Insider Tip Four: How Long to Make Your Audio/Video/Articles

Quick Summary: Don't record more than 30 minutes at a time--it will be too cumbersome a document to read otherwise, unless you plan to create several chapters in an e-book or it is part of a larger body of work.

As I have transcribed articles for various Internet marketing experts, real estate big wigs, and teleseminar gurus, I've noticed something quite interesting. They lose me after about 30 minutes of their "expert" audio/video. In spite of the fact that you can cram a whole lot more useful information in a one hour or a 1 1/2-hour audio file, you're just going to lose people along the way. They'll be dropping off like melons off a cart on a bumpy road. That is especially true when your audio/video is transcribed into a document.

A 30-minute audio recording will render about a 13-page document. From my perspective, I can tolerate reading 13 pages at one sitting. However, your average reader today who often reads on an 8th-grade level or below will take longer to read 13 pages. People who speak and read English as a foreign language will even take longer than that. Others are used to short synopses or summaries on various Internet sites and blogs and don't have the patience for longer articles. As I mentioned in Insider Tip Three, considering your audience is crucial, so you need to remember these aforementioned groups when you're planning your audio/video or article.

If your recording is an hour or longer, it will produce about 26-30 pages once it has been transcribed. That's a fairly long document to weed through for most people. I would say unless you plan to make your document into an e-book or a printed book with chapters of some sort, you're better off sticking to the 30-minute rule.

There are always exceptions to the 30-minute rule, for instance, sermons, which are often a bit longer. That's to be expected. However, if you're writing for the Internet, keep it short and sweet. Use your words carefully and succinctly--they will cost you in the end.

Insider Tip Three: Remember Who Your Target Audience Is

As any good writer knows, one of the most important things to remember when writing an article is this: Who is my audience? Is my audience professionals? Are they adults or children? Are they native English speakers or speakers of English as a foreign language? Are they educated or not?

Once you've narrowed down your target audience, it's important to be consistent in your writing.

One of the problems I often see in audio files that I transcribe for people is not staying on topic. This is intimately tied to who your target audience is.

Many people these days who do teleseminars or webinars tend to do things off the cuff. This makes for very annoying and tedious reading. It causes a lot of grief for transcriptionists, too--believe me!

If your audience are speakers of English as a foreign language, then it's important not to go down a bunch of rabbit trails, using English idioms that are obtuse to this target group, and confusing them by wandering from your topic at hand.

Another related concern is talking down to people or making ones readers feel like they're a bit daft. Some speakers and writers have a tendency to do this. In my personal opinion, writers should always assume their readers are intelligent, concerned about the topic, and have interesting opinions and knowledge of their own to share. This is especially true in certain venues like call-in webinars or teleseminars.

One last thing to remember is try to visualize the person you're writing the article to or doing the teleseminar for sitting there in front of you as you have a personal talk with them on your specific subject matter. That will help you remember your target audience and it will keep you from straying from your topic at hand.

Tired of the Office? The Various Ways Medical Reports Transcription Allows You to Work from Home

Tired of the Office? The Various Ways Medical Reports Transcription Allows You to Work from Home

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Insider Tip Two: Always Make Sure Your Audio Is Top Quality

This area of dictation and recording audio or video is crucial for transcription. I have transcribed many audio files that were barely audible. The worst was some medical dictation in a room full of echoes and someone sneezing and coughing right into the microphone (perhaps the camera person?). I had to listen at full volume, and when the person sneezed or coughed into the mic, my hearing went dead for 15 to 20 minutes each time! I actually lost some of my hearing during the course of transcribing for those people, and that's not worth any amount of payment! Hearing is priceless.

To avoid audio problems, you need to check the following:

1. Do you have the best quality microphones that you can afford? It is worth the investment.

2. How close or far away are the people speaking from the mic? They need to be a comfortable distance away, and this needs to be tested several times in the actual venue before you begin your recording to make sure it's not too soft or too loud and distorted.

3. Turn off phones, alarms, radios, or any other electronic or noisemaking devices so they won't interrupt your recording or obscure the voices. You'd be surprised how many people try to talk over a ringing phone or a room full of people talking, laughing, or shouting.

4. Make sure you're talking slowly and articulately. If your recording is an interview, repeat what the interviewee said for the transcriptionist if you could tell they were mumbling or stumbling. This will help the transcriptionist tremendously.

5. If you're making a video recording, make sure you mic the people who are speaking up close. If the mic is on the video camera, then the loudest person will be the camera person--not always your intention! Using lapel microphones is very helpful in videoing a conference or group, and if you must, pass a microphone around and make sure the person is holding it before they start talking or until they are finished. A common tendency is to let the voice trail off at the end of a sentence, or be passing the mic to the next person while still finishing a sentence. Believe me, it's very difficult to transcribe what that person is saying if they do that.

6. If you're using Voice Recognition Software, the person dictating must have great English speaking skills and a large vocabulary. If they don't, you will get inferior documents full of grammatical mistakes as well as unintelligible words. Accents are a problem with VRS. I wouldn't recommend using this type of software. You will still have to pay a transcriptionist to proofread and edit your transcripts even after they are done. It's just not cost effective.

7. Lastly, just try to remember the transcriptionist when you're recording. Think about how easy or hard it is to hear what you're saying and adjust accordingly. Your transcriptionist will love you for this!