Blogging Using Audio - The Effects

I'm going to give away the bottom-line right now. From what I've seen, an audio post, as I've done a couple times on my blog so far, including yesterday, dramatically increases traffic!

Using tracking statistics provided by Feedburner, both of my audio posts have caused a spike in the number of visitors to my site.

What an interesting dynamic.

After giving it some thought, as well as reviewing some of my notes about the effectiveness of using audio for other reasons on the Web, I came to these conclusions as to why audio is so darn effective in drawing traffic. See if you agree:

• It's a lot more personal - What's more personal, an email from a friend or a phone call? While not everyone would agree, I'm sure the hands-down winner would be a phone call. When you listen to someone speak, your brain takes in so much more than just words. Personality, emotions, and even (subliminally) facial expressions and gestures. Audio creates a deeper connection with the listener, which is one of the reasons why I think the chance to listen to an audio post is so appealing.
• Speak with authority, and you'll most likely be thought of as one - It's one thing to be able to spend several hours creating, chopping, cutting, and inserting text to create the perfect post. It's an entirely different thing to be able to hit the record button and speak non-stop for several minutes (or longer) about a subject in a coherent manner. If you can pull it off (and nearly anyone can, really), you and your message are given a lot more credibility in the eyes (or ears) of the listener. They're more willing to take a chance on listening to what you have to say. 
• It's easier to digest - Pushing the Play button, then sitting back to listen is a lot easier than staring a computer screen to read and scroll, read and scroll. One of the appeals of blogs (typically) is the fact that they contain articles that are very succinct. Take a short article and turn it into an easy to listen to audio post, and you've made it even more appealing.  

From my standpoint, creating an audio post is incredibly easy.

As a proud member of audioblog.com, I call a special number from my telephone, enter my personal code, then record my message by talking in my phone. audioblog.com gives me a choice to either post immediately after hanging up, or simply to save the audio and post later from my audioblog.com account. That's it!

Of course, with most things, there are a few downsides to audio posts, which is why I won't be using them exclusively. They include:

• Indexing - Search engines cannot spider audio posts, so some of the benefits of adding keyword-rich content to your blog are lost
• Links - While the opportunity hasn't arisen yet for me to include a link in an audio post, I could see where it might be a challenge to convey the link. It would require spelling it out, such as, h-t-t-p-:-/-/-w-w-w-.-mydomain.com. I don't think this would be a problem with just one link, but I certainly wouldn't try it with multiple links. I can imagine the listener would grow tired of hearing you spell it out repeatedly. I know I would. Thus, with link-laden posts, text is probably a better choice
• I'm At Work Syndrome - Some visitors may be a work, and listening to anything on their computer, even a beautiful voice (eh-hem!), may be a no-no. Of course, they can always listen at home (unless the same restrictions exist), but it's something to be aware of, nonetheless

After seeing the results of using audio, I'm singing its praises (don't expect to hear any of this singing in an audio post). I highly recommend you give it a try as well.

Don't worry if you don't sound like a professional DJ, or that you stumble occasionally in your message. The important thing is that the you in you comes out!

Stay tuned for more audio in the future.