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In this news update:
00:15 – Are transcriptions really worth it?
00:49 – Transcriptions help cater to viewers who prefer to read
01:25 – Increase keyword significance on your site for SEO
02:19 – Multiple keyword variations help long tail traffic
02:45 – Do you appreciate the transcriptions?
Get more internet marketing advice from JamesSchramko
Transcription:
James Schramko here with an internet marketing tip and this one is on the topic of transcriptions. Is it worth having your videos and audios transcribed? Let’s address this in a moment.
Are Transcriptions Worth It?
Okay, so this topic comes up often and it was recently discussed inside SuperFastBusiness. I put a transcription of this video on SuperFastBusiness.com. I also have my podcasts on InternetMarketingSpeed fully transcribed. Now, some people say “Is it worth it?” Well, as you know, it can cost a little bit to have transcriptions – perhaps a dollar per transcribed minute, so if you have a 1 hour conversation, that could be a 60 dollar job.
Transcribing Your Audios And Videos
You Get To Target A More Diverse Audience
Now I am committed to transcriptions and here’s why. Beyond the obvious SEO potential, there are still human beings reading my blog and I think not everyone wants to watch a video or listen to an iTunes podcast. So for those people who like to read, my blog will still deliver. Now, what I’m interested in is also getting as much traffic to my site as possible. Now if it makes it easy for people to consume my information and they can get it the way they like, whether they want to watch a video on YouTube, whether they want to listen to a podcast on iTunes or whether they want to read it on my blog, they can.
Transcriptions Have A Lot Of SEO Perks
Now, if you are just interested in SEO, then here is something you might not be aware of. If you can log into Google webmaster tools and check on optimization, content and keywords, you can check the significance of keywords on your site. It will actually show you the number of occurrences and also how many variations of that keyword it’s found.
So in this example, I’m using the keyword “marketing” and on my SuperFastBusiness.com blog you can see that it has been appearing on my blog many times, and that’s because of the transcription. There’s also been multiple variations of the word “marketing” – there’s probably “market-er, market-ing, market-s”. In fact, even mentioning this in my video means that it will be transcribed to this episode, further increasing the significance of that keyword on SuperFastBusiness.com.
Now I’m pretty sure that having that level of significance and this number of variations will help my longtail search traffic for SuperFastBusiness. And the results that I’ve been getting for this particular website are stunning. I have seen improvements over the last 30 days, and that is just from putting out regular videos audios and transcriptions to this site. So there you go.
Tell Us What You Think
Now, not all of my podcasts will be transcribed. But for now, my short podcasts and ones that I feel are going to be useful for my customers will continue to be transcribed. But what I’d like you to do now is:
Please reply to this post – “Do you appreciate the transcriptions or would it make no difference to you if I didn’t do them anymore?”
Please tell me your thoughts.
I’m James Schramko and I hope to hear from you soon…
I personally like to watch the videos… However… on several occasions I’ve found myself using the “search text” function in my browser to find specific content in the transcription. So, it’s useful that way too.
Yes! I love transcriptions!! Sometimes I am not in a position to watch a video, but there are bits of juicy information that I want to gobble up! And I am afraid I would forget to go back to watch the video. I also love watching the video, then being able to go back to the text to read something I want to understand better. Especially when you recommend a tool! Thank you for doing that!
More tools coming up !!
I like having the transcriptions as I can scan the text looking for the parts I’m interested in skipping the parts I’m not. I can read a lot faster than people can speak so takes less time. Videos and audios take up too much time as they tend to have a lot of social polite filler.
for scanning text is awesome ! (I’ll make sure there is no filler)
I like the videos, to me it makes no differnce whether they are transcribed or not. But from an SEO standpoint I do think it is important.
Personally James, I don’t read transcripts but the SEO value overrides my subjective preference. BTW, I think Wistia charges $5 per minute of transcription so I assume that you don’t use them. Who do you recommend for fast transcription work – Fiverr?
Terry – ask your friendly Wistia account manager and they might adjust the rate (timing can be changed too) ;) That said I use full timers because we have a large amount of content around our business as you would expect for a traffic content service operation. For services, I have used the one built into Wistia before – that was word perfect. I addeded a few more resources they talk about inside FastWebFormula. 3playmedia (best) speakertext (good) speechpad (decent)
I hate all the videos of the news and that I get from all the marketers now. I like to read my news and my information. So yes I very much appreciate your transcriptions. When I get your digest, I check it for text and if it does not have it, I do not watch it most of the time.
I appreciate the transcripts. I tend to watch/listen to the video, but sometimes I like to do so while looking at the transcript. It also comes in really handy when you mention a resource and I can see it written or linked to in the transcript.
Sometimes – if I’m in scanning mode, I might not play the video and just scan the transcript for the most interesting bits. So I think having a transcript definitely adds value from the user standpoint.
Thanks Mike it si good to know HOW people like to consume and the fact that you switch modes is really interesting.
If you are doing videos like this one, and using a teleprompter (like James is, and like I do) – you can post your script – so the cost of the transcription is in the cost of the script… Nice video James!
( I dont use a teleprompter – just a whiteboard with a few bullet points. )
I prefer the videos but…you just answered a question that I’ve been wrestling with over the last few months. I wasn’t sure it was worth the cost of getting my videos and podcasts transcribed.
It sounds like the increase in long tail visitors more than makes up for the cost in the long run. Thanks for validating what I already thought was the right thing to do.
I thought others might be interested in this too Vance. Also I have had some good response from hearing impaired customers which single handedly makes it worth while.
Yes, please transcribe. There are those who (just like me) love the sound of their own voices and I’d rather read the pertinent parts and get on with MY work. Thanks for asking.
I’ve been following your material since your appearance on the Lifestyle Business Podcast, but it was your appearance on Terry Lin’s (build my online store) show that made me come by.
I absolutely love the transcripts. As I devise my escape from Cubicle America, it’s very easy for me to keep a browser open and read good material at my desk. (or down load a pdf and read it with my phone on the train w/o incurring all the data charges, or take that pdf and put it on my work station if I can’t get internet access)
Boss guy isn’t gonna show up and ask me what i’m watching or why I have my head phones on.
On top of making it easy to consume, most podcasters waste the 25% of their podcasts with administrative tasks, I can skip past that and read the good stuff. It makes my consumption of the material faster and more efficient.
Although I do love it when podcasters/video guys have a minute by minute “table of contents” for the material of the podcast. Like the material about X starts @ 5:04. For people that aren’t ready to commit to making transcripts, a quick guide to where everything is would make it much easier to consume.
If I see a video/podcast is more than 3-4 minutes, I look for ways to tackle the material efficiently.
Also if I’m reading a transcription, chances are I can highlight, copy, and paste into my search bar.
You guys are doing a great job, keep it up.
Thanks Jay. We are also starting using chapters for Audio too.
G’day James,
I really like the transcripts as I am deaf plus I have a brain injury that often stop me remembering stuff I hear, this is handy when I’m with my wife lol. I always read the transcripts and copy/paste anything I need to remember,. All good.
Thank you! I’ll be continuing them.
For those on a shoestring budget, you can buy “Dragon Naturally Speaking” for $50 or so on Amazon. If it’s just you, you can get that transcribed into text instantly. If you are doing an interview and since it only recognizes one voice, you can listen to your recorded interview and speak the interview into Dragon like a parrot and then you will get the transcription instantly. It takes a little time to and getting used to but great for a solopreneur on a budget or someone with an employee who can re-speak the hour interview for less than $60.
For those on a shoestring budget, you can buy “Dragon Naturally Speaking” for $50 or so on Amazon. If it’s just you, you can get that transcribed into text instantly. If you are doing an interview and since it only recognizes one voice, you can listen to your recorded interview and speak the interview into Dragon like a parrot and then you will get the transcription instantly. It takes a little time to and getting used to but great for a solopreneur on a budget or someone with an employee who can re-speak the hour interview for less than $60.