- Tim at Penfriend
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- Turns out Google loves your blog—if it’s a podcast
Turns out Google loves your blog—if it’s a podcast
Drag-and-drop audio, kill bounce, fix robo-voice. Try it on your top post today.

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:
Repurpose, don’t rewrite. One drag-and-drop and your post is suddenly multi-modal.
Accessibility brownie points. Commuters, gym rats, screen-tire eyes — they all press play.
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
Take your highest-traffic blog post.
Feed it to NotebookLM or any TTS toy you fancy.
Embed the audio at the top.
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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