Turns out Google loves your blog—if it’s a podcast

_{Day 131/100}

Hey—It's Tim. 

I’m writing this with a half-drunk long black and a Rode mic staring me down like

“use me, coward.”

So let’s.

The morning I heard my own blog talking back to me

I’d just pasted last Tuesday’s post into NotebookLM, clicked Generate Podcast, and went to make coffee.

When I came back, my laptop was reciting my words in a voice that sounded like Siri took a journalism class.

Not my accent.
Not my timing.
But… people listened.

Average time-on-page: +38 %.
Bounce rate: -19 %.
Google gave us an extra bump, too (hello page one).

Coffee tasted nicer after that.

“THIS IS A PODCAST NOW, DEAL WITH IT”

Adding audio is the laziest upgrade you can ship:

1. Repurpose, don’t rewrite. One drag-and-drop and your post is suddenly multi-modal.

2. Accessibility brownie points. Commuters, gym rats, screen-tire eyes — they all press play.

3. On-page SEO gift. Longer dwell signals = search engines give you a slow wink.

Problem: the robo-voice.

Problem about the problem: once you hear your own copy delivered like a mid-flight safety video, you cannot un-hear it.

How I’m fixing the robo-voice

I’m tinkering with a Franken-stack:

• ElevenLabs voice clone (because apparently I laugh in italics)

• Descript for the awkward pauses

• A sprinkle of GPT prompting to keep the script faithful but punchier

Goal: a “mash-up AI podcast” where it’s unmistakably me - ums, ahems, questionable metaphors included.

The goal is a podcast of me and Inge talking, podcast style, about the blog one of us just wrote and cannot wait to tell the other one about it.

It’s half-built, half-baked, and wholly exciting.

Try this today

1. Take your highest-traffic blog post.

2. Feed it to NotebookLM or any TTS toy you fancy.

3. Embed the audio at the top.

4. Watch the session time chart climb like it’s on pre-workout.

Then email me the screenshot so I can feel smug with you.

Have you let your blog talk yet?

Hit reply. I’m all ears - literally.

✌️ Tim "Mic Drop" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. If my cloned voice suddenly starts reading Rick Astley lyrics halfway through, that’s not a bug—it’s just the AI reminding you I’m never gonna give you up. 😉

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