Can I Hear Your Web Site?

by: Garland Coulson

A web site makes great eye candy, but can your web site engage senses other than sight?

Believe it or not, there are actually companies working to add smell and taste to your web sites and emails!

At this time, adding smell requires that your web visitors have special hardware, but adding audio to your web site, e-mails or newsletters can be enjoyed by nearly everyone because most computers already have sound cards and speakers.

The good news is that it is very inexpensive to add audio to your web site, emails and newsletters and you may already have all the tools you need!

Finding or creating sounds.

Windows 98 and newer computers come with a program called Sound Recorder that you can find under the [start], then [accessories] then [entertainment] menu. If you have a microphone for your computer, only a $10 - $99 purchase, you can use Sound Recorder to record audio clips you can add to your web site. I’ve used this system to create audio versions of my Internet marketing articles as well as audio introductions to different areas of my site.

Sound Recorder saves as a .wav file by default, but you can also save it as an .mpeg file

Adding the sounds to your web site.

Adding the sounds to your web site can be done easily using one of the many popular editing programs available. These editing programs let you work on your web site in a “what you see is what you get” format similar to Microsoft Word. So you don’t have to learn html to add sounds to your site.

This is the easiest to use template web building system we’ve found, with the widest range of features. One of our clients used this service and had her web site up in the first week of our coaching program.

Adding sound to your web site can have a great impact. One entrepreneur in a discussion group I belong to said his sales went up 30% when he added audio to his site. My own web site has received many comments about the audio files I have available.

So add sound effects or a friendly voice to your web site and make your web site come alive!