| A friend of mine, Matt Bacak, told me about a | | | | a dime promoting this service. |
| student of his who is currently making five figures | | | | The service is called Odiogo. It converts dynamic |
| a month. Now this is normally not a topic for | | | | web pages into high-quality audio files. They use |
| discussion as a great many of Matt's students | | | | sophisticated algorithms to filter-out the |
| make much more, but the reason this is | | | | non-content items (links, ads, etc.) from your web |
| noteworthy is that this man is blind. This is | | | | pages. It is then processed by advanced |
| important for two reasons, one, it kills any | | | | text-to-speech technology and the result is nearly |
| excuses you may have as to why you cannot | | | | human quality audio output. |
| succeed online and, two, it made me realize that I | | | | Anyone wanting to receive your content can |
| needed to make my content available to the two | | | | subscribe to your podcasts through iTunes, |
| million plus visually impaired people using the | | | | iPodder, or similar services. They will get updated |
| internet. | | | | feeds every time they synchronize their device. |
| Yes, visually impaired people use the internet too. | | | | The files can be easily uploaded into an iPod or |
| So, you do the math, would you like to reach an | | | | MP3 player, listened to on a mobile phone, or |
| extra two million plus people that many sites are | | | | played on a PC or Mac. If a visitor is on your site, |
| currently ignoring. Add to that the millions of iPod, | | | | all they need to do is click the 'listen now' button |
| iPhone, and Mp3 users that would be able to listen | | | | and the content is read to them. |
| to your content instead of reading it. | | | | Odiogo is compatible with all blog engines that |
| Your content is no longer limited to screen or | | | | publish RSS feeds such as Typepad, Blogger, |
| printed output. Millions of iPod, iPhone, and Mp3 | | | | WordPress or Overblog. The generated MP3 files |
| owners can subscribe to your feeds and get the | | | | are stored on their servers so there is no need |
| audible version of your content uploaded | | | | to worry about technical integration tasks or |
| automatically every time they synchronize their | | | | bandwidth. |
| device. You can promote your content on the | | | | It took about eight minutes to install and setup |
| multitude of podcast directories, another stream | | | | this service on my blog. If you do not have an |
| of traffic for your content. | | | | RSS feed on your site the whole process can |
| I can hear you now; I cannot afford to set up a | | | | take about twenty minutes or so. |
| system to do all that. The good news is that it | | | | Allow the visually impaired to access your content |
| has already been done for you and the better | | | | and open your website to millions of visitors you |
| news is that this service is free. You like free, I | | | | never had before. Give your website content a |
| do. Just to set the record straight, I do not make | | | | voice and increase your traffic at the same time. |