Why You Should Edit Teleseminar Recordings - and How

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Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


For years, I led single-session teleseminars and sold them as products without doing any audio editing. The recording service I was using created the recordings for me so they started with my "Hello" and ended after my "Goodbye," and contained everything that happened in between.

When I shifted from offering one-off teleclasses to multi-session classes, however, I raised my standards. After all, people were paying $795 to $997 now and not just $39.95. And once I experienced how easy audio editing can be, I was no longer willing to deliver unedited audios to paying customers. It took me all of 10 minutes to learn the basic moves needed to polish an audio recording - and I am not a "techie"!

What I do now is retain the spontaneity of a teleclass, which resembles either a radio talk show or an informal lecture, depending on whether there's just one speaker or two. But as far as I can with my elementary knowledge of audio editing, I also do the following:

Delete distracting beeps, coughs and static.

Cut at least some of the "ums" or other vocal filler.

Even out volume differences between speakers, making the soft voices louder and the loud ones less jarring.

Eliminate questions and answers that derail the flow of the session, like, "Sorry, I came late, can you repeat such and such?"

Make sure you check and make sure that the audio track plays in both stereo channels. Otherwise someone listening on earphones hears the sound only in one ear. I have returned two audio products for refunds because of this flaw - which is simple to fix during the editing process if you take a few moments to do so.

Just a little more advanced in technique is adding a musical intro and outro. (The latter usually matches the former and goes at the end of the audio file.) To stay on the right side of the law, don't use snippets from commercial CDs for this. Instead, search for "royalty free music" and follow the terms of use imposed by its originator or vendor.

Once you know your way around audio editing, you can also easily combine recordings, substitute parts of recordings or split a long teleseminar session into smaller pieces that you parcel out a day at a time in an autoresponder or on a blog. The possibilities are endless!

Audacity, a widely acclaimed audio editing program, is not only extremely easy to use but also free. Look for it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net. I use Wavepad, another free audio editing program, available at http://nch.com.au/wavepad. If you're familiar with highlighting and moving text around a document by cutting and pasting, you'll catch on very quickly to the fundamentals of audio editing. Save your edited audio files as MP3s and you have a product that's a cut above those who distribute unedited teleseminar recordings.

Customers usually won't demand their money back if you skip editing, but they definitely are more likely to buy again if you put some time and care into preparation of your recording.


About the Author:
Veteran teleseminar presenter Marcia Yudkin specializes in high- ticket, high-value teleteaching courses. To find out more about your teleseminar options, download a complimentary copy of "66 Ways to Use Teleseminars to Promote Your Business or Your Cause," go to http://www.yudkin.com/teleteach.htm . Discover how to plan, promote and deliver profitable teleseminars, whether you're an entrepreneur, business or health professional, nonprofit organization or corporate marketer.