Low On Budget and List Size? Here are Step-by-Step Instructions On How To Start A Successful “Audio CD of The Month” Program

Have you considered a Monthly Audio CD PROGRAM For your members?

While there are different schools of thought around how to start a membership site, the most?  effective and the best way of starting a membership site is to start a CD of the month program.

Unlike a membership site, you do not need expensive software to start a CD of the month program. All you have to do is record the content, burn it onto a CD, duplicate the CD and send the CDs out to all your members

There are three primary reasons why people shy away from having an audio CD of the month program.

#1.?  They do not know how to create content.

#2.?  They consider this a lot of hard and redundant work

#3 . They do not know how to fulfill these monthly CD’s?

Lets talk on what does it involve to have a successful CD of the month program going?

You need a sound recording device that can record you speak or interview some one. I prefer using Sony Sound forge, alternatively you can also use the native sound recorder that comes with Windows. There are other applications on the market that you can explore too.

Record for about 60 minutes and upon making the necessary edits save the file to you desktop and burn or write the same content on to a CD from Sound forge application.

Once you have the CD ready, you can approach a CD replication company that can replicate the CD in bulk, but if you have a very small member base replicating massive quantities may not be financially feasible after all.

The best option here is for you to duplicate the CD’s on your own. For this I recommend that you buy a inkjet printer an EPSON R340. This printer can directly print to DVD and CD’s. Make sure the surface of the CD is printable. Usually you can buy these printable CD’s in bulk for an affordable price.

You can print nice good looking graphics on to your CD at your home to do that EPSON R340 printer comes with a software where you can arrange the text graphics to be imprinted on to the CD.

It can take about 7 minutes to print a CD and once you have done printing the CD after buring the audio on to its, mail the CD to your members using USPS media mail service. For about $1.30 you can mail a CD anywhere in the United State with the Media Mail option that USPS provides.

Remember to start a monthly CD program. You do not need an expensive software or the help of any big fulfillment service.

Here is a step-by-step illustration of this process

#1. Decide on the content

#2 Buy the software that can record you speak. ( I like SoundForge software from Sony)

#3 Buy some printable CD’s with white Surface (inkjet printable)

#4 Buy a good microphone that you can hookup to the laptop. A good one costs about $30 and is a one time investment.

#5 Hook up this microphone and record your content.

#6 Save a copy as a MP3/WAV file to your local disk

#7 From the Sound forge application itself write the file to a CD. (Burn the track at once to CD, this is importnat as you can play the CD in the car audio)

#6 After recording the CD, follow the instructions that comes in the booklet of the EPSON R340 printer on how to print the grpahic and text on to the CD.

#7 Once you are done printing. Just use the USPS medial mail option to ship the CD’s it costs about $1.30 to ship a CD anywhere in United States from anywhere within United States.

Two important lessons I learnt during this process

• “Duplication” is different from “Replication”. Understand this process carefully before deciding one way or the other.
• Do not print the graphics first to the CD and then burn burn the audio to the CD. I had many CD’s error out because of this.

I hope this illustration was helpful. Please feel free to leave a comment here.

I wish you all the best, and hope you will go thru this process for a short time as your business will grow leaps and bounds & you will use the services of a fulfillment company soon!
To your continued Success!

Srini Saripalli