Gihan Perera: Use Online Audio to Make a More Personal Connection

Audio can be the perfect vehicle for business owners - especially speakers, trainers, consultants, coaches and other infopreneurs - to distribute their message and promote their business. It makes a stronger connection than just written text, and it's easier to produce than high-quality video.

In the past it was costly and difficult to provide audio online. The Internet was slow, special software was required and the quality was poor. But that's no longer the case. Now it's easy to deliver high quality, fast loading audio content on your website.

Why audio?

Here are some benefits of using audio on your Web site and in other ways:

• Make a personal connection: Audio creates a more personal connection than written text, because the audience hears your voice.
• Create an experience: You can combine music, voice, sound effects and more into a richer experience than written text.
• Portable audio devices: People don't have to listen at their computer, and can do it while multi-tasking.
• Easy to create: It's easy to record audio - all you need is a microphone.
• Teach something: Some of your educational material might translate well to audio.
• Take control: It's relatively easy to record, edit and publish audio yourself.
• Gain a competitive advantage: Despite these many advantages, most businesses are not using online audio effectively.

Why now?

Three things now make online audio feasible and attractive:

• Better Tools: There are easy tools for you to create high-quality audio clips and publish them on the Internet. You no longer require specialized complex equipment and software.
• Broadband Internet: The cost of broadband Internet has decreased, and more and more people now have access. In the past the problem with audio was that it took a while to download and streaming audio quality was terrible - a jerky buffered sound. Broadband has now made it possible to have high quality streaming audio and easier download of large audio files.
• MP3 and embedded players: In the past, there were many different audio formats and players. So it was a bit "hit or miss" as to whether your users could listen to your audio clips. Now this has sorted itself out into two standards: MP3 as the de facto standard for audio files; and HTML5 or Flash as the commonly-used technology for playing audio on Web sites.

What content works best in audio?

There are many types of content you can publish - here are just a few:

• Articles: Read your newsletter articles out loud.
• Teleseminars: Record your teleseminars and publish the recordings.
• Webinars: If your webinars aren't highly visual, you can publish them as audio as well.
• CD extracts: If you have already created CD products, convert them into downloadable MP3 files.
• Interviews: Interview other experts, or ask them to interview you.
• Book reviews: When you finish reading a book, record a brief book review.
• Presentations: Record your workshops, seminars and other presentations.
• Consulting sessions: Record private coaching, mentoring or consulting sessions.
• Audio books: Read your book out loud to convert it into an audiobook.
• New material: Create brand-new material!

Source: http://www.gihanperera.info/2012/03/use-online-audio-to-make-more-personal.html

occupy los angeles comedian patrice o neal occupy philadelphia occupy philadelphia conrad murray conrad murray jack del rio