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www.thepodcastersbible.com | Podcasting How To | Leveraging audio and social media part 3 posted by admin on September 30, 2011


In this episode I interview Jack Humphrey of Blog Success, the next bit! It is in several short, bitesize parts for you. Enjoy!
Jack:Well you have to be plugged into your sources of information. I mean we all succeed on the backs of people who came before us. We are all succeeding now because somebody thought WordPress would be a good idea and now we are all using WordPress and we are succeeding because somebody thought podcasting would be a good idea, and then it’s the same for information.
You have heard the saying ‘there’s nothing new under the sun’ and throughout human history there are certain points where there really is something new like E=mC2, and then the entire scientific community and physics today is built on the shoulders of that thing that was new and there have been new developments from that and okay, so Einstein said this but now we are finding, but through my research that was inspired by Einstein that this and this are true as well, and that’s exactly what we are doing in the blogging community.
I mean if you think you are the first person to write about a lot of the stuff out there in a niche you are probably wrong and what you are doing is you are putting your own spin on it, you are updating people on new information that will change what the original information was or the way people perceive it in some way, and new ideas for how to handle that information and put things into action, for instance.
So if I came out with something on SEO, which I just have, a lot of that stuff is nothing new under the sun but it’s got my own spin on it and it’s got the very most recent developments in SEO included in it where the original content didn’t because those developments didn’t exist at the time.


Neil: Understood, yeah, certainly an evolving leading-edge thing. Now I know you’ve got a certain amount of tools with your business blog success and I do want you to give that very big plug here  because I am big fan and for the record I endorse – whole-heartedly endorse everything that you do. I have also consulted with you on some projects as well and I wanted to get that in print as well and you are absolutely fantastic.
So if you got internet projects and wondered about how to launch things and you are looking for a damn fine consultant, Jack Humphrey is your main element to get that immortalizing print.
What tools do you have that help people when they are getting information from a niche and when they are sort of researching their niche, or what tools do you have to help Panda information done and keep it focused when people are using it to get the information that they need, the marketers I mean, does that makes sense?
Jack: Yeah, you are going to have your key websites and from my example, I am glued to Mashable.com because I teach people about social media, social marketing – things like that. If you are a political blogger you are going to have Huffington Post and all the other different US political or wherever you are, you are going to have the leaders in your reader, however you organize that. If it’s in Google Reader or whatever, but you are going to check that on a daily or very frequent basis to see what’s new. What’s new in the world? What’s new in my part of the world that’s going to affect my content, that’s going to affect my readers to get them to talk about my site?
Neil: What specific tools do you have that’s…?
Jack: You use Google Alerts. You go to alerts.google.com and that will tell you whenever, based on any keyword, something new has come on the web, somebody has got a new story or whatever, as soon as it comes up and Google finds it, it sends you an email and lets you know what it’s about.
So you get emails on a constant basis when you set that up for a range of keywords that are the things that you probably set your categories on your site up for – the same thing that you are putting your categories so the things that you talk about is a good place to start with setting up Google Alerts.
The other thing is the most basic is just using Google Reader. You can use any kind of RSS Reader but you need to go around and subscribe to all these top line sources of information – news sites, blog sites, whatever it is in your niche, whoever the biggest movers and shakers are who are developing news, reporting news and publishing on a regular basis, so that you can have a constant flow of ideas coming in.
Well I need to do a post on that but I think this person is wrong here and my post is going to be about that news item so I am going to have that keyword but I am also going to give my own two cents about this, or I am going to develop a podcast show around this issue because it just blew up. It’s trending.
And speaking of trending you can go to Twitter, you can go search.twitter.com and do searches on keywords and find out what people are talking about. There’s also one called TrendWatching.com and there are several tools like that. You can just go to Google and type in trends, trend watching.
Google has got a trending tool for search and you can start to understand how these really big sites that are really popular and they are always coming out with content like crazy and now they have a staff of maybe 20-30 people and they are coming out with 50 to 100 posts a day with the entire site because it’s got different sections in it and they are sort of the uber sites – how do they do that?
Well they’ve got people out there using tools like this and their each person is assigned the latest news and politics desk person and that’s all that’s their whole filter. So they set up their alerts to Google Alerts, they follow the sites that are making the most news in that particular area and when anything happens in that area they come back to the blog and report it and they use those tools to do it.
That’s how they stay so plugged in and they have multiplied that over many, many staff members, or when you are doing it by yourself you have to use the same tools as they do and you are responsible for the content and everything and in two different ways in this particular scenario what’s going to be a good blog post and what’s going to be a good podcast to maybe get a guest star.
This is a great way to find people who are movers and shakers that you didn’t know about for interviews, if that’s your podcast style, doing an interview and just interviewing successful people or experts in certain things where you don’t even have to know all the stuff in that industry; you just have to be a good interviewers and all the questions are typically the same across every niche.


If it’s an economist you are going to talk about the same kind of things – it’s going to be your current events, and so you don’t have to be the expert to do all of that stuff.
Neil: Thank you. Are people very open to be interviewed? I mean are people fairly approachable?
Jack: Oh it’s so easy. People have egos and they have their own goals and they need to get out there. When you said you wanted to interview me I didn’t even blink because I know you have a following and I know you are well known and I definitely always want to do interviews with people when I know I am going to get something out of it. I mean I am getting exposure through this – very, very easy to do.
So what you do when you are starting out is you move up the ladder. You start interviewing peers and those peers have connections that you don’t. You try to get a bigger connection and you just keep going for bigger and bigger fish and then leverage the last fish that you were on with to get the bigger fish.

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www.thepodcastersbible.com | Leveraging audio and social media Part 2 posted by admin on September 26, 2011

In this episode I interview Jack Humphrey of Blog Success, the next bit! It is in several short, bitesize parts for you. Enjoy!

 

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Neil: Your greatest success by far was the Authority Blackbook, wasn’t it? I mean that was just incredible that launched you as quite literally as an authority on the scene, I mean it was huge, wasn’t it?
Jack: Yeah, but we weren’t able to take advantage of Twitter and Facebook at the time because there weren’t all the tools so you could put right on your site. Now you can have an html plugin for landing pages where they would download the Authority Blackbook and people can comment on it.

Jack: What we did back then was we setup a blog where people had an autoresponder message after they downloaded the book, it says, “Hey, tell us what you think on the blog”, and we got a massive amount of comments doing that but it would have been so much bigger and better if the Facebook commenting was right under there. If anybody listening has seen that it basically looks just like Facebook. It’s a Facebook comment area and if you are logged into Facebook your little face, icon, whatever your profile picture is already there and when you type a comment out for what you think of that, say the Authority Blackbook, also goes on your Facebook wall, which then takes it viral.

I mean we got viral the old-fashion way. I can only imagine what Authority Blackbook comments would have been like had we had the ‘Tweet’ buttons and everything that we do today. It just would have been unheard of. In the end, so we got well over 100,000 downloads of that book and we still get about 50-70 downloads a day of that book without any…it hit critical mass. There’s so many links out there about it now.

And then the Twitter and the Facebook stuff did pick up. We don’t do anything with that anymore; people just still find it everywhere. All the places we wrote about it, all the places that other people wrote about it on their blogs, people did reviews – lots and lots and lots of reviews came out of it and I tell you it wasn’t as much as us pushing it as putting up a really, really excellent product, and most of those things were people being moved by the product itself to do it and we didn’t have to go around and the weight of the world was not on our shoulders to get all the links that you’d see to the Authority Blackbook.

Neil: It was a fact that it was just so damn good, and you use that as a free give away to start with and then you start things on the backend of that rather than setting that individually, which is a very good strategy I thought.
Jack: Well and it is just podcasting how to. I mean you’ve got a monetization idea but you are not charging people for like my weekly radio show is free, and again which we work really hard to make it attractive and get people talking about it and that starts with taking it off of, I’d use BlogTalkRadio, taking that immediately off there and putting it on FridayTrafficReport.com and that’s my clientele right now.
The last two things I got published there that weren’t podcasts were two guest articles and I used to publish and you should when you are starting out. You should publish every day. If you are in the right kind of niche with a lot of topics, a lot of questions being asked out there by people, where you need to be providing the answers and providing link posts, things like that where you have just got a list of resources like ‘the top 10 places to do this’ or ‘top 10 tips for ______’, in the dog training thing how to get your dog stop jumping up on people when they come in the house or whatever.
Neil: So yeah, you are kind of answering the questions to get along on, thank you. It’s odd of but the original question I thought, I have this terrible tendency to go for tangents, which was how do you monetize audio content? We have established, you are a Web 2 master, we have established the tools much better than they actually were and that’s basically what you are doing, you are posting every day doing a radio show and then putting that on the post as well. You are obviously not charging for the radio content but you are finding out what people want and then creating appropriate radio content to answer the questions, would that be right?
Jack: Yeah, and I mean people will ask questions. When you start picking up a little gravity and people are starting to comment and things and you do things like you invite them to ask anything. Ask me anything about dog training, anything you want and if I choose your question I will use your name and if you want, or I’ll even link to your site if you own a website and I’ll answer it on the blog and then all of a sudden you’ve got content coming in that you can’t even handle all of it because there’s so many people are like, “Well, what do you do in this instance; what do you do in that instance?”
That’s a good niche because you can put up a post or you can do a show that answers the questions that way you think they need to be answered but if you are in a really rich niche, like dog training you’ve got millions of different breeds of dogs, you know, and just all kinds of different things. So you can only do so much in your podcast to answer questions. You want your podcast to bring up more questions.
In fact there was a trick that Andy Beal uses at MarketingPilgrim.com which is really a good one and it’s ‘don’t answer every question’, like know the answer to the overall question, give four or five different tips and purposely leave out one of the big tips that someone is going to go ‘Wait a minute, he didn’t say anything about this’ and they will make a comment and they’ll say, ‘What about that’ and that usually is a starter and that gets spread around because on your blog you should have a Facebook ‘like’ button and there’s a plugin for that, and you should have a ‘Twitter’ button – there’s a plugin for that, and those being separate are much more important than using the plugin called ‘ShareThis’ which is sort of overwhelming. When you click on that it’s a little green thing with two little nodules on the end. It opens up into this window that says, “You can share to all these different places”, and most people don’t belong to the vast majority of them. It gets confusing and they end up not sharing as much and we have tested that.
Neil: Yeah, yeah, that did confuse. That’s an aspect that confused me. There’s so much information.
Jack: That you end up doing nothing.
Neil: Yeah, coming in all directions. I love one of your phrases, I have read one of the things you wrote, ‘it’s becoming information overlord rather than the information overload’, which I thought was brilliant and perhaps if we could talk a little bit about tools that help you head down, that laser light focus that is obviously necessary. So it’s interesting you brought out and you talked about sharing because you are right, you don’t want to confuse people. Not that people are stupid, far from it but people are easily confused. You come to the website and say, “Well, what am I going to do here?”
Jack: Right, and that you need to give them very…everything on your site is designed for desirable actions that you want people to take, like opting into your lists or clicking on a link to go to your product page or an affiliate link – I mean you have all of these desirable actions you want people to take and you’ve got to get them to take those actions with the least resistance and friction as possible. They cannot be expected to figure things out in any way; it needs to be handed to them.
Neil: Yes.
Jack: So it makes you pare things down. So the ‘ShareThis’ plugin, if anybody is using that and they are wondering why they are not getting shared a lot, it’s because it’s too complicated. It’s really, really geeky. You have to go back and remember what it was like when you started surfing the web, and you will remember that you didn’t know what all of these buttons meant and ‘ShareThis’ gives you a million buttons to click on.
Most people don’t belong to any of those services and if you are going to share on the web you are going to do it on Twitter or Facebook, that’s just where everybody is. I mean plain and simple, there’s 500 million on Facebook, there’s a 145-150 million on Twitter and those are the places where you are going to want to go to get the most buzz for yourself. So you want those buttons individually at the bottom of each post.
Neil: Right.
Jack: And if you want to throw one more in there you throw in Google Buzz and there is a plugin for that. So you have three buttons and three chances. So if somebody is really loving more than any other, they love Google Buzz then that’s what they are going to push. They are not going to probably come back and push the Twitter button or the Facebook button. You are going to get people to do one thing if anything and so when you are publishing your content just sings to them, is their muse and if they really like it, they like the tune, they are going to spread it around and that’s how you leverage your following – the traffic you are getting from the search engines and the traffic you are getting from the search engines again, to your podcast page. If you use like BlogTalkRadio or you are just podcasting on your own, you are recording stuff and putting it right on the blog, you build up a following and that following needs to know at all times that you would like them to ‘like’ ‘tweet’ or put it on Google Buzz or otherwise blog about it. You’ve got to get people blogging about your stuff too.
If you surf around in any niche you have these little movers and shakers and you are either one or you are going to be one, and what they will do to come up with content is start with a quote from someone else. Somebody came out with a blog post about an interesting dog training trick and you quote them in your podcast and in the notes for your podcast on that same blog post. You might even link to them.

You are doing to them what you want them doing for you and what did they do to get you to do that? They said something interesting and very relevant to your audience, something that your audience you thought really needed to know.
So it all originates with the content. You can’t polish a turd, as we say, and so if you are just slapping up stuff and you are doing it from the sake of it, because you heard podcasting was a great way to, and it is, get a bunch of links, get out in areas that most people don’t think to market in and add really quality different kind of content and especially different mode of delivery to your site, then you can do that. You can’t just go through the motions; there’s got to be good stuff and if it’s good stuff then that’s what gets passed around and getting it passed around, you have to make it very, very easy for people to do that.
Neil: Let’s just destroy the myth that you can just put aside that, put a few plugins on to something and little too much to go far and to make you a millionaire of the night because that’s the impression you would get from some of the websites out there. I mean like you say, it’s got to be good quality stuff, the tools. Of course the tools are secondary to the good quality content. But if you want to make your own podcast it certainly can’t help you.
Jack: And don’t confuse good quality with you’ve got to be able to produce a podcast like Neil does with all the bells and…that’s not the quality, when you create your own podcast – The quality is the information and it’s more specifically answering questions that desperately need answers, that people have already been out there going I wish somebody would just break this issue down for me or keep me up to date on the latest information in a certain area and do it in a way that…you know the way that you do it is not as important as that you are doing it and that you know where to find the content that people really want, the ideas for content that people really want to know about.
Neil: And how would you find that if you were researching on these? I mean so we have established beginning user with the podcasting as our mode of delivery, we’ve got some good tools in place to do it, we’ve set ourselves up on BlogTalkRadio, we’ve got the right plugins but then how do we go and find good old niche finding in the very beginning – how do we get that there?


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www.thepodcastersbible.com | Leveraging audio and social media Part 1 posted by admin on September 25, 2011

In this episode I interview Jack Humphrey of Blog Success. It is in several short, bitesize parts for you. Enjoy!

Listen or read, and if you like it, please leave a comment below.

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Neil:         Thanks so much for agreeing to do this.  What I want to talk to you about Jack was you have a very successful – if busy internet business, and radio show , and a blogging master-what I wanted to really focus on was how you get your audio and market it on the blog and with Web 2.0 (Social media), and how to make a successful business model out of that.

Jack:  

 Well, I did it kind of backwards in a way, I mean I did the FridayTrafficReport.com was a blog that was mostly text-based original content and what I call foundation contents.  In every market you need to have content on your site that people expect to see.  So if you have a site about dog training there are pieces of content that everybody needs to have on the site.  It shouldn’t be all the same.  It should be original content but it should be, if you are on a dog training site you are going to want to see that they have all the different aspects – puppy training, leash training, paper training – all these different kinds of things which make up the foundation content.  Every dog training site should have that foundation.

That foundation content gets you rankings to start and gets you the respect that you need when people land at your site that you are an authority in that niche at market, and that’s basically what I did for a couple of years on Friday Traffic Report.  I just blogged.

If I was to start over with the idea of having a podcast right from the very beginning I would do the same thing.  I would blog as much as possible.  If you really are honest about your niche and you have chosen a good one, that’s really good version and topic range and all the different things that you can do then you will have a lot of things to write about or have written, outsource it – however you want to do it.  But that’s not just doing keyword research and saying ‘this is what I need’; it’s also doing competitive research with people who are already out there doing this stuff who probably have the popularity that you want at some point and looking at their best pieces, the ones that get the most traffic, using compete.com and your Google Tools and things like that to analyze.

 There’s a really good tool actually for analysis.  It’s at SEObook.com, that’s Aaron Wall and he has got a really cool SEO toolbar that can tell you a lot about every individual page that you land on with your competition and go ‘wow, this content really got a lot of lengths’, you can see the comments without having a toolbar, got a lot of comments interaction. 

You can also analyze how many times that was ‘retweeted’ and ‘liked’ on Facebook.  Typically that will be writing your phase-2, that’s widget’s report back on that and then those…

Neil:         Can you just explain ‘retweet’ quickly for the benefit of those that wouldn’t understand that, what does ‘retweeting’ mean?

Jack:        Basically it’s when someone grabs a piece of content on the web and tweets about it and usually your blog should be set up with a plug in and there’s many plug ins that do this but when you are working with WordPress you just go into the ‘plug ins’ database and do a search on Twitter and you will find every plug in that does anything with Twitter.  Most of them do something to connect your blog to Twitter and so you are the one who is actually putting your content on Twitter all the time.  Every time you post it goes up on Twitter.

And ‘retweets’ are when somebody goes ‘I like this enough; I am going to retweet it’, that means they pass it on to their followers by retweeting and it goes on and on and on like that.  Their followers can do the same thing and it can get viral sometimes.  So that’s retweeting.

‘Liking’ is Facebook and that’s when people click the ‘like’ button.  Everybody is familiar with the ‘like’ button now and what happens there is same thing.

More in  part 2.

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Podcasting How To | Leveraging your podcasting and increasing traffic (part 2) posted by admin on September 10, 2011

OK, you have heard (correctly), that podcasting is good for brand awareness, and you know pretty much how to do it.

But then you realise that the search engines do not index audio – I mean, technology is good, but not THAT good.

So, is it possible to leverage your work , and vastly increase your traffic? Yes, read on to learn how, this is a transcript of a conversation between Neil Long, and internet mentor and genius, Nicola Cairncross.

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How do you come up with content because I am starting to get the impression that there’s almost a way of making this like a demonstration of continuous motion.  We find things to talk about; we find people to interview, convert it, get traffic from it, which draws people who have got stuff to tell you.  I mean is it like that?  Is it like a perpetual motion machine?

 

Nicola:       Absolutely Neil and that’s why I call my company the Business Success Factory because I wanted to make people realize that business success can be systemized.  It can become like a factory and production line and people, they sort of don’t like that idea – because they think ‘oh well, we know there is no entrepreneurial spirit or anything’ but the thing that having systems in your business does for you is, you know, I am still a one-man band.  I am just trying to take on the first apprentice and I am outsourcing bits and pieces here and there but the thing about having systems means that you could get on the exciting fun stuff but you need traffic to convert to a mailing list, the mailing list you could sell the things to and you could get feedbacks.

 

So for example, I am just about to launch a very short, sharp, shock coaching program 4 weeks – very affordable and I got that idea from talking to our list about what they want because there’s a large portion that can’t afford my up market  mentoring programs but they really did well, a nice little short, sharp shock.

 

So that’s I wouldn’t have got that I do if I hadn’t been talking to our list about what they need.

 

Neil:            Interested about yeah, communication – different levels of, yeah.  So you would recommend podcasting as a good medium of communication and easily done.

 

Nicola:       Yeah, one of the easiest because everyone can talk can’t they, not everyone can write but everyone can talk and everybody can interview people so even if you have got a little blog, a little website, but still get to need traffic and it’s about a particular topic, you could identify your top ten experts in the field and go and interview them on the telephone for an hour each, not only could you then transform that and get it on your blog but you could podcast it and you can turn it into video for YouTube and then you could make a little product out of it from your website.

 

Neil:            Well thank you for this wonderful information.  What about transcripting – is that expensive?

 

Nicola:       No, I have got a lovely lady in the Philippines who I thought was called ‘Aa’ because whenever she wrote to me she just signed herself ‘Aa’ and it turns out that’s actually her initials and I think pulling her off at last.  But she cost me about $10.00 an hour for transcription.  If I send her an hour’s worth of audio it costs me $10.00 to get it transcribed and she has got used to my little colloquialisms now so she comes back very accurate indeed.

 

Neil:            Yeah, well thanks so much for sharing this information with us.  I am off to do exactly that to follow your advice to the letter.  So Nicola Cairncross, thanks ever so much but before we go because this is going to be on my blog and on YouTube and podcasted, as you know, please give us some details about what you are offering and where people can find that.

 

Nicola:       Okay, I have a nice little webinar going at the moment which is called ’17 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Know to Profit in Tough times’ and you can find that at www.NicolaCairncross.dom/17things

 

–        that’s the number 17 and the word ‘things’, so www.NicolaCairncross.com/17things

 

 

Neil:    Okay, thank you very much indeed Nicola Cairncross.

 

Nicola:       You are welcome any time.

 

Neil:            Thank you.

 


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Podcasting How To | Leveraging your podcasting! Part 1 posted by admin on September 10, 2011

 

OK, you have heard (correctly), that podcasting is good for brand awareness, and you know pretty much how to do it. But then you realise that the search engines do not index audio – I mean, technology is good, but not THAT good. So, is it possible to leverage your work , and vastly increase your traffic? Yes, read on to learn how, this i s a

transcript of a conversation between Neil Long, and internet mentor and genius, Nicola Cairncross.

Leverage your podcast content and increase your traffic - part 1 [ 6:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (59)

 

Neil:         …think I can get you to spill about podcasting how to and how it’s been of great benefit to you etc. and we will shamelessly transcript it and put it on the blog and please feel free to plug your wares because I know, that Nicola does an awful lot of different things, a lot of which are very, very valuable to many, many people.  So do feel free to plug away shamelessly anything you have and use this as your forum.       Ladies and gentlemen, Nicola Cairncross talking about how to make a podcast.

 

Nicola:       Hi there!  Thank you for having me on your call again.

Shall we talk about podcast creation?

 

Neil:            Welcome!

 

Nicola:       Well, we can talk about podcasting because I have to come a massive, massive convert since you have taught me how to do it.  I did a little bit about years ago and then I just let it slip because it seemed like awfully hard work but you inspired me again and then you helped me to set the tone up and now what I am doing is I am recording most of my blog posts and turn them into podcasts and more than that, I am working on my sister’s album which is being recorded now and she is doing an album probably called ‘At last’, which is ironic, and she has recorded old standards from the 20s, 30s and 40s in a contemporary accessible jazzy style but I think that they are really intimate. Think Adele.

 

She had about 28 people on mailing list and about 70 followers on Twitter and a blog that she had not been blogged on.  So I am getting her not only to blog three times a week but then to read those blogs out loud so we can turn them into a podcast and then on taking those audio recordings and as well as podcasting them on I-Tunes and taking them and turn them into videos and uploading them to her YouTube channel- if you create your own podcast, you can leverage your content in this way.

 

Yes, so every bit of writing she does is being leveraged in three places.

 

Neil:            And what does that do for the traffic?  Does that literally triple the traffic?

 

Nicola:       Well it takes a little while to build up Neil, but when I look her stats for traffic, she was jogging along getting about 10 visitors a day since about last June or July and suddenly, in the last three months she is up to nearly 100 visitors a day.

 

So when you look at where it was just coming from, it is Google organic search, it is Twitter and it is Facebook.  YouTube is building very slowly but once you reach a certain critical mass on YouTube I think it’s probably when you got about 50 to 100 videos, your YouTube traffic starts to dramatically increase because your videos are shown higher in the list of related videos when other people are watching stuff that’s related to what your video is about.

 

Neil:            Ah, so it’s a sort of compound interest, if I may.

 

Nicola:       Exactly, yes.  Exactly, compound interest on traffic but the point is it’s so easy.  She takes a while to write a blog post because she likes to include also detailed pictures and things but then it only takes her five minutes to read it out loud and let me say she sounds very Radio 4!

 

And then it only takes me the work of minutes to put a picture on it in my movie editing software on my computer.  I let her just input the audio, put a picture on it and then save it as a video and then upload it to YouTube.  So each bit of writing is being leveraged in three ways and it inspired me to start doing the same with my blog.  Well, it shamed(!) me actually to start doing this…but it’s had a dramatic effect on by far traffic which is rather marvelous.

 

Neil:            All right, so what you are saying is it is not as hard as it sounds; it is easily teachable and you just brought one thing – you said you put a picture in.  I have once, see I am a bit of geek, once I get on the Movie Maker Software, I think ‘Oh, that picture would be nice’, and I turn it into sort of an epic production again.  It gets turned in Star Wars or something but really actually for the sake of this one picture would do, one still picture, right?

 

Nicola:       Yeah, I mean what I have done is I have created them…she has got a logo for her podcast and then I just duplicated that but changed the word to ‘Vidcast’ and so I put that at the beginning and then she always puts that tools for your pictures in her blog-post anyway.  So it’s not really very hard for me just to copy those into the movie.

 

So I have a 15-minute movie; she might have three or four pictures and then perhaps the webcast – one at the beginning and the end and it mainly is effortless almost because it’s working away in the background process in the movie while I am getting over the other stuff and then you just upload it to YouTube and that happens in the background too.

 

The key thing with YouTube is to go and write a keyword-heavy description.  So what I am doing with her things is wherever she is writing about, you know she likes to get down to John Wilson, ‘Hooray for Hollywood Prom’ and so I went and put in ‘Hooray for Hollywood’ on YouTube and I found the most viewed videos and I looked to the tags they had used and I included those tags in Heather’s video tags.  Yeah, and that’s the best way to make sure your video is get shown off to other people watching high traffic videos.  That’s a good trick for you if you make your own podcast.

 

Neil:            Yes, sorry I was so blown away by this internet marketing acumen.  I am sorry, I was trying to think about three things at once but I was very blown away and that is a fantastic tip.

Click on the image below to learn how to do this easily for yourself!

 

 


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Podcasting How To | The Trouble With Podcasting posted by admin on August 7, 2011

It seems to me that many small to medium sized companies like the idea of having their own podcast and have heard that they are good for business, and as a result, we receive plenty of enquiries about recording and podcast production. However, a lot of work and time is involved in producing a regular podcast and can turn out to be quite daunting for the new podcaster. It is therefore no surprise that a good number of enquiries do not actually turn into podcasts.

I feel that there are some very valid reasons for this.

Cost

The cost of professionally produced podcasts can be prohibitive for small to medium sized companies who are new to the world of podcasting. In our experience, a podcast is only really effective as a series, with the recording and production costing anywhere from 150 GBP to 500 GBP for each podcast, depending on the complexity and involvement of professional voice-overs and audio editing services. With an average cost of around 300 GBP for podcast production and a series of at least six shows, the financial investment is significant; however, if you get the content of the podcast series right, you should get a healthy return on your investment. More about this later.

Typical costs can include: -

  • Using professional voice-overs
  • Location recording
  • Mixing, editing and production
  • Inclusion of sound effects and music

If done properly, the benefits of your podcast series will far outweigh the costs for many years. Once on the web, it can be accessed and enjoyed by millions of people around the world. The trick is to pitch the podcast content correctly to your target market. If you are business minded and approach your podcast from this point of view, it may make sense to try and cover your investment by selling Podverts (podcast adverts) to potential sponsors. This works quite simply by placing one or a number of podverts within the content of your podcast show. The benefits of this are clear as the sponsor will have their product(s) advertised to all of your listeners. Furthermore, your listeners will be in a particular market group and it makes sense for complementary industry sectors to get on board with your podcast series from the beginning. Initially, this will probably be more difficult as you do not have a proven track record, but once you have a successful series under your belt you should have listener figures that you can impress sponsors with.

Your sponsors can pay a one-off fee for their podvert or you could offer a discount for purchasing multiple podvert slots. In a 10 to 15 minute podcast, I do not think it unreasonable to have 3-4 short adverts / sponsor messages dividing up subject segments. Provided your audio producers are discreet about the placement and number of podverts, your listeners will just accept these as part of the package; we are all used to seeing and hearing adverts.

Once your podcast is established, you can take this concept a stage further by offering an advertisement feature to your sponsor, for example, an interview about their product and/or services. As long as the feature is relevant and offers value to your target market, this too will be accepted as part of the package. This already happens on radio shows and TV. Most of the time we don’t even realise we are being advertised to.

Podcast content

This is probably the biggest reason that a podcast never evolves into a series and is probably the hardest part for most businesses to actually get their heads around. Writing the script for a podcast can be time consuming and quite difficult to start with; however, once you have got a feel for it, like everything else in life, it becomes easier. If you really struggle with this, there is no reason why you cannot employ the services of a scriptwriter and give yourself the position of creative director. Personally, I believe that it is more important to find a subject matter that is interesting and valuable to your target market than creating a perfect script. Brainstorming with colleagues and even clients about potential topics, subjects, features, interviews, and entertainment items will soon give you a rough outline of content that can be the raw material for your scripts.

Once you have the outline for your first podcast and possibly your second, the shape of the series will become clearer and from this, you should be able to create a show template. It is a good idea to test these initial ideas with a few people before going to the expense of having a professional podcast recorded and produced. Once you are happy with the overall ideas of your podcast show, you will need to either script it for a professional Voice-over to narrate (usually more favourable) or host the podcast yourself.

The choice of using a professional voice-over or doing the narration yourself is one that you need to take. There are good and bad points to both of these. If you are unaccustomed to talking into a microphone, the results could be pretty horrific for the listener and as a result many people may switch off and never listen again. On the other hand, if you are good at talking into a microphone and can project the right amount of personality, you may just become a hit with your audience. The clear benefit of using a professional voice-over is that your podcast will sound polished and more like a radio show. Either way, you need to decide which would be more appealing to your listeners / target market.

If you decide that becoming the host is a little bit of a stretch for you, there are companies that can organise the services of a professional voiceover for you.

There are various ways that a good producer can incorporate elements of location recording with a studio-produced voice-over to provide a varied and authentic contrast in the podcast production. For instance, it is easy for a voice-over to introduce a 5-minute interview or a 5-minute chat you had in the office with a colleague or business contact. The contrast between the two will create a variation for the listener. For example, I have known podcast interviews to be carried out on trains, planes, bars, nightclubs and even limos.

Don’t be afraid to be creative. Being different can help you stand out from the your competitors and could be the factor that gets you recognition by your target market and industry.

Getting it out there!

Podc ast marketing is a big subject, and

as a company, the best way to get your podcast to the right listeners is to tell them directly. Use your client list / mailing list, after all, these are people that have an interest in your product and services because they have either used your services or joined your mailing list. If you have a newsletter that you send to clients on your mailing list, you could maybe create an audio version of it or just promote your new podcast series on your newsletter.

Okay, so you have a mailing list of 20,000 people that you have sent your latest newsletter to; you tell everybody that you have a great new podcast and everyone listens to it… not quite. Even though most people have heard of the term podcast and think they know what it is, there are still lots of people that do not know what podcasting is, where to find podcasts or how to listen to them.

When advertising your podcast, direct your mailing list subscribers to a page on your website or blog that clearly explains and educates them about your podcast, the listening options available and how to subscribe to future podcast shows.

In reality, a lot of people do not realise that a podcast can be easily listened to from their computer, iPod or mp3 player, or burned to CD for listening at home or in the car. Many people do not realise that their downtime, especially during commutes, can be used as valuable podcast listening time. You could be the one to educate and entertain them via your podcast; they will be ever grateful to you for this.

Depending on your budget and product, a great business promotion would be to offer your top clients a complementary gift, an mp3 player for example, pre-loaded with your podcasts and even company branded.

There are companies that produce branded merchandise i.e. pens, mugs, coasters etc. who could possibly do the same with your promotional gift.

Once you have your podcast subscribers, you need to keep them listening. Asking for listener opinion and feedback will help refine your podcast series in order to keep them engaged and eagerly awaiting the next show and possibly, your new series. You could do this quite simply on your website by asking for feedback or having a comments box on your blog. It is a good idea to offer an incentive for providing feedback, such as a prize draw to win a new iPod, gift vouchers etc.

I highly recommend that you have your podcast transcribed and available as text on your website or blog. The reason for this is that the search engines cannot analyse the content of your audio, they can only analyse and index content that is textual. Your transcript will contain all of your relevant keywords and key phrases that will attract the search engines and attract new listeners and potential new clients. This is an ideal place to have your comment box.

Monitoring

Once your first podcast series is out there, you need to monitor its effectiveness. Time and money has been invested into the recording and production of your podcast so you need to see a worthwhile return on your investment. This can be measured in various ways, however, the key objectives of your podcast should be to:-

  • Cement existing relationships between you and your clients and provide them with added value.
  • Attract new clients via your podcast on the web and via referrals from existing listeners.
  • Increase awareness about your products and services and to spread your message.
  • Keep your company ahead of your competitors.

If you can achieve all of this whilst getting sponsors to cover the cost of your podcast production, your venture into the world of podcasting should be highly successful and very profitable.

About the Author: Lee Pritchard is the founder of Media Music Now, a high quality Royalty Free Music library that offers a variety of music, voice-over and audio editing services including Podcast Production using professional voice-overs. Lee also has a keen interest in music licensing and is excited about the future of independent music on the internet.

Podcast Production: http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/podcast_production/
Blog: http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/blog/

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Podcasting How To | Podcasts as a Learning Aid posted by admin on August 7, 2011

“Want to learn to speak Japanese? Try a podcast.”

The Internet has truly revolutionized the distribution of learning materials.

In the last couple of years, podcasts as learning aids have become increasingly popular, either as a stand-alone mini-course or as an enhancement to courses and programs delivered through more traditional sources. Spend a few moments Googling “podcasts for learning,” and soon you will be downloading podcasts to help you learn to speak Chinese, Japanese, Italian and other languages; or podcasts offering instruction on Plato’s philosophy, current scientific issues, environmental concerns, and almost anything else you might want.

A podcast, according to Wikipedia, is a digital media file or files that the broadcaster (or podcaster) distributes over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on digital media devices and personal computers. The term is coined from a blend of “iPod” and

“broadcast.” Unlike streaming audio, podcasts allow you to control when you listen to your favorite shows.

Learn Out Loud

Learn Out Loud purports to be a one-stop destination for audio and video learning. It includes approximately 136 podcasts among its 10,000 titles. And, as you would expect nowadays, members rate the titles using the familiar five-star method.

Learn Out Loud offers podcasts in eight categories: careers, study aids, journalism, exam preparation, medical, law, teaching and writing. On the day of this visit, the site was promoting three featured podcasts: one on how to write a podcast, one from Monster.com offering career tips, and another called Career Opportunities (geared toward individuals working in the high-tech industry). And–oh my goodness!–I just noticed that “This podcast is a companion to the print column of the same name that appears in ComputorEdge Magazine in San Diego, California. Written and hosted by Douglas E. Welch.”

Another podcast that caught my eye is The Naked Scientists Radio Show Science Podcast. And no, don’t confuse it with the Naked News. These scientists merely “strip down science and lay the facts bare.” Other interesting titles include the Media Artist’s Secrets Podcast. Intended for the creative professional, the blurb says that this podcast is semi-daily, fast-paced, info-packed and fun

As near as I can gather, podcasts are free, although the site does sell other learning products. Teach Out Loud is the site’s service for those who want to publish a podcast or other learning aid. Teach Out Loud is a free and simple tool, the site says, and publishers may earn royalties if applicable.

Digital Podcast

The Digital Podcast directory site lists podcasts in miscellaneous categories–ranging alphabetically from art to video products and everything in between. The directory contains 15,525 podcasts in 95 categories and has 17,305 registered users. To help us choose from its many offerings, Digital Podcast provides lists of the highest-rated podcasts, podcasts with the most voting points, and podcasts with the most subscribers.

Not all of Digital Podcast’s podcasts are learning-related, although many are. Its featured podcast during my visit was Insta Spanish, providing instant Spanish lessons. Other learning podcasts include Bootcamp: A Report on Computers and Technology, InvestorIdeas.com’s Investor Educational Podcast, Learn Japanese, English as a Second Language (for those wanting to improve their English), Manager Tools (helping people develop managerial and leadership skills), Learn Mandarin Chinese Direct From Shanghai, Sales Strategy Radio (developing sales skills), and many others.

Podcasts for Continuing Education

Podcasts also show up as delivery vehicles for content providing continuing education and skill development to professionals of all sorts. Here are a few of the offerings I found.

The Business English Pod helps business professionals everywhere improve their command of business English.

Let’s face it: Even some of us whose first language is English struggle with business English. We can only imagine how people who speak English as a second language must struggle with some of the jargon.

Teachers and educators find learning and skill-related podcasts at various sources, including Fordham University’s Center for Professional Development and The Educational Podcast Network , with its many offerings.

Podcast.net , another huge podcast directory, lists podcasts specific to many other professions–including law and politics, science podcasts representing various disciplines and topics, podcasts for the IT professional, podcasts for visual and performance professionals, and podcasts for professionals in business and finance. Medical professionals will find a directory of medical broadcasts at the Arizona Health Science’s Library .

Space limits the listings I can describe, but I’m optimistic that almost every professional will find a podcast with career-related information.

Podcasting in Curricula Delivery

Many schools are implementing podcasts as a vehicle for delivering course materials, with educational podcasts showing up at universities, community colleges, trade schools and institutions providing distance learning. This delivery method is said to appeal to today’s technology-savvy youths.

Even young kids are getting in on the act. According to an article published by the Dallas Daily News , fourth graders at one of the city’s elementary schools are podcasting to global audiences, sharing works created in class and discussing their projects. Fans of the podcast, which are sure to include proud grandparents and other relatives, can download the files for free through Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

The Government Is Doing It

Podcasting also provides a way to keep current with your government and its weekly activities. Free Government Info has links to multiple government podcasts, including the president’s weekly radio address; podcasts from the Senate; podcasts from several states (including California); and podcasts from various government agencies, such as Agriculture, Department of Defense, the Census Bureau, Health and Human Services, NASA and more.

You Can Do It Too

Want to broadcast your own podcast? If you want to podcast from scratch, you will need a microphone, a recording device, and a Web server or Web host with enough space to store many megabytes of data and the capability of handling a lot of bandwidth. You will also need special software.

If this seems too daunting for a beginner or for a hobbyist, Web sites like My Podcast.com make it easy for you. My Podcast.com provides free podcast recording and hosting–and, since it serves advertisements with your podcast, you stand to earn cash each time someone downloads your product.

An apple for the podcaster!

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Podcasting How To | How to Pitch Podcasters posted by admin on August 6, 2011

In my experience, pitching yourself as a podcast interview subject is very different from pitching your book to a publisher or getting on television, with one exception: you have to do your homework.

Pitching your manuscript to a publisher requires a formal proposal containing certain elements, such as a marketing plan and a competing and complementary books section, in addition to sample chapters. Talk-show hosts like Jay Leno have very specific guidelines for would-be guests, along the lines of You must use our e-mail submission form and you must send video a particular format. And, of course, for print media coverage, there’s the traditional press release and its social media variants.

Take a Personal Approach

Because most podcasts are a personal and informal medium, most podcasters are suspicious of marketing-speak and press releases, especially if the pitch looks like something that’s been sent out on a massive scale. Most podcasters have small, vocal audiences, people who think of them as friends and who will let them know in no uncertain terms if they don’t like a show. There’s a strong sense of community among podcasters and listeners, and when it comes to doing interviews, podcasters prefer people who are part of that community to people who aren’t, unless the interviewee is extremely well-known.

Like bloggers (and many podcasters are bloggers), podcasters are as likely to lambaste a bad pitch to their listeners as to simply trash it and ignore it. To learn what not to do, take a look at the Bad Pitch Blog.

Picking Podcasts to Pitch

In April 2006, FeedBurner reported that it was publishing 44,000 podcast feeds. That’s good news: it’s a pretty safe bet that whatever you’re writing about, someone is podcasting about it. And no, you won’t have to listen to all 44,000 in order to know which ones to pitch.

Remember the audience profile you had to create when you created your book proposal? You want to find podcasters whose audiences are the same as your ideal reader.

These are more likely to be podcasters who talk about the same subjects as your book than book review or literary podcasts, though you shouldn’t overlook those, either.

To find podcasts on the right subject, check out podcast directories like iTunes and Podcast Alley, which allow listeners to rate and review podcasts. Read the descriptions and the reviews and make a shortlist of the most likely candidates.

And, of course, don’t overlook any podcasts you’re already listening to.

Joining the ‘In Group’

So what do you do after you’ve gone through and found the highest-rated podcasts on subjects related to your book? First, listen to the podcast . Better yet, subscribe to the podcast and listen to several shows. Read the show notes and the comments. Find out whether interviews are a regular part of the show. (Some shows feature interviews every week, others occasionally, and some not at all.)

Next, start commenting. When you leave a comment on the show’s blog, you can enter the URL for your book instead of your home page for some subtle self-promotion, but the important thing is to respond thoughtfully to something in that episode. Write a paragraph or two that continues the conversation and shows that you know what you’re talking about.

Genuine Connections

While podcasters don’t necessarily expect people they’ve interviewed to listen to every show from then on, they’ll shy off anyone whose interest seems too self-serving. Just because a podcast has a lot of listeners doesn’t mean that you’ll like the show or the podcaster. If you don’t, don’t try to fake it in order to reach a potential market for your book. Make sure the podcast and its host(s) are a good fit for your personality before you try to line up an interview.

It’s That Simple

You’ll probably have to do this more than once before the podcaster asks to interview you, but if what you say is interesting enough to the listeners (who will usually hear it read out in the next episode as well as having the opportunity to read it on the show blog), the podcaster may contact you immediately. If not, keep listening and commenting for a few shows, and strike up an e-mail correspondence with the podcaster.

Once you’re sure that the podcaster and the listeners know who you are and find your comments interesting, volunteer yourself as an interviewee. And as long as there’s enough time before the interview date, send the podcaster a copy of your book. Even if the interview isn’t about the book itself (and it probably won’t be), having the book in hand helps the podcaster to come up with interview questions.

Keep the Discussion Going

Naturally you’ll want to listen to the episode with your interview in it, but don’t stop there. Check the show notes to see what listeners have to say about the show. Is there anything you can pick up on and respond to?

It’s also a good idea to listen to the next episode for more feedback, and to send in any answers you have to questions which might have come up. Some questions might come directly to you, but many listeners feel more comfortable dealing with the podcast host(s).

If enough listeners want to know more, you might get invited back for another interview.

Side Benefits

Some podcasters also review books. Indeed, there are book review podcasts out there, and it doesn’t hurt to search for them.

A podcaster who likes your book might also write up a short review on the show blog and include an Amazon affiliate link.

One of the nicest things about podcast interviews, though, is that you can link directly to the episode from your own website without having to worry about how to handle the audio file at your end. (Very often, though, podcasters will give you permission to repost the file on your own site if you wish to do so.)

Best of all, though, you don’t have to go through layers of screening to get access to a podcaster–which is part of why podcasters have such dedicated fans.

© 2006 Sallie Goetsch

As co-founder of the Podcast Asylum, Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with “sketch”) writes and speaks about podcasting from the listener’s perspective. She started “smoking the podcast dope” in April 2005 and immediately began using podcasting to make connections and attract prospects from around the world without recording her own podcast.

She works tirelessly to cure the epidemic of Podcastus Ignoramus among business owners and produces Reports from the Asylum for the popular communications podcast For Immediate Release.

If you or someone you know is suffering from a podcast-related mental health syndrome, write to sallie [at] podcastasylum.com

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Podcasting How To | 10 Ways a Business Leadership Podcast Can Help You and Your Podcast Audience posted by admin on August 6, 2011

Podcasts are fast becoming one of the more popular Internet communication mediums. You might have even sung the praises of podcasts like so many others. The praises may include the fact that a business leadership podcast (or any podcast for that matter) can help you increase your SEO visibility or that a podcast–if done well–can position you as an industry expert. However, you may not have considered the following 10 benefits of a business leadership podcast, but first, what is a business leadership podcast?

A Business Leadership Podcast: What is it? A business leadership podcast is a podcast that may directly or indirectly mention your products or services but first and foremost requires that you inspire your audience to gain valuable leadership skills.

10 Benefits of a Business Leadership Podcast

1) A Business Leadership Podcast Can Help You to Reevaluate Your Audience…..Again! When it comes right down to it, every thing in business is about reaching the CORRECT audience…the people who have a valid interest in your services or products but who also want to be inspired. With a podcast, not only do you have the chance to audibly explain your market niche but whoever is listening WANTS to be listening. Whether they’ve clicked through an email to your podcast, found it via your website or greedily grabbed for it via an RSS feed they want that information!

2) A Business Leadership Podcast with Personality! When it comes to business leadership and communication, personality counts…..a lot! Whoever said experience counts may have been wise but personality seems to be the inevitable default choice. The great thing about a podcast is it takes communication from the written word to a convenient audible expression of what your company is all about. So even if you work for a “boring” software company, your podcasts can be witty and clever and charm the socks off your interested audience. This of course also requires that you find talented script writers and energetic spokespeople.

3) A Business Leadership Podcast for People on the Go! For your adoring audience, podcasts are the perfect element of convenience. You can download them onto portable devices like an iPOD, an MP3 player, etc. For all you know, Mr. Joe Giles on 7th Street in Michigan likes to listen to your podcast as he runs in the morning. Time for your audience is often more valuable than money and if you save them more of it, your audience will notice.

4) The Benefit of Repetition in a Business Leadership Podcast This might be an obvious benefit, but hey a podcast is obviously a better option than a radio spot. After all, your audience can skip forward and skip back from segment to segment and perhaps even rewind and fast forward. If they miss the announcement of the new launch of your website or an important phone number, all they have to do is access the info with the quick click of a button.

5) Your Customers Can Access a Business Leadership Podcast via RSS Feeds As mentioned above, RSS feeds allow interested members to find information from a specific category that they have been looking for. Once they find your podcast for instance, they can sign up for an RSS feed (if you make it available) that will notify them when a new podcast is available.

6) A Business Leadership Podcast can Increase Involvement with Your Audience Your audience could even be a part of your podcasts. You could include podcast testimonials with clients who are willing to participate and invite other audience members to call in and share their experiences for future podcasts.

Perhaps you could host a contest for the most interesting testimonial.

7) A Business Leadership Podcast Requires Research Entertaining and Informative podcasts require research and thought…..continued research and thought, which makes it difficult (if you keep making podcasts) not to remain on the leading edge of your industry. Most savvy business professionals know that continued research and study is essential for a healthy business but how many businesses continually act on that knowledge?

8) A Business Leadership Podcast Creates Unity Within a Company If you use individuals from every branch of your company or at least request the advice of many trusted members, you will find that a business leadership podcast–especially an entertaining one–can indeed create unity within your company. As in #7, most business professionals know that creating unity is essential within a successful business but once again, how many professionals are consistent in their unification endeavors?

9) A Business Leadership Podcast can be a Boon for Your SEO Campaign
Podcasts can indeed bolster your SEO visibility! According to an online podcast sponsored by Pod Blaze, “…Yahoo and MSN both have the ability to search for content that is presented in an RSS format,” and to paraphrase, there are also a variety of podcast online directories where people are searching for the information that they are interested in. These directories in combination with RSS technology make it easy for you to get the information that you need to savvy information seekers. 10) Better Leadership with a Business Leadership Podcast When you are required to be a leader in your industry, it’s hopefully easy to see new ways in which you can improve. A leader has to be willing to try, fail at times and succeed at times. Use your business leadership podcast to increase your own leadership skills and those of the people you work with.

Marci Crane is a web content specialist for Innuity. To get a better idea of a business leadership podcast, feel free to visit the VitalSmarts website which boasts an excellent example.

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Podcasting How To | Dental Practitioners Become Podcasting Pros in 7 Simple Steps posted by admin on August 5, 2011

Do you value community outreach activities? Are you looking for better ways to communicate with—and educate—your patients, your peers, or even the media? If your goal is to deliver your message to more people, more effectively, more often, then I have the answer you’ve been looking for … and it’s powerful, fun and remarkably simple.

Why not use the cutting edge technology of podcasting to spread awareness about the importance of proper oral health? Stay with me now—if you have a slight case of technophobia, that’s okay. I’m confident that if your practice has the technical know-how to produce an online newsletter, then learning to integrate podcasting into your outreach activities will be a snap. And believe me—podcasting is the most innovative mass-communication vehicle to emerge in years, and will greatly increase the impact and reach of your message.

Let’s begin with the basics. Think of a podcast as a radio program that anyone can download from the Internet. Put another way, a podcast is a digital file that is available to everyone—via free subscription—over the web. Most podcasts are audio files only (like CDs), but video content can be added as well (like DVDs). The main advantage of podcasting over traditional broadcasting is that users can download these web files to their personal computers, mp3 players, and/or CDs, and then listen to them at their convenience—in their car, during their morning run, or even in your reception area.

More and more, podcasts are becoming recognized as the latest robust communication tool to harness the Internet’s power to reach a large number of listeners quickly. If your podcast contains valuable information, your listeners will share it with others, rapidly disseminating your message around the globe. Also, because podcasts use RSS (really simply syndication) technology, new episodes are delivered to your subscribers seamlessly. Once a listener subscribes to a podcast using iTunes or another similar service, that service automatically downloads new episodes as they are released, making it practically instantaneous and effortless for your audience to receive your message.

Putting together a professional-sounding podcast is easier than you might think. Since valuable content is paramount, the first step is to prepare interesting topics for your episodes. I suggest that you commit to producing bi-monthly episodes, meaning that you initially need only six topics per year. Once podcasting becomes part of your routine, increase your production to twelve topics per year. If you are already producing a paper or online newsletter for your patients, the most logical progression would be to reformat some of that content into podcasts. A good way to start is to identify topics that you could cover in more detail by talking about them in a podcast rather than writing about them in a newsletter.

For example, the most recent newsletter that my dentist emailed to me included an article about the dangers of periodontal disease, including information on how it may be connected to the development of heart disease, warning signs to watch out for, and recommended preventative actions. This is valuable information that I am interested in, and I am thankful to be on this mailing list. But imagine that I have received this information in the form of an audio podcast, personally recorded by my dentist, urging me to book an appointment for a much-needed checkup. I am immediately spurred to action! Speaking directly to your audience—in your own voice and with your own inflection, tone and spirit—creates a much more intimate connection with your patients. This relationship-building quality is inherent in audio, and it’s part of what makes podcasting so powerful.

If you have doubts about the widespread acceptance of digital audio files, consider this statistic: on April 9, 2007, Apple announced the sale of its 100 millionth iPod and more than 2.5 billion songs from the iTunes Music Store. Now consider that anyone can download podcasts from this same music store and listen to them via their mp3 player or their computer, or burn them to CD … for free! As more and more people (including your patients) “tune in” to audio files via the web, offering them podcasts that complement and expand on the content of your existing newsletters provides you with another way to remind them about the importance of proper oral health and the services you provide.

So, what equipment and software do you need to record

and produce a podcast? You can become a podcasting pro in just seven simple steps:

1. Verify that your PC is running Windows 2000, XP or Vista, and has the ability to play audio files.

2. Invest in a microphone. Altec Lansing makes decent products, some of which list for under $30, and are available at Future Shop. But I recommend splurging a little to improve your audio quality. Blue Microphones makes a great USB mic called the Snowball, which retails for $130 on the Canadian online Apple Store. (This mic will also work with your Windows PC.)

3. Download and install your recording software. Audacity is an excellent audio editor that is available for download from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. And you can’t beat their price point: it’s free.

4. Record and edit your podcast.

5. Partner with an online hosting service to set up a website specifically for your podcast. Liberated Syndication is extremely inexpensive and gives me everything I need. At $5 USD per month, I can lease 100 megabytes of storage space per month, which translates into about two hours of audio. This basic hosting account gives me unlimited bandwidth, meaning that even as my audience grows exponentially, my monthly cost never increases. LibSyn also provides me with easy-to-use templates for my podcast’s website, and automatically generates and updates my podcast’s RRS feed. Another, similar service worth considering is Go Daddy.

6. Upload your new podcast to your hosting service using their simple submission page. Completing the submission page is similar to sending an email. Simply type in the title of your podcast (like a subject line), add the description of your episode (like the body of your email), and include your mp3 file (as an attachment). You can even attach a corresponding image, if you like. Uploading your podcast stores the mp3 file online and makes it available to your audience—they can download your podcast from your newly created podcast website.

7. Promote your podcast! This is as easy as sending an email announcement to your contact list with the URL of your podcast’s website. But to take advantage of the various online podcast directories, you need to visit their websites and submit your podcast’s RSS feed.

You should never pay to be included in these directories, since the best ones—including iTunes, Podcast Alley, Odeo, and Podcast Pickle—are free.

For Mac users, these steps are even simpler, thanks to Garage Band and iWeb. As a Mac user myself, I’d be happy to pass along some pointers to get you started.

Like you, I believe it’s important to remain connected with my client base, and as a lover of all things tech, I choose to use innovative approaches. I have successfully engaged the power of podcasting to promote my company in two weekly podcasts with rapidly growing success. And by following these seven simple steps, you too can become a podcasting pro!

Copyright 2007 – Blue Melnick. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and include the following by-line:

Blue Melnick is a professional podcast producer, and the co-host of two weekly podcasts: Biz Link Radio and The Tech Advisors. Contact Blue through www.bizlinkradio.com [http://www.bizlinkradio.com/], through www.thetechadvisors.ca [http://www.thetechadvisors.ca], or by phone at 416-462-3323. To listen to podcasting for dental practitioners in action, download the April 30, 2007 episode of Biz Link Radio, featuring Toronto dental surgeon Dr. Lancelot A. Brown!

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