.Thou shall create audio products as fastest way to come out with a product.Forget about e-books. They take to long to create especially if you’re a slooooow typist. You can create an audio product in a day instead of weeks or months with an e-book. If you must create an e-book, do audio first and have someone transcribe audio into a word file. You than clean it up and add some chapter heads and an index and Bam! You have an instant e-book
2.Thou shall use a headset microphone for your recordings.
I find that using a headset mic is a lot more versatile than a standard microphone. A headset mic gives you freedom to move your head around and you don’t feel restricted as far as being positioned in front of a table top mic.
3.Thou shall not be afraid to record your voice.
Many people hate way they sound on tape (me included) and feel that they cannot put together a “Professional” product. The first time you hear yourself on tape you are just going to die. It takes practice to actually speak properly. You get struck by dreaded Uh and Um syndrome and monotone voice virus but take heart …you can do this. Slow down and concentrate on what you’re saying and interject some emphasis and pitch changes to your voice. Bottom line…add some personality.
I’ll admit I’m no professional speaker myself… It takes practice and you will get better.
Here are a couple books you might want to check out: The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie Secrets of Successful Speakers: How You Can Motivate, Captivate, and Persuade by Lilly Walters
4.Thou shall add intro and outro music to your audios
If you really want to add a professional polish to your products you must add intro and outro music. You know that cool music you hear at beginning of audio just before someone starts introduction.
You could give this site a try: frontandbackmusic.com for some demos.
5.Thou shall use different formats for your audio info product
A couple of ways to create an audio product is to interview someone over phone and record it or just do a straight forward gab session on your own. To keep it simple when I’m recording on my own, I write down some bullet points to use as memory joggers to keep me on track during recording sessions. Also, when using computer software it allows you to pause so you can get your thoughts together and then just restart recording process without a skip.
6.Thou shall use different listening formats for your audio product.
When distributing your audios you have different formats to choose from. You can use .wav, .mp3, .ram files. Wave files take up most space and are megabyte hogs. Mp3 and ram (real player files) take up least amount of space and are good for streaming audio on web. If you are distributing your audio on CD it is best to use wav. That way you will be able to listen to them in any CD player. Here is a little warning when recording your audio projects. Be aware of space you have on your hard drive. A two hour recording session will take up to 1.3 gigabytes of space in wav. I like to record and edit in smaller intervals and burn them to a CD-RW just to get them off my hard drive.