I know it sounds crazy: 20,000 words per day or 80 to 100 Kindle book pages.
The typical person manually types at a rate of 40 words per minute. Twenty thousand words per day translates to 500 minutes. That’s over eight hours of nothing but straight typing.
I don’t mean to brag, but it’s actually quite easy.
My secret? I dictate.
That’s right-I read from an outline and I expand on those talking points to dictate 20,000 words per day.
How long does it take me to dictate 20,000 words per day?
Once I’ve written out my outline and read it quickly several times, it takes me 200 minutes or roughly 3 hours to produce 20,000 words per day.
Sometimes more, sometimes a little bit less.
Quick comparison: if I had to type out 20,000 words at the rate of 40 words per minute, it would take me 500 minutes or more than 8 hours!
If increased output and saving time aren’t awesome enough, here are 11 more benefits to dictating content instead of typing it out.
Here’s how I write 20,000 words per day
Step #1: Make sure you have a typed outline
Let me be clear: the quality of your outline is responsible for the quality of whatever book, blog post or article you’re dictating. It’s that simple.
Click here for tips on how to brainstorm outlines quickly for your dictations.
Step #2: Read your outline at least twice before dictating
You don’t have to read every single line of your outline.
You definitely don’t need to memorize it.
You just need to familiarize yourself enough with the topics and subtopics so you can have a Big Picture view of what you’re going to talk about.
WARNING: Over-reading your outline will kill your dictation.
If you stress out about your outline and obsess about making sure you dictate every single word on it, you’re going to choke up.
Your dictation isn’t going to flow. It will probably take you longer to dictate than to write out certain parts of your article, blog post or book.
Step #3: Get into a state of flow
The human mind is amazing: If you know a subject, you only need to be reminded of certain themes or topics, and you will remember enough to fill out those topics and subtopics and produce quality materials.
You don’t have to remember every minute detail because this is going to only slow you down.
You will end up dictating in a “loop” by repeating the same point over and over again.
Allow your mind to go through the outline points with confidence and authority. This, of course, means you have to trust how well you know what you’re talking about.
Trust yourself and keep at it until you achieve a state of flow.
Step #4: Practice makes perfect
I wish I could tell you that when I first decided to dictate my blog posts, articles, and books instead of writing them out manually, that I produced 20,000 words per day.
It didn’t work out that way. I was lucky to crank out maybe 4,000 or 5,000 words per day.
Still, I stuck to it.
Every time I dictated, I learned certain techniques.
Also, I figured out what went wrong with the previous dictation and learned to fix my errors.
After several years of doing this and constantly looking to fine-tune my dictations, I became more efficient.
Step #5: Pick the right transcriber
I am lucky enough to know several high-quality freelance transcribers who are also good editors.
They have a solid command of sentence construction, the overall flow and not to mention, and grammar.
Thanks to the help of these manual freelance transcribers, I can dictate with full confidence that my words will be transcribed correctly and it the right context.
Over our long working relationship, my transcribers learned how to format my dictations correctly.
Step #6: Constantly seek to learn from your mistakes
I know that there’s no such thing as perfect. It simply doesn’t exist. I know that every single dictation that I produce will be a work in progress. Still, I always make it a point to read every transcription and figure out how it can be improved on the dictation side.
This has enabled me to think clearly and express my thoughts in such a way that I’m not constantly repeating myself.
I’ve learned a few tricks along the way that help me keep my train of thought moving forward while clearly dictating the main points I need to make.
Step #7: Don’t stress
I can’t emphasize this enough: I thought I was going to be walking a tightrope with no net underneath the day I decided to dictate my content instead of manually typing them out.
I’d be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t scared.
I had so many questions in my mind:
What if the transcriber missed a sentence?
What if they transcribed the wrong word or the right word in the wrong context?
What if I get confused and I dictate contradictory statements?
What if I lose my place and end up repeating the same point over and over again throughout the article, book, booklet or blog post?
But instead of obsessing about these questions, I allowed myself to trust the process.
I drew some confidence in my ability to learn and control what I could control. This is how I’ve been able to produce 20,000 words per day.
Most, I would say, ninety-eight percent of that material is ready for publication. No further editing needed.
FACT: If I can do it, you can do it too
I share this “secret technique” with you because I know how hard it is to earn a living online as a professional writer.
As you probably already know (in often the most painful way) clients pay by word.
You also know that the per word rate for writers continues to drop due to international competition.
Instead of stressing about these trends, I fought back in the best way I know how-I boosted my productivity.
Instead of whining about the consistently dropping rates for content creation, I decided to produce more words per day.
Instead of making a certain amount by sticking to 4,000 or 5,000 words per day, I produce 20,000 words per day. I’m currently working getting that up to 50,000 or even more, per day.
It’s not going to be easy, but it hasn’t been easy up to this point.
I don’t see things changing anytime soon.
What I am excited about is that I was able to identify shortcuts and streamline techniques that have enabled me to get to 20,000 words per day.
I am confident that I will be able to figure out the rest of the puzzle so I can hit 50,000 words per day, if not more.
I’m writing this so you can join me on my journey to producing more quality content per day without the matching stress of physical typing.

I’ve been dictation blogging for over 9 years now and it’s truly changed my life. I teach fellow bloggers the ins and outs of voice blogging so they can take their productivity to a whole new level.
Thanks for the post Gene, never thought of using dictation but can see it as a time saver for posts.
Thank you for visiting my blog, Alessio. Check out the resources section so you can pick among different transcription options.
Wow, thank you! This is definitely helpful. (:
Glad you liked it, Dawood. Please do me a favor and spread the word about Dictablogger.com on your social media accounts.
Thank you for you idea its really good. But i have question is it possible to do in other languages not just in English?
Hi Monika
You might want to check if the most popular transcription software like Dragon Naturally Speaking have multiple language support. I get around this problem by hiring human transcribers.
They not only speak and write the same language as the original dictation source, they can also proofread, edit, and format.
Gene
Wow Thanks For this Wonderful Post
Glad you like it. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks, Gene.
I’m a content writer but I’ve never tried dictating instead of typing.
I may want to try that out today.
And your post is well crafted.
I’m glad you like you my post.
If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments.
I’m here to help you guys increase your dictation blogging and content production efficiency.