So here's the thing... I've been running WordPress blogs for years, and recently I started wondering: "What if I could give my readers the option to listen to my content as a natural conversation instead of just reading it?"
You know how your readers are always multitasking? Commuting, working out, doing chores? I wanted to give them a way to consume my content during those times when they can't stare at a screen.
The "Aha!" Moment
I was listening to a podcast (ironically, while doing dishes) when it hit me: most of the podcasts I enjoy are basically just people having conversations about ideas that could easily be written articles. So why not flip it around? What if I could take my blog content and automatically turn it into a natural conversation between two AI voices that sound completely human?
As a WordPress site owner, I wanted to offer my audience more ways to engage with my content without having to completely change my writing workflow.
But before diving into building anything, I wanted to make sure this wasn't just my weird idea. So I did some digging around Facebook groups, Twitter, and various online communities. Turns out, tons of bloggers and content creators were asking for exactly this... how to repurpose their written content into audio format without the hassle of recording actual podcasts.
That validation gave me the push I needed. Post2Podcast was born.
What Actually Happens Behind the Scenes
The plugin is pretty straightforward in concept but surprisingly tricky in execution. Here's the basic flow:
- You write your WordPress post like normal
- Hit a button (literally just one button)
- The plugin grabs your content, does some AI magic
- Two human sounding AI voices have a natural conversation about your content
- Spits out an MP3 file and embeds a player right in your post
The hardest part wasn't the WordPress integration... that's pretty well documented territory. The real challenge was making two AI voices sound like they're having a genuine conversation about your content, not just reading it out loud like robots.
The Technical Bits (For Those Who Care)
I won't bore you with every implementation detail, but here are the interesting challenges I ran into:
Text preprocessing: Blog posts aren't written for conversation. URLs, code snippets, weird formatting... all of that needs to be handled gracefully so the AI voices can discuss it naturally. I spent way too much time figuring out how to make blog articles to sound natural in a conversation.
Conversation flow: This was the big one. Making two AI voices sound like they're genuinely discussing your content rather than just taking turns reading paragraphs. They need to ask each other questions, build on points, and sound like real people who actually care about the topic.
WordPress integration: Making sure it plays nice with different themes, doesn't break existing functionality, and handles edge cases. You know, the usual WordPress plugin headaches.
Who's Actually Using This?
I've been testing it with fellow WordPress site owners running different types of content:
- Long form blog posts: Perfect for giving readers an alternative way to consume in-depth articles during their commute, and the conversation format makes complex topics more digestible
- Tutorial content: Surprisingly effective when two voices walk through instructions together, giving your readers an audio companion to your written guides
- News/update posts: The back and forth discussion format makes even dry updates more engaging for your audience
The feedback has been interesting. Some bloggers love how it increases their content's accessibility and time on page metrics. Others appreciate having an easy way to repurpose their written content into audio format without recording anything themselves.
The Accessibility Angle I Didn't Expect
One thing I didn't anticipate was how useful this would be for accessibility. I've heard from people with dyslexia and visual impairments who find the audio version much easier to consume than text. It wasn't my primary motivation, but it's honestly become one of the most rewarding aspects of the project.
Where It's Going
Right now I'm in beta mode, trying to iron out the weird edge cases and see how the AI conversation system performs with different types of content. The goal isn't to replace reading... it's just to give people options and make content more engaging through natural dialogue.
I'm also working on some features that could be pretty cool:
- Different conversation styles (casual vs professional discussion)
- Better handling of technical content with the AI voices explaining complex concepts
- Pro tier with our own dedicated servers for faster processing
- Self-hosting option from our GitHub repo once the plugin gets approved by WordPress
The hosting thing is interesting because AI processing isn't cheap. The free tier works great for testing, but for heavy usage, having dedicated servers makes a huge difference in speed and reliability.
Try It Out
If you're a WordPress site owner and this sounds like something that could benefit your readers, I've got a beta program running. Fair warning: it's still rough around the edges, but it works and your readers will have that embedded MP3 player right at the top of your posts.
Signup for Beta access: https://post2podcast.xyz/
Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJvivUrKDrc&ab_channel=SpreadOutAI
The whole thing started as a "wouldn't it be cool if my readers could..." project and turned into something that might actually help other WordPress site owners engage their audiences in a new way.
What do you think? Would you use something like this on your WordPress site? Or am I just overthinking the whole "readers want audio versions of blog posts" thing?
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