tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1528778126523261867.post-65167805771564857632006-12-26T07:57:00.000-08:002006-12-26T09:11:40.578-08:00Blogging has always been about giving you a voice on the web. Traditionally, that is meant figuratively. However, with audio blogging you have the ability to phone-in your posts from anywhere, anytime. This is especially useful when you're on location, on the road, or if you really just need to be heard.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How To Get Your Voice on The Web</span><br /><br />Audioblogging has been around for a while and there are a few different services to choose. Usually, once you sign up, all you have to do is call a number and speak. It's like leaving a voice mail except way cooler because it gets published to your blog as a sound file that people can play right from your web site. Neat huh?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">On The Road</span><br /><br />When I drove cross-country from Boston to San Francisco I laid down some tracks. As a blogger, I wanted to share my trip with friends and family, but it wasn't always easy to find a web connection at some of my stops. Not that there's anything wrong with the Indiana Knight's Inn (actually, there is). In fact, the only easy thing about driving across America with two cats and my fiancé was audioblogging.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mixing It Up</span><br /><br />When you're done recording your post and you send it off to your blog, it gets saved as an mp3 file—a standard format for compressing sound into a small file without giving up quality when it's played. This is the most popular Internet audio format and it's used by millions through services like Odeo. Now you can make some noise on the Web too. Who knows, maybe someone will turn your posts into music with some colorful mixing? It's been known to happen.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who Audioblogs?</span><br /><br />Ideally, anyone and everyone is going to get their voice on the web but there are lots of folks who are already audioblogging. They have their reasons. Wil Wheaton, the web's favorite geek actor, supplements his text blog with an audioblog when he's on the road, at a convention, or just needs to vocalize some post book-signing enthusiasm. Will once shared some insight while driving through tinsel town, "I'm in Hollywood on my way to an audition. I'm actually at the intersection of Fairfax and Beverly Boulevard right next to—yeah that's a red light jackass!"<br /><br />The Salt Flats in Utah are pretty cool. (Unless you have high blood pressure.) But traveling through Europe is even cooler—especially when you're audioblogging the whole experience. That's what clamgirl did with her audioblog, "Hi guys. Guess where I am? I'm in Paris. I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time today. I almost cried when I saw it."<br /><br />Maybe he's not reporting in from the road, but that's okay because Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk is giving us the lowdown on what it's like to be a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, "I want to thank everybody who showed up at the Conan O'Brien Show. I think I got a cold from Quentin Tarantino, so um, I shouldn't have drank out of his cup.".<br /><br />Noah Glass is an entrepreneur who also happens to very good at conducting mini-interviews with quirky or interesting people he meets. We split a cab in Austin, Texas a few years ago and he interviewed a peyote-popping cabbie using a mobile phone and his audioblog. Even more amusing was his street chat with the creator of Friendster who was having trouble finding his friends. Noah inquired, "These are friends of yours? Or are they friend of friends?"<br /><br />So you could be on the road or in Europe, a famous author on tour, in a wild cab ride in Texas, or maybe you just need to set the record straight like Boston-based Blogger Jen Garrett, "Look people, I really don't have much of an accent. Yankees suck!"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Speak of The Future</span><br /><br />Audioblogging invites a whole new group of people to the web and brings the sound of storytelling to a world of text and images. Dial the number and then hand the phone to your grandmother so she can tell us what's up. Read a poem a day into your audioblog and email your friends. Maybe people will start publishing serialized audio versions of classic books using their cell phones and Project Gutenberg. There are so many cool ideas and—with apologies to Frasier Crane, "I'm listening." So what are you waiting for? Get your voice on!Bizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12760968068169156183noreply@blogger.com