How to NOT write a blog, but a speaking post instead

When you first create a blog, you will be brimming over with enthusiasm, ideas and content. It’s all so new and exciting!

But then reality dawns. Unless your previous life was in journalism, copywriting or something similar in which you had to write all day, the task of writing starts to get a bit wearisome.

But – generally we don’t have trouble with speaking or talking.

Speaking is natural

Speaking instead of writing is a natural step. In fact I always say that written posts should resemble conversations, transcriptions of discussions held between you and your typical reader, customer, best friend, eldest child, favourite doll or whatever.

This will makes your posts much more enjoyable to read. Speaking makes language flows easier and faster, the vocabulary is more suitable, and all that pesky grammar you had to learn in your English lessons goes out of the window! Don’t worry about repeating particular words, there’s no need to hunt out your thesaurus (if you have one or even know what one is!) to search for alternative words, because we don’t do that when we speak, do we?

In fact the ability to imagine speaking to someone about your post’s subject in your head and then transcribing it through your fingers into the keyboard and onto your blog post does come with practice (and the ability to touch type), but it certainly makes creating your first draft a lot easier!

So let’s get talking instead

But this post is about actually speaking. And it’s also a good idea to vary how you present your posts in your blog to keep the interest factor up, and creating podcasts is certainly one of the answers.

What is a podcast? Well, it’s when a recording, usually in the form of an mp3 file, is placed into a blog post and the reader is able to click on a play button and hear your message.

And it’s not so difficult to do. The main problems you may have are

• thinking what to say,
• being coherent and stop yourself from rambling on,
• limiting yourself to a manageable time (usually 5 minutes is enough to stop people from getting bored or over-saturated),
• having a structure (a beginning, middle bit and conclusion),
• and finding a subject that everybody will want to listen to (a bit of research won’t go amiss).

The main problems I have with speaking are fluffing my words, repeating myself unnecessarily, forgetting the most important bits and running over time. But I’m sure you won’t have these problems.

Ready? Steady? Start recording!

Now I don’t have such technology as an iPhone or similar smartphone with fancy speaking recording devices such as SIRI, but if you do, and are happy using them, then start experimenting! There are plenty of apps that record a speaking voice you can use on your iPads or tablets, and I’m sure even old fashioned hand-held digital voice recorders are still available somewhere.

The main thing you need to take note of is its ability to create an mp3 of your recording. I prefer to use Audacity, a platform you can download for free from the net onto your computer. It also has the advantage of being able to edit whatever recording you make, so you can take out the fluffs and errs and make it super slick! You’ve also may have to download a LAM file to convert your Audacity recordings into mp3s, but once done, you’re ready to roll.

I’ve made my mp3, what’s next?

First, carefully file away your newly made mp3 on your computer somewhere, in preparation to proudly place it onto your blog. But first it needs to be hosted somewhere. You could host it on your own blog if you own it yourself, but since these files are quite space hungry, you could run into trouble. I suggest you use a podcast host instead.

The one I use is PodBean.com, but others are available, so it’s worth doing some research to find out which one appeals most to you. Once you’ve made your choice, sign up and create an account, and work out how to upload your mp3 into it.

Below is a SlideShare presentation I made using PodBean.com and how to put your mp3 onto your blog (WordPress or wherever) so it can be listened to – enjoy!

 

And if you want to know what the recording looks like on a post, here’s a section of me speaking on a radio show. This is brilliant for any interviews you’ve made on radio or similar recording opportunities, as they can be used as podcasts within your ordinary posts, like this one!

 

And some final tips…

Now I’ll quickly close by telling you that enthusiasm and verve is vital when speaking online or creating a recording. Monotonous monotones do not go down well (Andy Murray would be rubbish at podcasts), so remember to let your passion shine through.

Team up with a friend, because your natural responses, the pinging to and from replies, will make your recordings instantly more exciting, as speaking together will spark ideas off each other.

And spontaneity is also very attractive, going with whatever comes into your head at the time works very well. Unless you are a polished actor or voice over artist, contrived and practiced presentations can come across as stilted and boring, and take up a lot of unnecessary time to prepare as well. The art is to not worry about what you say, just say it, and you’ll be amazed at what comes out – and if you don’t like it, just delete it and start again!