Listening to podcasts isn’t something I enjoy or take time for, quite frankly. I’m a visual learner and prefer to read something rather than listen to it, as I find reading a much quicker way to gather the info that

I need. However, with the proliferation of audio listening devices, like the whole iPod family and other mp3 players, I have to acknowledge that I’m in the minority, I believe. The world is listening to a wide variety of audio files, much more so than ever before in history, and I need to get on the bandwagon or be lost in the dust.

What is a podcast, anyway? A podcast is an audio file that you create in .mp3 format that is uploaded with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file to your server for your target market to download on any number of programs created to receive or subscribe to your audio file so that they can listen to it at their leisure on their computer or a personal mp3 device.

Why should you create a podcast? I think it serves as a marketing tool for the solo service professional, who might want to do one of the following:

–create an Internet radio show or talk show in which you create content-rich broadcasts for your target market

–conduct a teleclass series in which you interview experts who have solutions to problems faced by your target market

–promote a printed book, ebook, or CD/DVD series by releasing promotional snippets to a wider audience

–provide short and valuable expert tips to your target market (my Get More Clients Online podcast consists of the weekly article I write for my newsletter)

Many podcasts are about an hour in length, especially when they consist of recordings of radio shows or teleclasses. However, I think that the listening threshold for most people is about 10 minutes. So, that means that your podcast needs to be 10 minutes or less in length. If it’s longer, you really have to grab their attention in

the first 10 minutes to keep them listening for the full amount of time.

Good content and a good speaking voice are key to maintaining interest. Don’t make your podcast one long advertisement for your services or products — share some useful information with your target market to help them solve their problems. And, you need to have a good speaking voice. Nothing is worse than listening to someone read a speech with a monotone delivery. So, for maximum impact when you record your podcast (especially if you’re just recording yourself), get up and walk around, smile, gesture, or do whatever you normally do when you deliver a speech. Modulate your voice, much in the same way that you would when you have a 1:1 conversation with someone — put feeling and emotion into your words. I pretend like I’m talking to my best friend, and that helps me with a lively delivery.

What are the steps to creating a podcast?

1. Listen to a few podcasts to get a feel for what others are doing. To listen, you’ll need a podcatcher (podcast reader), which permits you to subscribe to podcasts in the same way you subscribe to blogs. I favor iTunes as my podcatcher of choice, which is a free online download. You’ll also need to find podcasts, and the quickest way to do that is via podcast directories, which include the iTunes store. Podcast Alley, one of the most popular podcasting sites, has a large podcast directory, and Yahoo Podcasts has a podcast search. To find others, simply search online for “podcast directory.”

2. Plan your podcast. Who is your target market? What do they want to listen to? How will your podcast be unique from others in your industry? What’s your format (interview others, host a teleclass, or record yourself)? How long will your podcast be? How frequently will you deliver your podcasts?

3. Record your podcast. Many people choose to record their podcast with a free piece of software called Audacity. It has an easy learning curve and advanced features for more experienced podcasters. Mac users might want to check out Garage Band. For best recording sound, don’t use the microphone that came with your computer or that is built into your laptop. You’ll want to get a more professional one, such as the ones offered at Plantronics or Radio Shack.

4. Save and upload your podcast to your server. Once you’ve created your podcast in an mp3 file, now you have to save it and upload it to a server via an FTP program (like CuteFTP) so that it’s readily available. You can upload it to your website, or use one of the many podcasting hosting services available. The problem with uploading it to your website is that audio files are space hogs, and you can quickly exhaust all the storage capacity of your hosting account, not to mention your monthly bandwidth capacity if your podcast is popular and is downloaded frequently. That’s why I use a fee-based audio service hosting company, Audio Acrobat, which offers me generous storage and bandwidth capacity for a semi-annual fee. Another popular podcast hosting company is Hipcast.com.

5. Create your podcast feed. You can create your podcast feed from scratch, but I recommend you use a feed service to do so. If you use a podcasting hosting service, this feature is included in your service package. For everyone else, the quickest way to create your podcast feed is through Feedburner.com. This is the same service that creates RSS feeds for blogs. The advantage of creating your podcast feed from this site is that you can create a browser-friendly feed, track your circulation, and enhance your feed with its SmartCast technology.

6. Publish and promote your podcast. If you use a podcasting hosting service, the service will publish your podcast and notify various podcast directories about the availability of your new podcast. Or, you can enter the info directly into the major podcast directories. You’ll also want to promote the podcast on your website, blog, and in your email newsletter. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add feed subscription buttons (called chiclets) to your sites. You’ll have to cut and paste the HTML code into your templates to create the chiclets. You can get directions on how to publish subscription buttons from the various podcasters you want to feature. Lastly, you’ll want to create “album art” for your podcast, or a graphic representation that many podcatchers upload with the mp3 file. Album art may be from 170×170 to 300×300 pixels square at 72 dpi. Any graphic designer can help you create this graphics file.

7. Make money from your podcast. Advertising on podcasts is still fairly new, but some companies like Fruitcast.com or PodcasterAds.com are places to start. Another option is to place Google Adsense listings on all of your sites listing your podcast, or seek sponsors for your podcasts, just like you would for a radio show.

Don’t let the audio world pass you by! Podcasting is a very inexpensive way of helping you get the word out about what you do and what you offer to the world.

Copyright (c) 2006 Donna Gunter

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at Get More Clients Online. Read about running an online biz at her blog, Get More Clients Online Blog.

The Corporate Podcast Push

What do Duke University, IBM, Capital One, Newsweek and Barenaked Ladies all have
in common? Answer: they are all reaching out to staff, students, and customers with
a new and powerful tool – podcasting. You may have heard about podcasting from
your kids or on the news, but podcasting is much more than some phenomenon
started by the rock and roll or techy crowd. Podcasting is a powerful communication
tool being used to reach global and mobile audiences, save people time and, most
importantly, really connect with their audiences in news ways – in today’s
communication/message glut. But let’s take a look at what podcasting is, who is
using and why it is so effective for both business and individuals.

First, we’ll look at the size and scale of the podcasting phenomenon…

– A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that more than 22 million American adults ownIpods or and MP3 player and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts or listened to podcast that have been “pushed” to them. That
equates to 6 million people listening to podcasts. Market researchers and analysts
continue to buoy up podcasting’s future with latest figures suggesting a US
audience alone of 56 million by 2010.

– Jupiter Research recently predicted that US digital music player sales would
grow to 56 million by 2010, up from 16.2 million in 2004 and by 2010, three-
quarters of all people who own portable digital music players will listen to podcasts,
a growth from less than 15% last year.

What is podcasting?

Whether you describe it as the greatest communication tool since email, or as an
RSS feed for audio, podcasting is a way to “push” audio content to subscribers for
virtually zero cost. Podcasting allows anyone (me, you, IBM, or NBC) to post audio
content that gets pushed to any subscriber’s desktop and then directly to their iPod
or MP3 player. This is global. Anyone, anywhere can “tune in” to your podcast and
learn what you have to offer or say. You don’t need to be NBC with a global
distribution infrastructure. Now people can “subscribe” to a podcast and have new
content “pushed” out to them without them having to surf the web, download MP3s
or burn CD’s.

Ideas/Stories/Voices ? Audio/MP3′s ? Internet ? PC ? MP3
player

All the arrows go in one direction. Once someone has subscribe to your podcast,
your content get “pushed” out to them. There is no turning in to stations with
podcasting. You don’t have to visit a website to find streaming podcasting. Podcasts
show up (pushed) when new content is produced. If you are a subscriber, you get
the podcast right then. All you need is an Ipod or MP3 player of any kind for
listening, thus the word podcasting.

The term “Podcasting” is derived from the iPod (Apple Computer’s popular device
for playing compressed audio files) and “broadcasting.” Podcasting allows for audio
files that would have been previously downloaded and played on a personal
computer to be automatically downloaded and listened to on portable music playing
devices (such as the iPod and other MP3 players).

Having originated in the world of blogging, some have even referred to podcasting
as “audio blogging.” For many, podcasting is a logical next step from blogging. As
Business Week Senior Writer Stephen Baker observes, “The heart of the podcasting
movement is in the world of blogs, those millions of personal Web pages that have
become a global sensation. In a blogosphere that has grown largely on the written
word, podcasts add a soundtrack.”

Now that you know what a podcast is, let’s look at where they come from: who is
producing the “pushed audio content.”

Who is producing podcasts?

The answer is wide ranging. Teenagers, techies and rock musicians were early
adopters. Today you see the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Business Week, ESPN and news
programs of all types producing, distribution and marketing podcasts. The number
of podcasts available is growing at a very rapid pace. In late 2004, there were close
to 500 podcasts available.

Today there are over 10,000 different podcasts to choose
from.

Now that podcasting has becoming more mainstream, corporate and non-corporate
organizations are getting into the act, using podcasting to connect with customers,
students, staff and partners. Here are some examples:

– Duke University handed out iPods to their entire 2005 freshman class so they
could receive podcasts that included university news, class work and social content.

– Capital One University has handed out over 3000 iPods to support corporate
training and communications. This includes, leadership training, sales, customer
service and other topics.

– IBM has created podcasts to show their thought leadership to customers
investors and prospects.

– Keane Inc. has handed out over 100 ipods to their global sales force to share
training, customers’ stories and organizational content.

Why have these and other organizations gotten into podcasting? They have gotten
into it because they know their audience (whether internal or external) is inundated
with text-based content: emails, articles, the web portals, and marketing messages.
Podcasting allows them a unique medium to reach and connect with their audience.

iPods will be part of Duke University’s new Duke Digital Initiative (DDI). “We’ve been
focusing on iPods and other mobile computing, but our wider goal is to integrate
technology broadly into the teaching and learning process,” said Peter Lange, Peter
Lange, the university’s provost and senior academic officer. “The iPods have helped
jump-start this process, and we plan to keep pushing ahead.”

Listeners love podcasting because it delivers rich content directly to them, in a form
that allows them to save time, control what they hear and listen to while
commuting, working or whenever it works for them. No longer is learning tied to a
book, PC screen or web portal.

Content is still king in any communication, especially recorded podcasts. Podcasting
is the delivery tool. Compelling content ensures continuous listening and not a flip
of the power switch or turn of the dial.

Should you podcast?

Podcasting is not answer to all your learning and communication problems. As great
as audio is, like any medium, it has its limits. While audio allows users to multi task,
it is not easily scanned – which means you consider the listeners needs very
carefully. You must provide value.

Corporate podcasting is different that individuals or media podcasting. The
standard for a corporate podcast is much higher than for individual or media. Your
staff and customers expect certain from your communication with them. You can’t
just offer long-winded rants, self serving commercials or cute content. It is all about
value. When producing that value, ask yourself; who and how will you produce your
podcast? Who will review it and how? Will you get it transcribed? There are legal
issues to consider as well.

Despite these issues podcasting can be simple. Once you have determined your
format and established a process the whole process gets much easier. Still
podcasting takes a proactive effort, a planned approach, creative development and
the courage to try new things. But if you have the courage, and are willing to put the
front-end work into it podcasting and mobile audio can provide huge benefits. If
you would like to:

– Reach a global audience

– Connect with that audience in a new and effective ways

– Save your audience time

– Share the passion, experience and stories of your business

…try podcasting – it works!

© 2006 Tim Keelan, StoryQuest Inc.

Tim Keelan is the founder of StoryQuest Inc. A Chicago based firm that produces peer-based mobile audio learning and communication tools.

You can reach Tim at tkeelan@storyquest.us or by calling StoryQuest at 312-258-0111.

You can find the links to these podcast directories by doing a search for them on your favorite search engine.

1. Podcast Alley – podcasts by topic, name or ranking

2. Audio.Weblogs.com – last 100 podcasts made/updated

3. Podcast.net – podcast directory (organized like Yahoo.com)

4. Odeo – a place to find new podcasts or create your own

5. iPodder.org Podcast Directory – categorized directory of podcasts

6. Podcast Central – Podcast RSS feeds

7. Potkast – Podcast search engine

8.

The New, New Podcast Review – reviews of podcasts

9. DownloadRadio.org – peer to peer (P2P) network of podcasts

10. PodcastDirectory.com – international podcasts

11. New Time Radio – Podcasts and radio shows

12. Podcast SA – Podcasting in South Africa

13. Loomia – podcast/videocast search engine

14. Podcasting Station – podcast directory arranged like Yahoo.com

15. Podsafe Music Network – Music podcasts

16. Podcast Shuffle – a podcast shuffle & directory

17. My Podcast Center – directory of podcasts and podcasting web sites

18. Podscope – podcast search engine

19. Yahoo! Podcasts – find & subscribe to podcasts

20.

Teen Podcaster’s Network – Podcasts created by teenagers

21. Podfeed.net – find or share your own podcasts

22. Women in Podcasting: The List – list of podcasts hosted/cohosted by women

As you can see there are quite a few podcasting directories and we haven’t even scratched the surface. The next time you’re looking for a podcast try one of the above mentioned podcasting directories.

Reed Floren is the author of How to Podcast for Fun and Profit [http://www.howtopodcastforfunandprofit.com] the book that teaches you how to profit from your own podcasts and creator of Podcast Teleprompter Software [http://www.podcasttelepromptersoftware.com] the software that makes you sound like a professional news anchor every time you do a podcast.