Summary: <br> <a href="http://feeds.feedblitz.com/-/62492615/0/ibmaudioblogs.mp3">http://feeds.feedblitz.com/-/62492615/0/ibmaudioblogs.mp3</a><br> The results were quite surprising. Jeremy's first response when seeing them was, "That can't be right."<br> Careful verification showed that indeed, our experiment had worked more than we ever expected. The downloads of our audio content went up by over 60% (and in some cases doubled).<br> As a result, we've made a major change to our content publishing schedule.<br> In this post we talk about our test, why it worked and what change we made to our content to continue the growth trend.<br> Getting More Mileage from Your Content<br> "Why don't we do audio version of our blog posts and post some to the main podcast feed?" The idea came up during our usual Monday strategy meeting.<br> Surveys of our audience showed that they were much more drawn to audio content than to reading. The preference was to consume content on-the-go.<br> Our blog posts were getting traffic, but not nearly the traction that we get with our feature audio show.<br> We wanted to continue blogging to have the Google juice provided by fresh text content, but we hated thinking that a huge piece of our following never even saw our blog content.<br> And so the experiment started. Jeremy and I each chose a couple posts that we'd written and recorded an audio version.<br> These audio blogs, as we called them, didn't replace our feature show. Rather, they went out as additional bonus content. We released about one a week for a month.<br> Then we forgot about them.<br> The Truth is in the Numbers<br> Months later, Greg Hickman asked to see results from our experiment. He was preparing to share mobile strategies for his New Media Expo presentation.<br> And so I dug into the numbers. Here's what we found.<br> <br> * The audio blogs got 60-100% more downloads than the feature podcast (wha?!)<br> * The audio blogs had ten times more downloads than the original blog post had unique visits<br> <br> It was a double-take moment.<br> Content sent out on the same feed was getting downloaded and streamed MUCH more than our main show.<br> So why did it work so well? This is where it gets a little tricky. Because audio download traffic is difficult to track, it gets tough to know exactly why it worked so well. However, we have a solid theory.<br> The Download Multiplier<br> To explain the surprising results, we looked to two key pieces of info.<br> Factor #1: Attention Span is Plunging<br> We've already been living in an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy">attention economy</a> for over a decade. The advent of the Internet followed by high-speed Internet connections in our pockets had fractured our attention.<br> <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/04/29/snackable-content-buzzword/" target="_blank">Studies show that</a> the average attention span of an adult surfing the Internet is only getting smaller.<br> <a href="http://www.edisonresearch.com/home/archives/2012/05/the-podcast-consumer-2012.php" target="_blank">While more and more people are consuming podcasts</a> year-over-year, the length of time that they listen to a podcast in one go seems to be getting shorter.<br> Keep in mind, this is general data across all podcast listeners. Results could vary depending on the show or topic.<br> Factor #2: Mobile Usage Has Exploded, But Data Plans are Still Limited<br> In the past several years, the adoption of mobile phones, particularly smartphones, with broadband connections <a href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-2013-mobile-growth-statistics/" target="_blank">has grown rapidly</a>.<br> When we first started podcasting, podcast were consumed far more on a desktop computer or an MP3 player without data connection. Now, you can download and stream podcasts on the go, at will.<br> That said,
