Getting Started with Online Audio

Fear of failure is one of those irrational fears that seems to prevent us grasping new opportunities and trying new experiences. If worrying about failing is all that’s preventing you from creating online audio then all I ask is, what’s the worst that can happen?

You’ve come this far online; some things you have tried have worked and some haven’t, but you have learned from every mistake and benefited from every triumph. The way we learn as human beings is through trial and error. As babies, if we failed to pull ourselves onto our feet we’d learn from that attempt and try again until we finally managed it. We didn’t feel any shame for not achieving it the first time, nor did we give up trying. At some point in our upbringing, failure starts to become something that should be avoided, that we should be ashamed of, to the point where we often refuse to try something new rather than find it doesn’t work for us.

I don’t want this to become a therapy session, but I do want you to question why you are avoiding creating audio and what will happen if it doesn’t work the way you want it to? In most cases, nobody else will even notice. You can discard the audio immediately and try again, learning from the previous mistakes. Most successful marketers will tell you that they make almost as many mistakes as they have successes, but they learn from them and move on quickly. Stop thinking of it as failure and focus on the learning process.

Anyway, back to the audio.

Another reason you may be avoiding creating online audio is the cost of buying the necessary equipment.

There’s absolutely no reason to spend a fortune to get started. All you need is a computer (which I assume you already have), a decent microphone, recording software and something to say.

And when I say a decent microphone, I’m not talking about an expensive, professional studio mic. At work I may use a $2000 microphone, but that’s because all audio I record there has to be of the highest broadcast quality. At home I simply use my Skype headset (I have one of the higher-end headsets but it still cost me less than $100). I also highly recommend the Snowball USB mic from Blue Microphones that works for PCs and MACs again about $100.

I suggest you begin with a free recording program like Audacity (another cross-platform application). Make sure you download the mp3 encoder too so you can export your audio in mp3 format. This sounds technical but Audacity will usually save things as .wav files, and mp3 is simply the audio format that is best for use online.

Whatever market or niche you are in, I’m sure you have something of interest to say. Make some notes to keep you on-track and begin recording. A few practice runs will help you become accustomed to the equipment and feel more relaxed about recording yourself speaking.