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What You Need to Know About Using Audio on Your Web Site

July 22, 2008

by: Kevin Richardson

What You Need to Know About Using Audio on Your Web Site
http://www.medrocket.com/tools/articles/article090501_01.html

By Kevin P. Richardson
Healthcare Internet Marketing Consultant

Millions of people are listening to audio on the Web every day. They’re not just teens downloading MP3 audio clips of their favorite songs, either.

Maybe you’re among them. They’re people at home and work listening to on-demand audio on topics running the gamut from financial advice to relationships to technology to entertainment. And yes — they’re even tuning in to health and wellness topics.

With so many health sites on the Web, using audio well can set your site apart from the pack. Audio also can be a powerful way to attract site visitors and keep them coming back. It’s considered “sticky,” meaning visitors will come to listen to your audio and stay around a while. Audio players are plentiful and best of all they’re usually free to download.

The only way to determine if audio works for you and your Web site is to get the creative juices flowing and try it.

Testing 1,2,3 — How Should We Use Audio?

Your site can feature audio versions of popular health education articles, health seminars, news updates, descriptions of medical procedures, special health product offers, and patient testimonials.

Adding an audio greeting to site visitors lends a personal touch to your site and humanizes the user experience. (For an idea check out the greeting on the MedRocket home page at http://www.medrocket.com.)

Audio features are also a good way to make your site more accessible to visually impaired web surfers. The possibilities are almost endless. You can even include the audio links in email messages.

Delivering the Goods — Streaming Audio

In the olden days of the Web the quality of audio was pitiful. It was just barely passable AM-radio quality. More recently though, Web visitors can hear very good quality audio even over relatively slow Internet connections (28.8 Kbs).

Audio quality isn’t the issue that it once was and the choice of content delivery now comes in two basic flavors — streaming audio and downloadable audio.

As the name implies, streaming audio sends the audio data from a server to the user’s browser in a more or less continual stream. This is good because it lets people listen to the audio as it arrives without waiting for the entire audio file to download.

Pick Your Favorite Format

In the streaming audio arena, RealPlayer from RealNetworks claims roughly 90% of the market. The other common streaming formats are Windows Media Audio and Shockwave audio. Recently even MP3 files can be streamed, which has excellent quality audio though usually requires higher connection speeds.

Conversely, downloadable audio usually requires the entire MP3 or WAV file to download before it can be played on the user’s computer. The up side of this method is that the audio can be much higher quality — near CD quality, if you will — than is possible from streaming media over a slower Internet connection. It is possible now to stream MP3 files.

Generally, I recommend using streaming audio for most uses, unless you want to provide your Web visitors with a high-quality audio presentation that they can download to their computer and listen to at their leisure without an Internet connection. MP3 files can also be loaded into portable digital audio players and some PDAs.

Cue Talent — Creating Your Audio Content

Once you’ve decided on the purpose and focus of your audio content, you’re ready to begin the process of creating a script, recording, converting to digital format, and delivering the files.

If you decide to create the audio files on your own, here’s the basic sequence of events that will take place:

Scripting –
Prepare a script for narration. Unless you’re simply providing a verbatim audio version of an existing text or HTML document, you should write the script in a conversational tone. Remember to write for the ear and not the eye. Some words and phrases look fine on paper but sound muddy (even slurred) when spoken aloud. Read your script aloud before you have it narrated. Make sure it sounds natural.

Record the Narration –
You can either record right into the computer or record to a high-quality analog or digital recorder and then transfer the recording to the computer. The two crucial elements at this stage are the quality of the narration and the quality of the microphone.

Professional voice talent knows how to control their voice and deliver the script with feeling. You might be able to have an on-air personality at a local radio station record the script for you for a reasonable fee. Otherwise, find someone with a great voice in your organization or track down a professional. As for the microphone, the little one that came with your computer won’t sound nearly as good as a studio microphone. Use the best microphone you can find.

Digitize the Audio –
Whether you record the narration directly into the computer or onto audiotape first, at some point you’ll have to get the audio into the computer. Most late-model computers have the capability to digitize audio. Record the audio at the highest quality possible; 16-bit audio at 44.1 kHz is the common setting.

Recording simple sounds on your computer is fairly simple. However making a good-quality recording suitable for broadcast on the Internet is more challenging. The only way to determine if your equipment and technique are up to the task is to record a test and listen to how it sounds streaming from a server.

Adjust Audio Quality –
Once the audio is on your hard drive you should open the file in an audio-editing program like CoolEdit. Check Downloads.com http://download.cnet.com for other freeware and shareware packages. Crop the narration to cut extra silence at the start and end. Then adjust the equalization levels (cut 100 Hz and lower and boost between 1 and 4 Khz). Then normalize the audio track, which optimizes the loudness of the recording in relation to the loudest segment. Other adjustments in compression and noise reduction can also be made at this time. Save as a WAV or AIFF audio file.

Encode the File –
Decide how you’ll be delivering the final audio file. If you are using Real Audio, then you need to use the Real Encoder (http://www.real.com) to transform (encode) your WAV audio file to a Real Audio (RA) file. For Windows Media Audio, you’ll need to use the Windows Media Encoder (http://www.windowsmedia.com) to create a Windows Media Audio (WMA) file.

Upload to the Server –
After you’ve successfully encoded the audio, upload it to your Web server using an FTP program. Depending upon the number of people who might access your audio file at a time, you may need to place your audio files on a special server, such as a Real Audio server. For testing however, a basic Web server should work fine.

Create Links –
Add a link to your test audio file on a simple test HTML page. Click on the link and see how it sounds.

Seems like a lot to do, I know. If you don’t feel comfortable with digitizing audio, resolution, sampling rates, file format, compression rates, and other nuances of audio production, don’t despair. Let’s look at a few audio production alternatives.

Ready, Roll Tape. — Your Production Options

There are several ways to add an audio health experience to your health site. You’ll need to consider your expertise, available time, and budget to determine the best solution for your situation.

They range from a do-it-yourself approach to total outsourcing to licensing audio health content. Here’s a run-down of some of the possible solutions.

D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself):

If you, or someone at your organization, has the necessary skills, your could create, produce, and deliver the content yourself. Most marketing teams don’t have the resources available for this route, but it gives you the greatest control. Recording audio on your PC has become so easy that it’s worth looking into.

Script and Outsource:

You could develop and script the content on your own, and then outsource the narration, recording, audio encoding, and delivery. This allows you to take advantage of the writing skills of your marketing staff and hand off the more technical details to other professionals. Just remember that writing for the ear is different than writing for the eye.

Outsource Everything:

If you’re used to working with advertising and public relations-type agencies, then you’d probably be comfortable with outsourcing to an audio house for scripting and creating professionally produced audio content. Just be sure your project management expertise and budget are up to the task.

License Audio Content:

You can also license free or fee-based audio health content for use on your site. In many cases the licensing also allows you to link to the files on the content provider’s site, which saves you from dealing with most of the technology issues and allows you to get up and running quickly.

How Are Your Ratings?

Now let’s say you’ve included a few audio tests on your Web site for a month or longer. What kind of feedback have you received? What do your server logs tell you about the number of hits your audio features have received? Are more people bookmarking your site?

If Web visitors liked what they heard, and your content is fresh and interesting, they probably bookmarked your site and will return for another listen — sort of like setting their car radio presets to a favorite station.

You CAN use audio to improve your “ratings” and keep Web visitors coming back. The longer they are at your site, the greater the chance you have of communicating key messages, selling products, raising awareness, and pursuing other important marketing and public relations objectives. Done well and used creatively, audio could be another secret weapon in your online marketing toolbox.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Kevin Richardson is a healthcare marketing consultant, executive coach, and writer who provides fresh perspectives and expertise about online healthcare marketing. Sign up for his FREE “MedRocket Ezine” newsletter and discover how to profitably attract and serve healthcare consumers online. Subscribe at http://www.medrocket.com .

What The Muscle Power of Audio Can Do for Your Site.

July 22, 2008

by: Brian Holte

How Audio can Influence Sales

Audio can enhance your website by letting your visitor listen to your voice, which is the next closest form of marketing besides a face to face meeting.

Who can use Audio?

Anyone can use audio, it all depends how knowledgeable you are when it comes to designing your site. For those that need help there are plenty of tutorials on how to place audio on your site all over the internet.

Audio and Affiliate Programs-Cause a ripple effect.

One commonly used strategy is to have audio reviews of the different affiliate programs you are associated with.

Find a product that pays a decent commission, write up a review of the product that you are promoting, use your written review as a script. Record the script in either .mp3 or .wav file. Upload the sound file, the website, and your done!

Audio can Increase Conversion Rates

If you are going to use audio clips for the affiliate programs you’ve chosen to promote, you may very well find that using audio can definitely increase your conversion ratio.

Keep your Audio file as small as possible. One important part for you to keep in mind is the size of your sound file, if the file is to large it will take “forever” to download and the majority of web surfers are impatient. Try and keep your audio review to 60 seconds or under. This should allow your webpage and sound file to download at the same time.

Keep in mind that you can place an audio clip on your site or inside an ebook, some people like audio some don’t.

How Audio helps the visually impaired.

It all depends on your preferences, one benefit of using audio on your site is to accomodate the visually impaired.

Audio-Learn one step at a time.

Granted, creating an audio clip may seem a little confusing at first because you have to get familiar with the software you’ve chosen to use. But like most other tasks in life, practice makes perfect.

Audio-How is the file activated?

There are a couple of ways in which your visitor can activate the audio on your site. One is by clicking on a link, the other involves placing a small amount of code on your site that automatically downloads everytime you get a visitor to the page you’ve placed the audio clip on.

Audio-How about pop-up’s and popunders?

You can also create pop-up’s or pop-unders with an audio clip that downloads as the pop-up or pop-under window activates when your visitor goes to exit your site. An example of this would be to use your clip to encourage sign-up’s for your ezine.

Audio-Where can you get tutored on this subject?

There are many tutorials on the net that teach people how to create pop-up’s or pop-under’s, there are also software programs that make the creation process a whole lot easier. There are also plenty of audio recording software programs out there, some are fr**, others cost money.

Final Comments:

By no means am I encouraging you to place audio on every page of your site, leave some pages as just plain text, others with text and a picture, and then text, picture and audio. What works for me may not necessarily work for you, but it never hurts to test. You won’t know until you try.

Good luck,

Brian.

Brian Holte is a freelance writer who owns www.theebookking.com He publishes a monthly ezine covering topics related to creating ebooks, he shows you what works for him in hopes of helping you.

publish1@telus.net

What is DVD Audio?

July 21, 2008

by: Kenny Hemphill
DVD Audio is a music format that is designed to offer improved audio performance over CD. The new audio format can be used to provide listeners with Advanced Resolution stereo and/or multi-channel (up to a maximum of six channels) music. In order to play back DVD Audio discs, players have to be specially designed to support the format. So far, consumer electronics manufacturers have announced a range of DVD Audio players, including home decks, portable players and devies for cars.

DVD Audio has a sampling rate of up to 192kHz compared to a maximum of 44.1kHz for CD. It also supports resolutions of up to 24 bits, compared to 16bits on CD.

The idea behind DVD Audio is that it alllows peoducesr to give listeners a playback experience that is much more faithful to the original master recording that has been possible previously.

DVD Audio discs have a much higher capacity than CDs. This extra space can be used to provide audio at the highest possible quality or for longer recordings, or to provide additional material, such as infromation on the artist, photos and even video, all of which can be displaye don a television screen. Alternatively, DVD Audio discs currently on the market from the likes of the Warner group of labels have the audio content in both DVD Audio format and as Dolby Digital surround so that they can be played back on regular DVD players.

DVD Audio discs are navigable in the same way as DVD Video when polayed back on a player connected to a TV set. Users can select the required track from an on-screen menu and with an internet connection, can click on links to go to websites.

These dual format discs are a good way to kick-start the market while DVD Audio players are still relativley rare. The market will also be helped by combined DVD Video and Audio players.

About the Author

Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner

Water-Stocks.com Presents Online Audio Interview with Willia

July 21, 2008

by: Anne-Marie Fleming

Water-Stocks.com Presents Online Audio Interview with William Brennan, Senior Water Portfolio Manager, discussing the Water Industry and its Global Influences Including China’s growth and Homeland Security.

“As a sector performance water has consistently outperformed every sector in the stock market over the last 15 years.”

POINT ROBERTS, Wash., August 17th, 2005 – www.Water-Stocks.com (WS), an investor and industry news portal for the water sector, presents an online audio interview with William Brennan, Managing Director & Senior Portfolio Manager at Boenning & Scattergood, to discuss the out-performance of water stocks compared to other industries. “As a sector performance, water has consistently outperformed every sector in the stock market over the last 15 years. The only time that it has not done this was during the bull run from 1994-1999 when tech led the way,” states Mr. Brennan. The significance of investing in the water industry is that it has historically been seen as a defensive play during times of poor market performance due to its inelastic demand.

Investment opportunities in underdeveloped countries are increasing, with compelling potential being recognized in China (www.China-AsiaStocks.com ). “China in particular has allocated approximately $242 million, an increase of 11%, for efforts to provide the entire Chinese population with access to clean water as quickly as possible. Separately, the Hunan and Guangdong provinces of China recently announced a plan to construct waste water treatment plants over the next two decades, with projects to divert water from the Yangtze river to drought stricken communities expected to cost approximately $1.6 billion over the next five years,” explains Brennan.

Homeland Security issues (www.HomelandDefenseStocks.com ) have surrounded the water industry most notably since 9/11, however as Brennan describes, the water infrastructure is not necessarily at risk because it would take thousands of gallons of poison to reach contamination levels in the reservoirs. The focus instead relates to concerns regarding the point of use and more specifically, building infrastructures, which are potentially at risk for water contamination from the point of entry coming from a municipal water system into a specific building.

Overall Mr. Brennan describes the water market as a sector that offers consistent and evolving opportunities for investment returns, “With the growth rates accelerating as we embark upon the infrastructure build out globally and the infrastructure re-build locally here in the United States, we see nothing but great opportunities for the water business for investors.”

For Access to the Online Audio Interview in Full Click Here:
http://investorideas.com/Water-Stocks/audio/default.asp

The WS website does not make recommendations, but offers a unique free information portal to research news, exclusive articles, interviews, investor conferences and a growing list of participating public companies in each sector.

Water-Stocks.com offers investors research, news and links to public companies within the Water sector. Click here for a partial list of companies doing business within the Water industry:
http://www.water-stocks.com/Water-Stocks/Stock_List.asp

For public and private companies interested in participating in the water sector portal, please contact afleming@investorideas.com for more information.

Read the exclusive InvestorIdeas.com Feature “The Insiders Corner,” a weekly feature by well-known financial writer and author Michael Brush. http://investorideas.com/insiderscorner/

Investor Incite Newsletter

InvestorIdeas.com’s free “Investor Incite” Newsletter consists of company and industry updates, investment research and developing trends in key areas such as Homeland Security, Renewable Energy, Nanotechnology, the Gaming Industry, and more.

TO SIGN UP, click here: www.InvestorIdeas.com/Resources/Newsletter.asp

Disclaimer: Our site does not make recommendations, but offers a unique information portal to investors to research news, articles, and recent research. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any specific products or securities. All investments involve risk. Although we attempt to research thoroughly, we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of any information presented. We encourage all investors to use our sites only as a resource to further their own research. All information relating to featured companies is sourced from public documents and/ or the company and is not the opinion of ECON or its related web sites. www.InvestorIdeas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp

For more information contact:
Dawn Van Zant 800.665.0411
Ann-Marie Fleming 866.725.2554
Email: dvanzant@investorideas.com, or afleming@investorideas.com

Web Site: www.InvestorIdeas.com

Source: www.Water-Stocks.com

About the author:
The WS website does not make recommendations, but offers a unique free information portal to research news, exclusive articles, interviews, investor conferences and a growing list of participating public companies in each sector.

Understanding & Reading Your Audiogram

July 20, 2008

by: Stan Boston

After you have a hearing test, your hearing professional should show you a graph of how your hearing tested. This graph is called an Audiogram.

While many individual hearing offices make up a form of their own to use in marking your test results, there are some basics that are used quite frequently. Name and contact information are just a few of the things you will find on the form. However, probably the most important thing you will find on the form is the audiogram graph.

This graph has most of the information you will need to be fitted for a hearing aid properly.

There are two measurements used on an audiogram to gauge how you currently hear. These measurements are called Sound Frequency & Hearing Level:

The Sound Frequency is measured in Hertz, otherwise referred to as Hz. This measurement is across the top and is generally tested in the range of 250Hz to 8000Hz. Humans have been known to hear from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. The lower the number, the lower the sound. Example: A man’s voice is going to be found farther to the left than a woman’s voice. Generally, consonants are found further to the right than vowels.

The Hearing Level, or HL, is measured in Decibels, or db. The important thing to know about decibels is that if a sound increases by 10 decibels, it doubles in loudness as we perceive it. A 0 (Zero) is considered to be the optimum (or normal) level of hearing. Most people suffer some form of hearing loss though, even if it hasn’t reached a point where a hearing aid or other device is needed. Sounds on the chart down to about 35db are considered soft sounds. From there to about 70db are considered to be moderate sounds. Above 70db is considered a loud sound.

The rest of this article, along with sample audiograms can found in the Hearing Information section of Discount Valley.

About the Author

Stan Boston is the general manager of Discount Valley Hearing Aid Supply.