The Smart Passive Income Blog » audio

The Power of the Written Word for Podcasts and Videos

Pat — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:41:30 +0000

Blogs are for those who like to read,

Audio is for those who like to listen,

And video is for those who like to watch (and listen too, for the most part).

When building a BIG personal brand online, it’s smart to expand onto other mediums to deliver content because it’s true – people enjoy consuming content in different ways, and at the same time you’ll expand your reach on other platforms as well. I’ve spoken about this many times before, especially after I learned how expanding my blog onto iTunes and YouTube drastically increased my traffic and subscribership.

However, there’s one thing that a lot of people miss when creating audio and video, and that’s the opportunity to include a transcript.

A transcript is important for many reasons:

It allows those who cannot listen to or watch your content, still be able to consume it. This not only includes the hearing impaired (who really really appreciate it when a transcript is available to read), but also those who do not have audio capabilities on their computers, or those who must keep the sound off – like those who may be at work.
It allows you to create a written document that has clickable links! Audio and video are great, but having a transcript with clickable links (whether in a PDF or on a website) will always ensure you have an easy and convenient way to visit any website you mention on your video or podcast.
Some people like to have the text in front of their eyes while listening or watching, because it reinforces the content – which can only help you even more.
Others prefer reading over listening or watching, because they can get the information much, much faster.
It looks professional, and shows you’re serious about your content while making it readily available to people in whatever format they want.
It makes your content far more easily searchable. If someone remembered part of what you mentioned in a video or podcast episode and wanted to get the whole thing in context, it’s much easier to search for certain pieces of text within a transcript, than it is to scan through an audio or video file to find a certain snippet.
For search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Again, audio and video are fantastic, but without any written text, the specific content you talk about will not get picked up and indexed by search engines. The title, tags and description of the audio or video will help, but as far as I know, search engines do not yet include the actual spoken word from audio or videos in their indexes and algorithms – unless an accompanying transcript is provided. Also, you could use some of the text in articles and other parts of your SEO and backlinking strategies too!

In addition, YouTube now has the ability to add captions and subtitles to your videos. You actually upload a txt file, and somehow it automatically puts in the captions on top of the video with the right timing. This is fairly new to YouTube, and apparently it helps a lot with SEO as well (for both Google search and YouTube search), since the text of the video is directly connected with the video itself.

I have yet to utilize this feature on my videos, but it’s next on my list of things to do to optimize and get the most out of the videos I upload to my YouTube Channel.

I’ve included transcripts for my podcast sessions ever since the beginning, and I’ve had a really great response to them – from the hearing impaired, to those who read my material in the workplace – I get a few emails each week thanking me for including them. I actually received 5 over the weekend, which prompted me to write this post.

Transcript Delivery Methods

There are a few ways to include a transcript with an audio or video on your blog. Here’s what I do, which combines a few different methods:

Step 1: I paste the transcript text into the blog post itself. This way, those who listen to on the page itself can follow along.

Step 2: I use a plugin called wpSpoiler to wrap/hide the transcript pasted in step 1, so that the page is not miles long for those who don’t need it. Some of the podcasts are 6000+ words in length, so this plugin really comes in handy. It’s actually designed to hide movie spoilers for those who don’t want to ruin the surprise, and it works quite nicely for transcipts.

If you’re reading this on the blog (you won’t see it in an RSS feed), you can see how it works by clicking on the link below:

Click Here to Read the Transcript

Step 3: I also include a .pdf file of the transcript for people to download (with clickable links, of course). I don’t include this inside the “spoiler” plugin, because I want to make sure it can be downloaded via an RSS feed. Also, when you link to the .pdf file for people to download, make sure it opens in a new window so that people listening or watching don’t get cut off when they open it.

Before you can do any of this, of course you’ll first need that transcript.

How to Get a Transcript for Your Audio or Video

Creating a transcript can be very tedious work, especially if what you are writing a transcript for has any length to it. You can do it on your own, but it’s definitely a mindless task that can take up loads of time. Because of this, I definitely recommend outsourcing this work.

Fiverr.com

The cheapest place to get a transcript is on Fiverr.com. My only warning here is that you get what you pay for, and since it’s only $5.00 to hire someone to do a transcript job for you, sometimes they don’t do such a wonderful job.

Out of the 5 times I’ve attempted to get a transcript done on Fiverr.com, 3 times the person backed out of the job, 1 time the quality was terrible, and the other time was actually decent (unfortunately, that person is no longer available on Fiverr. She must have realized her time was worth more than $5.00, hehe).

You run these risks when you go through a marketplace like Fiverr, but it’s definitely cheap enough to try. To save the headaches, at least try to find a person who has some good feedback from others already.

Odesk

I’ve had the most success with hired help found on Odesk. I created a job for a transcriber and immediately had about 30 people bid on it. I interviewed and found a person to do it for me for about $4.20 an hour (that’s per hour of work, not per hour of audio).

This works out to about $10 to $15 per 30-45 minute podcast episode.

I’ve found some of the transcribers on Odesk to be very professional and experienced with their transcription work. The guy I found (who I’ve been working with to create transcripts for the podcast ever since), uses special software to get it done fast and clean.

I send him the audio files ahead of time (via Dropbox), and in a day or two he sends me a .doc file that includes all of the text, and he even highlights any words that he couldn’t understand so I can go in the document and fix it before I create a PDF and post it on the blog.

Well worth it, especially for the quality work that he does.

Elance will work here too, but I’m guessing it may be a little bit more expensive, especially if you have recurring episodes or shows.

Software

There is also software available that you can use to make it easier for yourself to create transcripts on your own, if that’s your only option. The only one I am familiar with and can recommend is one that is used for captioning videos, called Movie Captioner by Synchrimedia. I’m sure there are plenty more available out there if you do some quick Google searches.

If any of you have any recommended pieces of software for captioning, please share with the readers here in the comments.

Are Transcripts a Waste of Time?

As you can tell, I’m definitely in favor of creating transcripts, however many people still find them to be a complete waste of time, so they don’t include them.

What do you think? Are they useful, or pointless? Why?

Have you read any of my transcripts, and if so, have they been helpful?

Cheers, and here’s to a productive week!

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The Power of the Written Word for Podcasts and Videos
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The Triple Threat of Informational Products You Can Easily Create

Pat — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:57:24 +0000

It doesn’t matter what industry or niche you’re in – different people prefer different ways of learning. If you can cater to each of these types of people, you will not only expand your customer base to those who wouldn’t normally purchase from you, but you’ll give those who would of purchased from you anyways the tempting option to send a little more cash your way.

There are three basic methods to learn new material: reading, listening, and watching. Keep in mind that particular order. While doing business online, we can cater to those who prefer each of these methods by creating eBooks, audio products, and video, respectively.

Reading via eBooks

Most internet marketers and entrepreneurs start out with an eBook as a product to sell. Why?

Creating an eBook is relatively easy, it’s cheap, and it can be started today. All you need is a Word Processing program, and you’re well on your way to a finished product you can sell online. There is no wonder why my How to Create an eBook series page is one of the most visited pages on this blog.
Anyone with a computer can read an eBook. Reading is the most common form of learning new information. It’s what we’ve done since we started school.

An eBook is great, but why stop there?

Listening via Audio

If you have an eBook, why not create some audio to go along with it?

Today, more and more people are learning “on-the-go”. In their cars, waiting at the airport, at the gym, on a walk – audio is perfect for these kinds of people. I remember when I used to take the train from San Diego to Irvine every day (I don’t miss it), I’d prepare my iPod with various podcasts to listen to on my commute. One was actually the Internet Business Mastery Podcast, which ended up being the real reason why I’m where I’m at today with my online business. I’d also listen to Fantasy Football podcasts, and Dave Ramsey’s financial podcast too.

Anyways, the creation of an audio product could not be easier – especially after already having an eBook. Your eBook is your script. You can record the audio yourself, but I recommend hiring a professional voice talent to do it for you. It will cost a little bit of money (maybe some money you’ve earned with your eBook already), but it will save you time and the quality will be superb.

To give you an idea, the creation of my audio guide helped me go from an average of $200/day, to nearly $600 (and often more) a DAY!

But wait. Let’s not stop there…

Watching via Video

So we’ve got the eBook, and now the audio – why not top it off with video too? This will cater to those visual learners who are more used to learning in a classroom/lecture hall type setting.

The video can simply be a slideshow presentation, or even just a person speaking on screen. I’d recommend taking advantage of the video format by adding pictures and examples (if appropriate for your niche), which can’t be done in an audio format.

Many people don’t use video because they think it will be tough to create, or it just won’t be useful. Well – you have an eBook already which can be formatted into a slideshow presentation, and you have your audio which can be used on top of the slideshow presentation…it’s practically made already!

Furthermore, video is seen by consumers as a “higher-end” product, so you’ll be able to use that to your advantage as well when converting sales.

The Triple Threat

With an eBook, an audio and a video product, you can easily cater to all types of people and their learning preferences. But again – it doesn’t stop there. (This is where it really get’s exciting…)

You can easily get more from your customers by combining your products and offering deals and discounts! There are a million different possibilities and combination of offers you can do with three different products, but here is one example:

Let’s say you sell your eBook at $25, your audio at $35, and the video for $50 (remember…high-end!) – separately. Combined, that’s $110.00. You could offer something like the eBook and Audio both for $50.00, which is a nice $10.00 savings. You could offer the eBook and video both for $60.00, which is a nice $15.00 savings – or, you could offer all three items, the eBook, Audio, and Video for a total of $85.00 – a substantial $25.00 savings! You’ll have people spending $85.00 who would of been happy with one item separately.

They’ll be happy, you’ll be happy, and your bank account will be happy too.

(p.s. currently I have an eBook and audio guide, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on that third element – the video, as we speak)

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The Triple Threat of Informational Products You Can Easily Create
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Annoucements: iCaption Mobile, Audio Guide, and More

Pat — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:18:31 +0000

First of all, I’d like to congratulate Toph for winning the $20 Target Gift card for comment #16 from the last post about How will you know when you’ve reached financial success? The winner was selected at random based on the random number generator at Random.org. If you ever need to generate a random number for something (i.e. a number of different comments), it’s the perfect tool. Toph, I will be sending you an email to get your details very soon.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment. They were really inspiring to read, and they provided me with lots of motivation the last few days because as I at times I would get tired from working on all of these projects at the same time.

iCaption Mobile

One of the projects I’ve been working on, as you may or may not know already, is the iCaption Mobile iPhone Application. Based on your initial responses from my sneak peek a couple posts ago, it seems to have a LOT of potential. So, I’ve been spending the last few days working with the developer (who is actually from Japan), and a legal dude to get everything together for the apps’ launch.

I hired the legal dude (via elance) because this app has a lot to it. I wanted to make sure my butt was covered from all angles (that sounds weird), and that my company would own the rights to all of the things people submit to us through the app, such as captions, taglines, photos, etc. Why? Because it would be really easy to take some of this content and turn it into a book. Personally, it would make a really nice coffee table book, or one that you stick in the magazine rack next to your toilet. However, the app needs to be successful first – so we’re just doing everything we can right now to give it the best chance to be just that.

Personally, I’ve been working on designing iCaptionMobile.com – the app’s website. I actually missed doing some html and css stuff myself, so I am proud to say most of the work done on there was done by yours truly, although it is based off of a free wordpress theme. If you take a look, you can witness the very first post I did on iCaptionMobile.com, as well as some new screenshots and the story behind the app. Oh, and if you look at the overall design of the website – it’s supposed to mimic the iPhone app. For example, the header at the top with the “Home” button looks like it’s from the iPhone, and a lot of the designs come straight from iCaption Mobile itself. Hopefully the continuity between the website and the iPhone app will add to it’s success. We’ll see, but I’m glad you’re following me on this journey.

There’s a place where you can submit your own ideas and photos to be captioned. You are all invited to participate if you’d like – you don’t have to have an iPhone or the application in order to do so.

Audio Guide is Finally Finished!

In addition to all of that, the voice talent I hired to create an audio guide for intheleed.com just delivered the final product to me tonight. I’m really excited to get that out and on sale again, because the first time I released an audio guide, it nearly doubled my monthly income. This you can see in the spike from my income reports graph. Obviously, I’m hoping this will happen again.

Now that the audio is finished, I can turn that and my eBook into an online class on my website. Then, maybe my income will quadruple if I do it right. It will take a lot more time because this is something I can’t really outsource, and I’ll be creating some slides via software that I never used before, but looks REALLY impressive. Check out SlideRocket when you get a chance. It just received 5 mil in venture funding, and has been said to be WAY better than powerpoint.

Some Final Words

So, that’s where I’m at now. While working on all of these projects at the same time, I’ve learned to stay very organized. I have a three ring binder with dividers that section off each of my projects. Within each, I keep track of everything I’m doing on a timeline, and have to-do lists and notes in there too. It really helps you regain focus when you lose it sometimes, especially when there is potential to mix things up. Luckily, each of my projects are pretty unique, so I’m keeping things separate, even in my head. I could keep track of these things on a computer, but it’s nice to get away from the computer sometimes and actually write something again – with a pen and paper.

Oh, and if you have something to do on your to-do list, focus on that and don’t even worry about anything else until that is finished – or else it will never get finished at all.

A Must Read

Lastly, I read a post from J.D. at Get Rich Slowly, who wrote about how you can manage a budget when you have an irregular income. This was a perfect post that was right up my alley, and maybe you’re too. Enjoy!

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Annoucements: iCaption Mobile, Audio Guide, and More
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My New Podcasting Equipment and a Short Recording

Pat — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:08:28 +0000

So, I’m playing around with my new podcasting equipment, and I thought to myself, why don’t I just do a short recording and post it for my readers. So…here it is.

Really, it’s nothing special. I just wanted to familiarize myself with my new toys, and see what it’s like to record something and post it online. I’m really excited about starting some sort of podcast in the future, and here you are witnessing my very first recording. Yay! I’m glad I could share it with you today.

Oh, and there’s a little bit of rock music at the beginning and the end, just to make it sound more “podcasty”, just for your information. As you can see hear, I have a long way to go. I gotta start somewhere though!

I’ve also included a picture of my equipment. Please excuse my dirty room, and my messy hair. It’s 3:00am right now:

I’m using a Samsung C01U USB Mic. It’s seriously plug and play – no mixers, no software, it works just right out of the box. Awesome. The mic is on a desk stand, with a shock mount and a pop filter. And I’m just recording directly on garageband on my iMac. I love new toys.

Will this become some form of income in the future? Who knows. Really, it’s just fun for me right now, and I’ll have to do some more research on what topic I should podcast about that I have an interest in, and also how to monetize it and all that stuff.

I hope you enjoyed this little podcasting preview. Until next time…

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My New Podcasting Equipment and a Short Recording
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The Methods of Making Money From an Informational Product

Pat — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:01:10 +0000

Everybody wants information. This is why we search on Google, watch the news, read non-fiction, ask for help, etc. Consequentially, providing useful information online is the best and easiest way to make money on the internet. Everyone is looking for information, so if you can provide it you have the ability to profit. Think about how much time you spend online each day. How much of that time are you looking for answers or information? Probably a majority.

There are many different methods that you can use to give information to people and generate an income at the same time. Each method has a unique way of organizing the information and the user experience is different as a result. A lot of profitable websites sometimes provide their visitors with a combination of more than one of these methods. Think about which of the following method(s) would best suit you for your niche. (in no particular order):

A Blog

A blog, short for “web-log”, is a great way to easily organize your information online because the blogging platform does all of the organizing for you. This website, for instance, is a blog. Whenever I want, I can log into my WordPress account, write in the “new post” area, click Publish and the website updates automatically.

It’s quick and easy, and the best part is that you can set up a Blog for free. There are many different blogging platforms, but the most popular seem to be WordPress.com and Blogger.com, so check those out if you would like more detailed information about blogging.

Pros:

Easy to start, edit and manage your content
Builds an online community with your readers
Establishes you as an expert in your field
Blog can be used to promote a product of yours (i.e. an Ebook)
Can be free

Cons:

There may be many similar blogs in the same niche already (how will you be different?)
It takes time (sometimes months or years) to establish yourself as an expert
Requires upkeep and constant attention to update content and respond to comments

How money is made:

Advertising. (Google Adsense, Text-Link Ads, Private Advertising, etc.)
Affiliate Links (Linking to a particular book and getting paid for leading a sale. Amazon.com for example)
Donations. Yes, if you provide useful information and a donation button, some people may be kind enough to donate to your cause.

Helpful Links:

9 Little Known Traits of Successful Bloggers at Copyblogger.com
How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs at Problogger.net
How to Get Started with a Blog (and why all writers should) at WritingforyourWealth.com

EBooks

An Ebook, or electronic book, is also a fantastic way to organize information and distribute it to people. Usually Ebooks come in an EXE or PDF format and can be easily viewed on most computers. Ebooks are becoming even more popular today, especially with Amazon.com’s new Ebook reading device, “The Kindle,” out on the market.

Pros:

If you write and sell it yourself, there is no printing press to pay (it’s electronic, no paper!), no publishers and no retailers to take a chunk of the profit. Practically 100% of each sale is all yours.
There’s little or no upkeep once it’s finished.
It can earn you money for a time.
It’s easy to set up an affiliate program to have other websites sell your book for you too.

Cons:

An Ebook can take a lot of time to write.
It’s difficult to sell an Ebook from scratch. In other words, if you don’t have an established audience already (i.e. from a blog or membership website), finding people to purchase your book can be a challenge.
Once the Ebook is published and is sold, the information inside cannot be updated if, for example, something you wrote has become outdated. This is why you’ll see different editions or versions of books come out sometimes.

How Money is Made:

Visitors click on a “Buy Now” button on your website, which takes them to a form to fill out with their billing information. After processing, money is put into your account.
Clickbank.com and E-Junkie.com are the top two methods of selling electronic files online. I prefer E-Junkie, because they will also deliver the product for you, and they don’t take any money from your sales. Clickbank, however, has a better affiliate program, which is also important.
If you start an affiliate program, you can find affiliates who will sell your Ebook for you off of their website. You pay your affiliates a small “finder’s fee” for bringing in the sale.
Through an ebook distributing website such as Amazon or Ebooks.com.

Helpful Links:

How to Create Ebooks That Sell at Copyblogger.com
11 Tried and Tested Strategies To Market Your Ebook at BloggingBits.com
How to Create and Publish Your Own Ebook with a $0 Budget at SkellieWag.org

Membership Sites

A membership site is a website that can be accessed with a password. People usually pay a one time or monthly fee to become a member and gain access to the information inside. I think membership sites are a powerful way to generate an income online, and I’m hoping to get involved with this very soon.

Pros:

Immediately creates a sense of membership and community within the site.
Continuously updating and providing information in this way can guarantee that people will stick around and keep feeding you money each month.
As an owner and administrator of a membership site, you’re immediately seen as “the expert”. This is powerful because it can help you bring more members in, and also have the ability to easily sell things to the members you already have. (Although, you should never become too greedy!)
The payment system in a membership website, and is kind of a snowball effect. For instance, month one, you have 10 paying members. The next month, you gain 10 more paying members, for a total of 20 paying members.

Cons:

Creating a membership site definitely takes a lot of hard work, time, and effort. You want to make sure that you are able to give your members what they are paying for. If you don’t, they’ll feel betrayed and leave.
Again, it can be difficult to bring in members if you don’t have an established audience or reputation already. Some money may be needed to invest in marketing the membership website to be able to get it off the ground before it takes off.
Although money is generated automatically, you can’t just dissapear and leave the content static. It’s reassuring to the members if new there is new stuff available every once and a while, which is good because it decreases the potential number of cancellations.

How Money is Made:

Members will be charged a one-time lifetime fee or a monthly fee for access to the information on the site.

Helpful Links:

The Continuity Snowball at Continuityblueprint.com (warning: 30 minute video, but it’s worth it)

In addition to the methods above, you can also sell tools and templates, newsletters, audio or visual products, and learning methods.

As you can see, you have a lot of options to choose from. You can also combine two or more of the metods to create an even bigger resource for people – it’s really up to you and what you feel most comfortable with.

If you are in no rush to make money, I would recommend starting with a blog, building readership and trust, and then sell an ebook or start a membership program to take your informational marketing to the next level.

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The Methods of Making Money From an Informational Product
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