Everybody and their brother is putting video on their sites — one reason is that it’s proven to increase sales.

Okay, so there’s obviously a place for video online, but don’t for a MINUTE think you need to shoot video in order to increase your sales, because audio has also been proven to increase sales.

But isn’t audio tired and old-school?

Nope! Besides the obvious reason that not everybody online has the bandwidth available to make watching streaming video a decent proposition, here are the top 5 reasons why audio is better than video:

1. Nobody cares if you’re having a “bad hair day.” With audio nobody can see that you just woke up and have chicken hair. As far as they’re concerned, you look mahvelous and are sitting in a palatial recording studio.

2. You don’t need 5,000 watts of lights. One of the easiest ways to do bad video is to shoot using room light. To get a crisp look you need extra lights that cook you and make you squint.

3. Great Aunt Mildred doesn’t have to die before you get audio online. With video you’re going to need to buy those lights we talked about, plus you’re going to need some kind of backdrop to shoot in front of, plus the webcam built into your laptop ain’t gonna cut it so you need to fork over a few more bucks for a camcorder. Don’t get me wrong, you can do video on the cheap, but doing quality audio is MUCH cheaper.

4. Your studio can be a closet. With audio you need enough room for a microphone, and that’s going to be sitting right next to your face. Shooting video requires you to have room between yourself and the camera, room for the lights, and a space that isn’t going to look cramped and ugly in the background.

5. One entire piece of the pie is removed from consideration. When you shoot video you have the video to worry about, and the audio as well. But with audio, well, you’re down to just one thing to worry about. And the easier something is to do, the more likely you are to actually do it. It doesn’t matter how beneficial something is for your business if you never implement it.

If you want to play around with video on your site, go for it. I’m a big believer in testing different things to find out what works best for your product and market.

But don’t fall into the trap of jumping on the latest bandwagon “just because.” Audio has a proven track record and as you’ve seen in this article, it’s just faster, easier, and cheaper to get it on your web site than video.

And getting something on your web site TODAY that can increase your sales is far better than waiting until you get everything just right so you can create a quality video. Give audio on your web site a shot and see what it can do for you and your business.

See Sonic Memo for more on web site audio.