doing this right now and it is fantastic.
I’ve mentioned Voice to Text blogging to the Las Vegas Bloggers group a few times. Tonight was the first time the topic gain any traction. We were discussing how to write an efficient blog post. Kitty Lusby shared her knowledge and tools she follows for every blog post. The audience started to participate and that is when I chimed in.
I told people about an app I use called Google Keep. Sometimes when I am walking my dog I will think of an awesome idea and I need to write it down. So I open the Google Keep app and I use the text to voice feature to write down whatever it is I’m thinking about. This is nothing new. I learned how to do this from other famous bloggers. I do think I do it more efficiently than most.
I use Voice To Text
It’s really hard to write a blog post of 2000 words. It’s even harder to write a blog post when you have to turn on your computer. I come up with blog ideas all the time. Usually, my ideas come to me when I’m sitting on the couch or when I’m out in public. I will take a few minutes and login to my website. I click on create a new blog post and start speaking. It’s really that simple.
The main purpose of speaking into my phone is to write a blog post. I simply want to get the meat of my post written down so I can edit and publish later. It’s not easy adding back links and images on a mobile device. At some point, I will have to log onto my computer to edit and add a little more content. Who cares. By the time I get to this phase of my blog post, I have 1100 words written and ready to go.
I hear bloggers tell stories of how they overcome writer’s block. Whether it’s decorating the room or doing some kind of fitness exercise to get their mind mentally prepped. For me, I just say how I feel about a topic. I use the text to voice feature on my smartphone to transcribe my blog.
I do this when I am writing my WordCamp presentations as well. A lot of WordCamp would like to see some kind of idea about what you are going to speak about. You could argue that all you have to do is right on a document once and copy and paste. That’s exactly what I am doing. Except I am not using a keyboard to write anything. I’m simply speaking into my phone and my smart phone does the heavy lifting.
Think before you speak
Coming up with ideas to blog about is an easy task for me. I only blog about the things I know. For me that is WordPress. I know a lot about WordPress themes and WordPress plugins. When I am writing a blog post about WordPress themes or plug-ins for my company, I spend one hour talking to myself in the kitchen and coming up with an idea for a blog post. Once I determine how I feel about the subject I open the voice to text feature and start blogging.
Many people have blogged about a specific subject. My blog does not have a specific subject. My WordPress blog is a collection of my random thoughts put into some kind of sequential order. Once I am done writing my post I will put each post into its own category and click on the publish button.
WordPress does the rest. WordPress will make sure the blog goes on my home page and it will be assigned to the appropriate places on my blog. That is one of the many reasons why I love WordPress. My blog consists of Comedy articles, random thoughts, reasons you should not have kids, and other various posts.
If my blog was simply about WordPress development I could still use the voice to text feature. It would be a little hard trying to use the text to voice feature in order to demonstrate code Snippets. The point I’m trying to make is you can write your entire article by using your voice. Once you’re done you can log into your computer and finish your article.
Some Random Stuff I Tossed In
I call myself a comedian. I come up with original jokes all the time. I will work them out in my head until I get the joke to that perfect place. In order to put the choke on my blog, I follow the steps above.
Let’s be clear on something. It has taken me nine months to master this skill. I have spent countless hours switching between the text to voice feature and my keyboard. At one point I just decided to speak my entire blog post and edit later.
I do not think this is a best practice for everyone. I do recommend you try it. Who knows you might enjoy using the voice to text funxtionality on your devices.
Hi. What plugin do you use for wordpress in order to use your voice to write posts?
I do not use a plugin. I use the microphone settings on my Android Phone. When I open my keyboard, on my Android Pixel 2 XL phone, in the upper right-hand corner there’s a microphone icon. When I press that, I can use my voice to type. That’s all I do.