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Add Audio to Your Web Site and Increase Your Sales up to 35%!

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

What else could increase your conversion rate?

Audio!

All right I know what you're thinking... "Why should I go to allof 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 tobelieve and you don't even have to pay a monthly fee either. Youcan start with sound recorder (Pre-installed on every Windowscomputer) and the free microphone that came with your computer.

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

* 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 seewhat 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 createdyour favorite web tool or ebook?

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

Also, excitement is contagious. If you are excited about yourproduct, ezine or membership site you can hear it in your voicewhen you talk about it. SO CAN YOUR CUSTOMERS! And moreimportantly, your potential customers.

Audio Testimonials:

What can I say about this compelling reason, but this... whatwould be more believable to you - a web site with a bunch ofwritten testimonials or a web site where you can hear the actualvoices of current / previous purchasers explaining what benefitsthey got from the product? How do you even know for sure thewritten 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 athing as too-long testimonial? Maybe not - and the ability tohave customers send you .wav files and a small picture ofthemselves.

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

Piece of cake!

There are a couple of other steps to adding the audio to yoursite, but I will get to that in other parts of this articleseries.

Create Audio Ezines:

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

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

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

How many fewer customer service calls and emails would you get ifyou 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 yourbusiness, create new products (Audio and multimedia products ofcourse!) Heck, even spend more time with your family and hobbies.

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

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

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

That's a good start :)

Remember those audio testimonials?

Here are some other free resources for all of you ebook and ezinewriters 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 theMicrosoft 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 ofyour audio files you have made in the easy access audio library)which is free.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't forget if you are adding Real Audio to your web site to getthe 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 (Warningadvanced topic!) you can use the free Helix Server Basic. HelixServer Basic (Free):http://forms.real.com/rnforms/products/servers/eval/mbps.html

Also use the free PresenterOne to add audio and video to yourPowerPoint 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/index.html (Approx. 20mb) since it requires Producer (Real Audioproduct with a free version see above) it includes it in theinstallation.

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

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

Start your own radio station for free. And obviously link to itfrom your web site and broadcast tutorial and educational contenton 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 youbroadcasting in about 1/2 hour.

Keep your eyes peeled for more audio/video/multi-media relatedarticles in this series. We will be talking about different typesof 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 ezinethat teaches ebook and ezine publishing with screenshots andvideos! http://Epublishing-Express.com Also author of "Easy Web Site Audio!" The Easy Web Site Audiotutorial! e-Manual comes with 15 how-to videos. Add audio to yourweb site in about an hour! http://Easy-Web-Site-Audio.com