DEMO: Tech Theme

Internet Marketers love audio. You can’t blame them. They used to have to spend weeks, or even months, writing an ebook to have something to sell. Now, they just pick a hot topic, interview an expert for a couple of hours with the recorder turned on, and Bam! They’ve got a hot new information product.

The audience for these products seem to love audio too. It’s certainly quicker than reading a book. Because it can be produced more quickly, information can be more timely. One late summer day in 2005, Google changed how it ranked AdWords. That same night a teleseminar on the subject drew thousands of listeners.

Audio is Great Except for One Problem

Audio looks to be a perfect medium for online learning and communication except for one thing. A lot of folks don’t know how to listen very well. Not the kind of listening you need to do if you’re going to learn something.

Check with participants right after a teleseminar ends and they say they learned a lot. Ask them about it a few days later and most report they’ve forgotten exactly what it was they learned. That’s true whether it’s a seminar, a podcast, or even an audio download. Even when they have the file, most people don’t listen more than once.

When it comes to placing audio on your website there are Ten Commandments you absolutely must follow. Break one of these Commandments and you can watch your website drive visitors away faster than the speed of sound. Fortunately, if you follow the Ten Commandments you can get people to stay at your website longer, inquire about your product or service more often, and even buy more of what you are selling. Doesn’t that sound good?

So without further ado, here are the Ten Commandments you must follow when placing audio on your website.

Commandment #1

Don’t set your audio to play automatically when people arrive at your website. Your visitors all have different computers with different speakers, some have the volume turned all the way up, some are already listening to music, some don’t even have speakers to begin with. If you start playing your audio automatically you risk losing potential customers. It’s much easer to leave a website or hit the back button then it is to search around for how to turn off your audio. One exception to this Commandment is the use of pop-up windows. Pop-up windows can be closed by the visitor yet they still leave them at your website. The same goes for exit pop-ups, these windows can be very effective at grabbing the visitors attention, although some people may not like it, it has proven to be very successful in some uses.

Many customers in today’s online business world are shopping around online for a reason; either they are too lazy to go to stores, do not like the masses of people, or they might just want to shop in the comfort of their home. What ever the reason might be, we can conclude that they are not in a store, but rather they are on your site. Just because your businesses is online doesn’t mean that you can’t conduct your business like that of a normal store. Compare your site to a clothing store in a mall for example. When the customer comes in, a sales representative normally comes to the door and asks if they need help. A web site doesn’t normally do this, but you can if you want to. Record an audio clip that not only includes a sales pitch and introduction but also a site map that includes the important parts of the site. Not only are you getting personal with your customer, you are also pointing them in the direction of your product. Here are a few tips to keep in mind about audio clips:

#1 - Make Sure They can Turn it Off

I love spoken-word audio. I’ve been listening to seminars, lectures, and books on tape for years.

I love downloadable audio. Missed that teleseminar you signed up for? Just download the MP3 (or Real Media, or Windows Media, or QuickTime) file and it’s almost as good as being there–maybe better.

But I really dislike streaming audio of the kind you can’t download, and I find the new trend to use Macromedia Flash to provide audio clips online particularly irritating.

Why? Because I don’t want to have to sit in front of my computer screen to listen to something. The only time I might want to do that would be if I were taking notes, or if the recording were a set of instructions on how to do something with a computer program. When I’m at my computer, I’m usually busy doing something that requires concentration (like writing).

I want to do my listening when I’m away from my computer and doing something that occupies my hands but not my full attention. In my case, that’s primarily when I’m driving and when I’m cooking. And while I could theoretically prop my laptop on the passenger seat while I drive, I can’t (yet, anyway) get a connection to the Internet while going 65 miles an hour. Besides, the car stereo has much better speakers than the laptop does.

Adding streaming audio to your web site can help you enhance the message you send to your customers and can serve as a wonderful confidence-building tool. In the past, audio was used primarily as a decorative effect, but advances in technology and the increased use of the internet by consumers have made it easy for you to add streaming audio to your web site and create a personal bond with your clientele. You can also add streaming audio to your newsletter or blog for a personal touch that will keep the interest of your readers and subscribers.

Streaming audio can be used in welcome messages placed on the first page of your web site. Adding a personal welcome message to your readers and explaining some of the features they can explore on your web site is an excellent way to enhance the experience of the customer. You may also want to add streaming audio to your web site in the form of testimonials from satisfied customers. Most computer users have the capability to hear audio messages and will find it a refreshing change from monotonous text that may or may not hold their interest. Your newsletter or blog will benefit from the use of streaming audio as well. You may want to add a new helpful tip in audio form each day to your blog, or include audio product updates in your newsletter.

1. i-Sound WMA MP3 Recorder 6.x - On Sale
www.abyssmedia.com

i-Sound Recorder turn your computer into complete audio recording studio. You can record sound from internal or external source into MP3, OGG, WMA, APE, WAV format sound file directly without costing any other disk space. With VOX feature program can become ideal solution for automatical digitizing LPs and Cassettes.

2.Handy MP3 Recorder 4.0 - On Sale
www.audio-recorder.biz

Handy MP3 Recorder is an award winning high-quality sound recording software for windows. It enables you capture any sounds of your PC into MP3 or WAV files quickly and easily! By using Handy MP3 Recorder you can record sounds from MIDI, Internet broadcasts, streaming media and your microphone.

3. Ease MP3 Recorder 3.6 - On Sale
www.audiotool.net

Ease MP3 Recorder Ease MP3 Recorder may record sound which are played through your sound card and any other sound sources like microphone, VCR, Audio tape player etc. You can use it to grab any sound including music, dialogs from movies, game sounds and etc from your local computer or the internet. Captured sounds can be saved in WAV or MP3 format, using real-time conversion (without creating temporary files). The program offers direct support for RealPlayer, Winamp, Windows Media Player , Power DVD, Flash, Quick time and many others.

This was news to me. It might be news to you too:

MP3 is NOT free to use if you’re an online publisher. BUT - let me be clear - there are some opt-outs. It appears you don’t have to pay any license fees if:

It’s for personal use or non commercial reasons (not generating income). OR - if your company revenue is below $100,000 a year.

Now, these rules might change of course. Make sure to check these yourself and ensure you’re up to date by visiting mp3licensing.com for full details.

However, when there’s alternatives I don’t see why anyone publishing audio online would want to or should publish in MP3 format.

So what’s the best alternative? Well - it’s all about OGG.

Okay, a slightly strange name. Here are the facts:

OGG is just as high quality as MP3.

OGG is just as quick to download as MP3.

OGG is open source - this means no fees due, ever (for full details on OGG visit vorbis.com).

The only current downside of OGG is that it isn’t as widely supported by audio players as MP3.

A graduate student in Belfast wrote to me about a project he was doing. It is an inter-active instructional CD on the Tin Whistle.

Obviously here is another application where you would record direct to wav. and forget about the midi. format.

He wanted an authentic sound and midi. would never provide this. You might get close, if you used the right sound card or plug-ins and I will go into this in more detail in later writings about midi.

If you can play an instrument or sing, you will want to record directly to wav.

The procedure is much the same as when you record a tape or L.P. The key element here is to use a very high quality microphone.

Plug the microphone into the microphone input of your sound card which will be the one with the picture of a microphone on it.

Find the software for your sound card, (try accessories, if your computer came with a sound card,) and select the microphone input from your options or file menu. You are all set.

My first article about digital recording that I have had published in various places on the net for some time, talks about the two main audio formats midi. and wav.

I have decided therefore, to devote the next few articles to addressing some of the questions I have received about this first article.

Keep in mind that the wav. format is the one that is used for burning directly to CD. To do this, you just need to open your CD burning software, find your wav. file and drag or drop it into your burn list.

Also keep in mind that you can record directly to wav. and forgo the midi. format completely. Midi. has some specialized recording uses that I will cover later in subsequent articles.

For now, some useful things that you can do by recording directly to the wav. format;

For example, someone asked about recording your old L.P.s (What’s that?) or tapes to CD.

To do this, you need to hook-up a tape player or record player (?) to the input of your sound card.

My name is Alan Twigg and I’m writing this article to offer advice to anyone thinking of creating their own professional audio books.

In the New Year I came up with the idea of creating professional children’s stories and offering them for download on the internet. The thing was, however, while I had someone to write the stories - my mother - and someone to market the stories ? me, I knew nobody who knew about how to record the stories professionally. I knew it must be reasonably easy, since I only wanted to create an audio book containing speech.

I started doing research on Google - but all the articles I found contained so much technical gobbledygook ? I was soon put off. So I went to my local music store for advice on what to buy. I decided to use my computer to create the audio books and this is what I bought:

1 microphone stand

1 pop-screen (that’s a piece of material that is placed just in front of the microphone to stop your "Ps" from popping)

1 studio microphone

1 software program (Wavelab)

1 USB Audio/MIDI interface (TASCAM US 122 with phantom power)