How to Create Great Youtube Videos from Your Medium Stories

Do you wish your stories were narrated but you don’t have the voice to do it yourself?

Youtube is a website that gets millions of views every single day. That’s why it’s a smart idea to take a narrated Medium story and turn it into a video.

But how exactly is a writer on Medium supposed to do that?

If you want, you can take the advice and opinion from this prolific writer, and I’ll tell you a quick and easy way to turn the stories you write into narrated videos on Youtube.

Why use text to speech to narrate your stories?

I’m 63 years-old and for many years, I had a smooth silky voice that actually helped me land several speaking related positions in the past.

My phone voice was so nice that I worked at a number of different jobs when I was in the more conventional work force. My very first job ever was a telephone sales position in 1976, selling bicentennial ink pens in bulk, to different businesses. I was in my last year of high school at the time.

In the past, I’ve been a switchboard operator, a bus dispatcher, and a front office receptionist, not to mention other positions that kept me on the telephone a great deal of the time.

But just like everything else in our lives that tends to leave us when we get old, that sweet silky voice that I once had is long gone.

I blame it on all the years of: Working with my voice, and screaming and partying on the weekend; not to mention singing at weekly Karaoke nights, yelling at weekly game nights, and smoking a lot of pot in between.

I regret mistreating my voice in such a way, and now I’m paying for it. My regret was never stronger, than it’s been since I knew I wanted to have some of my writing narrated.

But rather than concern myself with what was, I came across a way to accomplish what can be. I found the right website where I could turn my text into speech, and it’s really a pretty easy process.

My decision to convert my first Medium story to a Youtube video.

I read about a website called Play.ht in a Medium story published a couple of months ago. I remember liking the information, but I put the idea on one of the mental shelves in my mind.

Recently I read another story, this time talking about a different website called Voicemaker. The dashboard was different, but basically, you can accomplish the same task. I looked around on the website and then shelved the narration idea again, but this time, not for long.

Although I was super busy over the weekend, I took the time to return to the Voicemaker website and sign up. They have a free plan, a basic plan ($5 monthly) and a premium plan ($8 monthly), each with various limitations.

They also have a $25 yearly plan, which is the one I chose. This plan is for those with lots of content they want to convert, and is designed with audiobook creators in mind.

Once I joined, I played around on the site, using the super easy interface, and I successfully converted my first text to speech project. It wasn’t actually one of my existing stories. It was just a little promo I typed up, to tell the Youtube audience about my Medium portfolio of stories.

Since I have a few basic graphic skills, I used Windows Movie Maker to throw in some visuals and a music soundtrack (totally optional).

I planed to look the story over one last time before uploading the MP3 video to my newly created Youtube channel. But before I did, I began to second guess my decision.

With so many other writing related activities on my plate, for a moment, I questioned if I was trying to do too much. But then something happened today, while I was debating when to publish the videos.

I was casually browsing stories on Medium and came across another related story about narrating stories. It was written by Bhavesh Rawat and what he said only helped endorse my decision to publish the videos.

I laughed when I read what he wrote. Apparently, he had also had an “ah ha” moment about the narrated stories, just like I had.

“And, that was the moment I wished Medium Stories could be read out loud like podcasts, and that started my hunt for text-to-speech voice tech…”

The whole situation was especially funny, because just yesterday I published a story, talking about how great minds tend to think alike on the Medium platform. Something similar had happened with me and another Medium writer. It was a totally different situation, but the statement about how we writers often think alike is still just as true.

Bhavesh had shared his information, because just like me, he was able to see the value in using Youtube videos and creating narrated stories.

To make matters even more interesting, before I finally got around to uploading the video to Youtube, something else happened. It was also related to turning our stories into audio format.

Being the prolific writer I am, I just had to write about that too!

Now, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind, that narrated stories will be an added bonus when it comes to another way to promote Medium stories.

My writing advice to writers on Medium is that you check out one or both of these websites, especially if, like me, you have a voice you can’t stand. Even if you simply like the idea of using a voice-over program to narrate some of your stories, do yourself a favor and look into the subject a little more.

My converted and narrated story is available as a Youtube video.

To help you make a more informed decision, I’ve included the first video I made. It was fun, and I can’t wait to do more of them. You can give it a listen and see what you think.

It may not be picture perfect, but it should help accomplish my purpose and allow viewers to enjoy some of my story titles. Once I publish more of them, it will provide a more convenient way for people to enjoy the stories when they don’t feel like reading.

Personally, I think this is a great alternative to merely reading our Medium stories, but only on an off and on basis. Reading on the Medium platform is ALWAYS the preferred way, especially if you’re not trying to monetize things on Youtube (which I’m not).

The really great thing about this writing related strategy is that you can use the videos to help promote your Medium profile, as well as all your other stories published here on the platform.

Keep in mind, that your primary objective is to bring people to Medium, NOT to drive your Medium readers away from the site.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been thinking about how to get creative when you promote your Medium stories, this could be the answer you’ve been looking for.

Before you make up your mind one way or another, do a little due diligence, and check out the two websites mentioned in this story. If you don’t find either of them to your liking, look for others.

Don’t allow yourself to be limited in your thinking when it comes to exposing your Medium stories. More than likely, if you’re here, writing on Medium, you’re interested in earning money from the stories you write.

You owe it to yourself to do all you can, in order to make that happen.

REMEMBER:

• Thousands of Youtube viewers could potentially be enjoying your stories.
• Using text to speech eliminates the need for writers to have a good speaking voice.
• Multiple options are available if you need a text to voice website.

DISCLAIMER: Here are the two links to the text-to-voice websites mentioned in this story. These are NOT affiliate links, and I am not connected or have any vested interests in either company.

Voicemaker Website: https://voicemaker.in/

Play.ht Website https://play.ht/

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Let’s be friends on TWITTER: @GoodeWriter

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