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

What else could increase your conversion rate?

Audio!

All right I know what you're thinking... "Why should I go to all\rof 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 to\rbelieve and you don't even have to pay a monthly fee either. You\rcan start with sound recorder (Pre-installed on every Windows\rcomputer) and the free microphone that came with your computer.

Some of the things you can do with audio to enhance your site\rare:

* 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 see\rwhat the advantages are.

Create Audio Greetings:

Well, I think this one is fun. Don't you often wonder what that\r"Guru" sounds like? Or even what a web master who has created\ryour favorite web tool or ebook?

Adding an audio greeting is actually about the easiest thing to\rdo if you want to improve your sales. For most web sites, when\rdone tastefully, the sales can jump up to 35%! People just trust\ryou more and feel like they know you a little better if they hear\ryour voice.

Also, excitement is contagious. If you are excited about your\rproduct, ezine or membership site you can hear it in your voice\rwhen you talk about it. SO CAN YOUR CUSTOMERS! And more\rimportantly, your potential customers.

Audio Testimonials:

What can I say about this compelling reason, but this... what\rwould be more believable to you - a web site with a bunch of\rwritten testimonials or a web site where you can hear the actual\rvoices of current / previous purchasers explaining what benefits\rthey got from the product? How do you even know for sure the\rwritten testimonials are real?

It's hands down the one with the audio.

All you need is Audacity (Which is free at http://audacity.com)\rto edit down too long testimonials - actually, is there such a\rthing as too-long testimonial? Maybe not - and the ability to\rhave customers send you .wav files and a small picture of\rthemselves.

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

Piece of cake!

There are a couple of other steps to adding the audio to your\rsite, but I will get to that in other parts of this article\rseries.

Create Audio Ezines:

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

It is so much more compelling to hear someone explain exactly\rwhat to do than read a dry ezine (No offense to all the other\rthousands of ezine writers out there) or ebook (Ditto to you\rebook writers) and you learn much faster.

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

How many fewer customer service calls and emails would you get if\ryou customers were retaining 80% of what you were teaching them?\rI can tell you... a lot!

Think of all the extra time you would have to promote your\rbusiness, create new products (Audio and multimedia products of\rcourse!) Heck, even spend more time with your family and hobbies.

How much happier would your customers be if they were able to\rduplicate your success and complete your tutorials, assignments,\ror follow your direction?

Again - a lot! How many more of your customers would buy other\rproducts from you if you were successful in teaching them or\rhelping them with your first product? I think you can see where I\ram going with this...

So, know that you know how important audio is how do you get\rstarted? The first thing you can do is go to\rhttp://easy-web-site-audio.com and sign up for the free Audio\rTips Ecourse and get a new tip every three days on creative audio\ruses.

That's a good start :)

Remember those audio testimonials?

Here are some other free resources for all of you ebook and ezine\rwriters 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,\rand tutorials when you go straight to the media section on the\rMicrosoft web site.

Find it at Media Player v.9:\rhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx\r(Free) Here you can upgrade to Media Player 9 (To store all of\ryour audio files you have made in the easy access audio library)\rwhich is free.

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

There are a lot of add-ons for the program, especially you want\rto get the one that converts your MP3s into smaller WMA files and\rsave space on your computer. (It is a free teaser, they will\rprobably try to get you to buy the full Plus! collection, but you\rdon't have to!).

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

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

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

Get the Real Audio player basic program which allows you to play\rReal Audio formatted files. A lot of online content is in this\rformat.

Don't forget if you are adding Real Audio to your web site to get\rthe free "Producer" which converts other types of audio files (>\rwav and .MP3 for example) into Real Audio files for uploading,\rstreaming, etc.

Producer Basic (Free):\rhttp://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/basic.html

If you want to stream from your computer or server (Warning\radvanced topic!) you can use the free Helix Server Basic. Helix\rServer Basic (Free):\rhttp://forms.real.com/rnforms/products/servers/eval/mbps.html

Also use the free PresenterOne to add audio and video to your\rPowerPoint presentations and stream them from your web site!\rhttp://www.realnetworks.com/products/presenterone/index.html\r(main page) and the free version is at:

http://forms.real.com/rnforms/products/tools/presenteronebasic/in\rdex.html (Approx. 20mb) since it requires Producer (Real Audio\rproduct with a free version see above) it includes it in the\rinstallation.

So if you are thinking of enhancing your PowerPoint slides and\rare going to download this, you don't need to download Producer\rseparately.

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

Start your own radio station for free. And obviously link to it\rfrom your web site and broadcast tutorial and educational content\ron 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\r$7/month.

Pirate Radio: http://pirateradio.com (Fee)

Purchase software for $29 one-time fee that will having you\rbroadcasting in about 1/2 hour.

Keep your eyes peeled for more audio/video/multi-media related\rarticles in this series. We will be talking about different types\rof audio files, conducting interviews, recording tutorials,\radding 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 ezine\rthat teaches ebook and ezine publishing with screenshots and\rvideos! http://Epublishing-Express.com \rAlso author of "Easy Web Site Audio!" The Easy Web Site Audio\rtutorial! e-Manual comes with 15 how-to videos. Add audio to your\rweb site in about an hour! http://Easy-Web-Site-Audio.com