Internet and Businesses Articles

Ok, you've got your site built, you have traffic coming to it, a
good product at a reasonable price.... hmmm... what else do you
need?

What else could increase your conversion rate?

Audio!

All right I know what you're thinking... "Why should I go to all
of the trouble of adding audio to my web site?"

Because it can increase your sales by up to 35%!! That's why.

Adding streaming audio it isn't as hard as you have been led to
believe and you don't even have to pay a monthly fee either. You
can start with sound recorder (Pre-installed on every Windows
computer) and the free microphone that came with your computer.

Some of the things you can do with audio to enhance your site
are:

* Create audio greetings

* Create audio testimonials

* Narrate tutorials

* Create audio ezines

* Add audio files for your visitors to download

* Create audio articles

* Add your band's music clips as tempting teasers to get buyers

* Read children's stories

* Tell Jokes

* Sing...

* Add music as a background to your web site (Tastefully - please!)

This list goes on and on.

Let's quickly cover a couple of the items on the list and see
what the advantages are.

Create Audio Greetings:

Well, I think this one is fun. Don't you often wonder what that
"Guru" sounds like? Or even what a web master who has created
your favorite web tool or ebook?

Adding an audio greeting is actually about the easiest thing to
do if you want to improve your sales. For most web sites, when
done tastefully, the sales can jump up to 35%! People just trust
you more and feel like they know you a little better if they hear
your voice.

Also, excitement is contagious. If you are excited about your
product, ezine or membership site you can hear it in your voice
when you talk about it. SO CAN YOUR CUSTOMERS! And more
importantly, your potential customers.

Audio Testimonials:

What can I say about this compelling reason, but this... what
would be more believable to you - a web site with a bunch of
written testimonials or a web site where you can hear the actual
voices of current / previous purchasers explaining what benefits
they got from the product? How do you even know for sure the
written testimonials are real?

It's hands down the one with the audio.

All you need is Audacity (Which is free at http://audacity.com)
to edit down too long testimonials - actually, is there such a
thing as too-long testimonial? Maybe not - and the ability to
have customers send you .wav files and a small picture of
themselves.

NOTE: You can get a free script from Will Bontrager at
http://willmaster.com that will allow you to accept files from
your customers OR you can set up a seperate ftp account at
your server for customer uploads. See other articles in this
series to learn how to implement this.

Piece of cake!

There are a couple of other steps to adding the audio to your
site, but I will get to that in other parts of this article
series.

Create Audio Ezines:

Have you ever heard Jim Edwards "I Gotta Tell You" ezine?
(http://igottatellyou.com) Or watched the multi-media ebook and
ezine how-to tutorials in Epublishing Express?
(http://epublishing-express.com)

It is so much more compelling to hear someone explain exactly
what to do than read a dry ezine (No offense to all the other
thousands of ezine writers out there) or ebook (Ditto to you
ebook writers) and you learn much faster.

Did you know that you only retain about 10-15% of what you read
once? But that retention goes up to 60% if you hear it at the
same time and flies up to 80% for a multi-media presentation.

How many fewer customer service calls and emails would you get if
you customers were retaining 80% of what you were teaching them?
I can tell you... a lot!

Think of all the extra time you would have to promote your
business, create new products (Audio and multimedia products of
course!) Heck, even spend more time with your family and hobbies.

How much happier would your customers be if they were able to
duplicate your success and complete your tutorials, assignments,
or follow your direction?

Again - a lot! How many more of your customers would buy other
products from you if you were successful in teaching them or
helping them with your first product? I think you can see where I
am going with this...

So, know that you know how important audio is how do you get
started? The first thing you can do is go to
http://easy-web-site-audio.com and sign up for the free Audio
Tips Ecourse and get a new tip every three days on creative audio
uses.

That's a good start :)

Remember those audio testimonials?

Here are some other free resources for all of you ebook and ezine
writers to get you started: (Some long links may wrap)

Microsoft: http://microsoft.com (Free)

Additionally you can access lots of free content add-ons, tools,
and tutorials when you go straight to the media section on the
Microsoft web site.

Find it at Media Player v.9:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx
(Free) Here you can upgrade to Media Player 9 (To store all of
your audio files you have made in the easy access audio library)
which is free.

Media Player 9 is the preferred media player for listening to
streaming audio along with Real Player which is also free.

There are a lot of add-ons for the program, especially you want
to get the one that converts your MP3s into smaller WMA files and
save space on your computer. (It is a free teaser, they will
probably try to get you to buy the full Plus! collection, but you
don't have to!).

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/plus for more information on the
PLUS! product if you think in addition to converting audio you
might want to let the kids play around with Media Player too. :)

Remember all that extra family time you are going to have since
you won't have hardly any customer service issues?

Real: http://real.com (Free)

Get the Real Audio player basic program which allows you to play
Real Audio formatted files. A lot of online content is in this
format.

Don't forget if you are adding Real Audio to your web site to get
the free "Producer" which converts other types of audio files (>
wav and .MP3 for example) into Real Audio files for uploading,
streaming, etc.

Producer Basic (Free):
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/basic.html

If you want to stream from your computer or server (Warning
advanced topic!) you can use the free Helix Server Basic. Helix
Server Basic (Free):
http://forms.real.com/rnforms/products/servers/eval/mbps.html

Also use the free PresenterOne to add audio and video to your
PowerPoint presentations and stream them from your web site!
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/presenterone/index.html
(main page) and the free version is at:

http://forms.real.com/rnforms/products/tools/presenteronebasic/in
dex.html (Approx. 20mb) since it requires Producer (Real Audio
product with a free version see above) it includes it in the
installation.

So if you are thinking of enhancing your PowerPoint slides and
are going to download this, you don't need to download Producer
separately.

Shoutcast: http://shoutcast.com (Free)

Start your own radio station for free. And obviously link to it
from your web site and broadcast tutorial and educational content
on your niche topic. Free to record and free to broadcast.

Live365: http://www.live365.com (Fee)

You can also start your own radio station starting at only
$7/month.

Pirate Radio: http://pirateradio.com (Fee)

Purchase software for $29 one-time fee that will having you
broadcasting in about 1/2 hour.

Keep your eyes peeled for more audio/video/multi-media related
articles in this series. We will be talking about different types
of audio files, conducting interviews, recording tutorials,
adding audio testimonials to your web site, and more. :)

By the time we're done you will be an audio / video master!

"Techie" Teri Mramer is the busy web master at TreeFree Publishing, The Editor of Epublishing Express- The only ezine that teaches ebook and ezine publishing with screenshots and videos! http://Epublishing-Express.com Also author of "Easy Web Site Audio!" The Easy Web Site Audio tutorial! e-Manual comes with 15 how-to videos. Add audio to your web site in about an hour! http://Easy-Web-Site-Audio.com