The History Of Podcasting And What It Means For You

There isn't much literature on the history of podcasting but you should know that this new technology hasn't been around for a long time. Podcasting is a relatively new concept and this form of marketing is still relatively new to marketers. I first got my introduction to podcasts when I was making a blog for my website.

When I made my blog, I had no idea about podcasts. I didn't even bother trying to figure out the history of podcasting because I was convinced that it was a passing internet marketing fad that would soon dissipate away - but I was wrong. Podcasting is still strong and is still an excellent way to get your message across to people.

In fact, podcasting is so huge, that even financial expert Suze Orman uses it to promote her business. For every episode that she has, she extracts the audio and places it on iTunes for people to download for free. This is what I love about podcasts. I can load them into my MP3 player and get awesome content for free.

There are all kinds of podcasts out there on the market today, but most of them share the same premise. Podcasts are all about giving out good information to people in a niche, and having them subscribe to your podcast's RSS feed to receive updates when new podcasts are created.

You can get a podcast RSS feed from a free service such as Feedburner.com. When you first sign up to Feedburner, it will ask you if you're using your feed as part of a podcast. You will want to check the box for this field to indicate that you are. This is the easiest way to get started with a podcast RSS feed. After you got your feed, it's time to start promoting it to the world.

One thing that you will want to do is to submit your feed and content to iTunes. iTunes is the largest podcast directory on the net today. This is how I know about Suze Orman's podcast - it's listed in iTunes and it's listed there for free. I highly recommend that you start listing your podcast here for free now.

Another way to promote your podcasts is to include a short blurb about it on every page of your website. This will be a new technique to do since not a lot of people know about the history of podcasting, but for those that do, they will have instant access to your materials all for free.

Another way to get the word out about your podcast is via referrals. Start within your own email list and let them know that they can download your content for free from iTunes. Offer them a gift or incentive of some kind for referring others to your podcast. The free gift could be a complimentary MP3 that isn't available on iTunes.

I can remember when I first got started out online, I offered ebooks for sale and my bonus product was 36 more ebooks. This isn't exactly an awesome bonus, but it worked effectively for getting me sales.

The history of podcasting is a history that doesn't have much past, but you should know that you can take advantage of this growing trend. A lot of people listen to podcasts on a daily basis, and you can capitalize on this growing opportunity by offering podcasts of your own.

Be sure to start incorporating podcasting into your daily marketing routine today.

Good luck with using podcasts to market your internet business.

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The Best Advice For Podcasting

Podcasting is an extremely powerful tool that should be in every information marketer's toolkit. It can help build your reputation while it attracts traffic to your site. It can provide information to your customers while it helps to position your products.

But it can be frightening. And every once in a while I'll get questions from people who want to run a podcast but are afraid.

One of the most common questions is "What's the best advice for podcasting?" And I must admit to being hard pressed to pick a single piece of advice as the best. There is so much advice possible and so much of it is good and important. However, here are the top five in my opinion from bottom to top.

5. Fix it in the edit room. All too often new podcasters think they have to be perfect. But it just isn't so. In fact, the audience will relate to you better if you make the occasional flub. In fact, the hardest job for the editor isn't fixing your mistakes. It's deciding what mistakes to leave in. As for the rest of your mistakes, remember that your podcast isn't live. It's recorded. That means the audio editor (remember him?) can correct your mistakes. The result could be (but shouldn't be) a perfect podcast. No matter how many mistakes you made!

4. Record podcasts in a batch. Podcasts are a repeating product. You are going to need many of them. It's far more efficient to record them in a batch than it is to record them one at a time. For example if you are producing a podcast once per week, recording one podcast per week is inefficient. You would be better off recording a month's worth of podcasts on one day.

3. Stand up and walk around when you are recording. It sounds odd but there is a good reason for it. Standing up changes your lungs. Simply put you get more air and therefore you can speak better. Walking helps you to put more energy into your speaking. And that passion and energy will be heard by your audience.

2. Smile. If stand up and walk sounded odd, this advice will sound downright silly. But it's true. Your audience can hear you smile. And a smile changes your attitude as well. So always smile when recording your podcast.

And the best advice of all is... (drum roll please!)

1. Be prepared. If you were ever a Scout you heard this phrase time and time again. But it applies to podcasters every bit as much as it does to campers in bear country. But rather than bringing coffee cups and can openers (ever tried to open a can with a sharp stick?) instead you need to plan. You need to plan the audience you want to attract. You need to plan your format to meet their needs. You need to design (aka script) your podcast's columns.

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Podcasting How To - How to Edit Your Podcast

So you have the ideas, you have the software, now all you need is to make your podcast into a bite size package ready for delivery to the adoring masses.

How long should a podcast be? A good question to ask when you want to create your own podcast.

That's a common question and a good one too- too long and people will lose interest, and too short and there is not enough content... I would say from experience that about 20 minutes is the average length you want to be shooting for. Once you have recorded it, (which you can do with just a simple computer headset), then you will be wanting to make it bite size and easily deliverable- in other words, you need to edit it.

Now, don't worry, it is nowhere as bad or as difficult as you think, I promise!

Here are some tips and tricks on editing it.

OK, well lets assume you have the ideas, that has been covered in other articles by me on how to create a podcast.

Now you need some editing software. As a radio man, I personally like to use Cool Edit, or Adobe Audition- and that might be a long term investment and worthwhile one, but I am guessing you are wanting free right now?

Well, the good news is, there is good free editing software, called Audacity, and it is rather easy to master.

First, you need to grab it. If you go to Google and type in "Audacity", you will see as the first search result- "Audacity Free Download"- just hop over there and download it, and install it on your computer.

With a little configuring, you can record audio into your computer, edit it, and mix music into it. Then with another small bit of configuration, you can export that track and, hey presto, you can have your podcast ready! Hurray!

There are lots of tricks you can use once you understand Audacity, like making audio louder or softer, and moving it around in the places you want it.

It is a relatively short learning curve, but it is worth learning I have to say, a Brian Tracy, the well known author is known for saying- "All skills are learnable".

Now I guess you would like some training, so if you go to Google and type in "the podcasters bible", you can grab a load of free training videos, which I made for you. Enjoy!

How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   How To Pick A Great Name For Your Podcast   

Producing a Podcast

So you've decided to create a podcast. You're all set to star in your own show. There's only one problem. You've heard about regular broadcasts and you're wondering what is involved in producing a podcast. After all, regular broadcasts have producers so shouldn't podcasts?

Don't worry. Producing a podcast isn't as difficult as it seems at first glance.

First off let's answer the question of what is producing. And then we'll get into the tasks involved.

So what is producing a podcast? Simply put anything that isn't on air is considered producing. All the technical and management functions are part of the production aspects. Even the selection of talent would be considered production. Although with a podcast of course the talent is sort of a given!

So what are the tasks involved?

There are six basic tasks involved in producing a podcast.

1. You need to start with a target audience in mind. Everything you do has to be done to attract and retain your target audience. In order to do that you need to develop a profile of the audience you want to attract.

2. You need to determine the format of the podcast. There are several possible formats of podcast from interview to columns to a single class. Each of the formats has its advantages and its disadvantages. You need to pick the one that suits your customer best and requires the least amount of effort on your part.

3. You need to write the podcast script. Depending on the format this may in fact involve many different scripts. However, on the other hand it may also involve a level of scripting that is essentially the same as the script design.

4. You need to record the audio. There's two parts to this. The physical recording of the audio is definitely a production task. The actual audio being recorded is typically considered part of the performance rather than the production. The separation is arbitrary really. Both pieces need to come together to produce a podcast.

5. You need to edit and package the audio. This is really two different tasks that are performed at the same time. Editing the audio involves removing errors and dead air in order to give a polished podcast. During that process music and bridge audio is typically added to give the podcast a professional sound.

6. You need to distribute and market the podcast. The final task in the production of a podcast is getting it into the hands of your audience. This consists of two different but related tasks. The second is marketing which is simply making the audience aware of the podcast. The first is distribution which can take many forms. Some of which are indistinguishable from marketing efforts.

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Podcasts - Different Types of Formats

So you've decided to produce a podcast. Good for you! They're a great way to build traffic. And an excellent way to build your reputation as an industry expert.

So have you decided what format you're going to use?

Now let's get something straight right off the bat. I'm not talking about the format of your audio files. That's a matter of choosing between MP3, WAV and WMA (hint, go with MP3). What I'm talking about is the format of the presentation. Think of it as the format of the content delivery.

In this article I'm going to discuss four different formats which you can use for your podcasts. Now while you are going to want to pick a primary format there is nothing saying you can't change the format either occasionally for specials or after a period of time in order to keep the show fresh.

So what are the four most common formats?

The first is the short course. Think of it as a regularly occurring teleseminar. You present the teleseminar. Record it and post it as a podcast. The primary difference between the two forms of learning content is that a teleseminar is usually one to one and half hours in length. Sometimes they'll go longer but they aren't normally any shorter. Podcasts, on the other hand, tend to top out around the one hour range. But other than the length both teleseminars and podcasts are the same. The same techniques and rules apply to both media.

The second format I'm going to talk about is the interview. This consists of having an industry expert (or maybe just someone with an interesting viewpoint) appear on the podcast with the host. The host proceeds to ask the guest questions to explore the guest's opinions and views. The host engages the guest in a discussion about the topic which hopefully will interest the listeners.

The third format is the audio blog. This is probably the shortest format and the most flexible. It also has the least relationship to radio broadcast of any of the formats. Basically it consists of an audio version of a blog entry. Short, hopefully pithy and hopefully interesting to the audience. One day it might contain an article teaching a tool. The next could be an opinion piece (aka a bitch session) on a news item. The next could be a book review. And the next? Well whatever you feel like writing in your blog.

The fourth and final format I'm going to discuss is the column format. Have you seen the interview shows on the television? You know the one where there's a male host and a female host with a stream of guests -- roughly one every seven to fifteen minutes? Or the self-help shows where there's a series of segments - say a review spot followed by a how to use spot, followed by an "in the news" segment? Those are video versions of the column. This is simply the audio version. The podcast is separated into a number of segments with a different topic in each segment. Of course, there should be an overriding theme or topic but each column stands alone.

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How to Put Podcasts on Your Website With HTML

It's fun to plan podcasts. It's a learning experience to design them. It's great to record podcasts. It's joyful to edit them and watch them change from a raw recording to a professional product.

But at some point the rubber has to hit the road. That podcast you spent so much time creating needs to be put up on your website.

Now there are many ways to get a podcast on to a website. The easiest of course is to use a podcast publisher. These websites perform the same function as YouTube does for videos. They bring together the creators and producers of podcasts with the consumers of podcasts. Each of these publishers has their own process for submitting and then embedding podcasts. So I'm not going to deal with them.

Equally, many people use WordPress or other content managers to maintain their websites. Putting podcasts on WordPress websites is worthy of an article all by itself.

Instead I'm going to focus in this article on how to put podcasts on your website when it is a basic html site. I'm also going to presume that you aren't going to just turn the file over to a webmaster to install. You are either going to do it yourself or you need to know how it is going to be done.

First off you need to realize that a podcast is just an MP3 file. Theoretically it can be any type of audio file but the MP3 format is currently the best and most flexible for the purpose. And like any other file it needs to be uploaded to the website in order to use the web to distribute it. You can use an FTP client for this purpose. Or you can use one of many FTP in hiding techniques. These are generally part of your web editing tool and go by the name of upload or post or publish.

Once you have the MP3 file uploaded you are ready to use it.

If you were to simply put the http: location on the website as an "a" type basic link, the process would work. However, it wouldn't be a podcast. In that case, what would happen is the file would be downloaded to the audience member's computer and a media player such as Windows Media Play or QuickTime or Real Player would launch outside of the browser.

In fact you may want to provide that capability to allow your audience to upload the podcast to their MP3 players.

Instead you should use the embed command with the src or source file being the location of the file. This will cause the audience member's MP3 software to launch within the browser. You also have the ability to modify the size of the player so that only a control will show.

How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   How To Pick A Great Name For Your Podcast