Podcasting Your Way to Internet Marketing Success!

These days, almost every Internet marketing professional uses a blog as their main base of Internet operations, for the ease of updating their information, an interactive way to keep in touch with their audience and to increase their branding worldwide. Done right, blogs are also a powerful targeted traffic magnet that can bring in prospects then funnel them to the desired product, service or affiliate link.

What many are missing, though, is the added targeted traffic draw of podcasting on their blogs. A podcast is simply an audio version of some information, usually an article or blog post. This additional format is an important accessibility aid as well, for people with poor eyesight and for those who speak the language but aren't cognizant with it in written form.

Preparing a podcast is simple - just read your post into your microphone or headset and record it. For the optimal ratio of file size to quality, try recording it at 44.1 Khz in 16-bit mono and saving it as an MP3. Those suggested settings are somewhat arbitrary though, so if you're not familiar with the technology just record your post or article at your computer's default settings.

For use with a WordPress blog, look through the various podcasting plug-ins in that section of their site. One important concern is whether the plug-in creates a separate RSS feed for your podcasts - if it doesn't, you'll want to set one up manually. If you're setting up the podcast RSS feed yourself, there's a great tutorial for it on the iTunes website - look for the 'Submit Your Feed' link.

And that's the other purpose to using podcasts - listing your RSS feed in directories like iTunes, PodcastAlley and PodcastReady will expose your work - and your site link - to a much wider audience. Millions of people use these directories to download MP3's to their players, their phones and their computers each day, and you want to tap into that upscale market right from the start.

As a side bonus, the plugins will usually also add a player to your blog post itself, giving your visitors the choice of reading the post or listening to it. For those who choose to listen to it, hearing the words in your voice, with your inflection, will help them connect to you as a person, as opposed to an author on yet another Internet marketing blog.

However, it's important to remember it doesn't NEED to be your voice - you can just as easily outsource the reading of your articles to a professional 'voice' - voiceover talent that specialize in that well-known radio type of broadcast voice. Numerous sites offer this service, so a search for 'voiceover talent' should get you started in the right direction.

Overall though, the benefits derived from greater accessibility and the greater potential targeted traffic you can appeal to make podcasting a well-worthwhile addition to your Internet marketing arsenal. Start adding podcasts to your blog today!

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How Podcasting Can Help Your Online Business

If you follow the blogging and social web worlds, you've probably heard the term "podcasting." Podcasting is simply the creation of audio files that are designed for easy distribution over the Internet, generally using the popular MP3 format. Thousands of people are creating podcasts now and their creations are widely distributed across the net, so it's definitely a hot trend - but don't worry about the sizzle outweighing the steak, because podcasting adds real value for almost any business.

Many business podcasts use the format of a radio talk show, with a host (often the site owner or business manager) interviewing guests who have something informative or interesting to say on the topic of the podcast. Other podcasts follow a lecture format, or take an infomercial-type approach. In general, before starting a podcast you should consider who your target audience is, and what you want them to take away from the podcast. Then you can choose a format best suited to distributing that information.

So why podcast? The first and simplest reason is that podcasts bring in audiences. People love podcasts, and they search the podcast directories and iTunes daily for new podcasts to listen to. You can bring in dozens or even hundreds of new visitors to your online site just by having a podcast out there.

Second, you can use your podcast to directly promote your products or affiliate links. Not many people are interested in downloading a commercial, but if you are providing valuable information and mentioning how your products or your affiliate's products are relevant to the topic of the podcast, you will be advertising your material without a heavy sales pitch.

Third, podcasts can help you develop relationships with your customers. Hearing someone's voice adds another layer of perception to their experience of you, which may currently be limited to the written text and visual imagery on your site. Adding your voice adds credibility and believability to all your messaging, not just what's directly on the podcast. Podcasting on informational topics will cause people to view you as an expert on your topic, particularly if you are providing valuable information in your podcasts,

Finally, podcasting can be a direct revenue stream for your business. If you start to develop an audience for your podcasts, you can accept advertising and/or sponsorship for them. Again, you want to avoid turning your podcast into a purely commercial endeavor, but dedicated listeners don't mind hearing some sales talk or advertising if they are getting something of value in return.

Getting started with podcasting is straightforward. You can do it for free with a variety of free tools out there, but the simplest way is to sign up with Audio Acrobat. AA has a modest monthly fee, but they take care of all the details for you. You can record audio files at your computer with a simple microphone or using a call-in line with your telephone, and the resulting podcasts are easily streamable. You can post your podcasts to your sites as well as to the podcast directories.

Podcasting is an inexpensive and easy way to open a direct line of communication to your customers and community. It might not be right for every business, but the odds are very good that it is right for yours. Give it a try!

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