 The
Business Podcasting Primer
Written by Mitchell Harper, Interspire
Co-founder
Published on 25th July
2007
Introduction
A quick search for podcast on
Wikipedia
brings up this definition:
"A podcast is a
digital media
file, or a series of such files, that is
distributed over the Internet using
syndication
feeds for playback on portable media
players and
personal computers.
A podcast is a specific type of webcast
which,
like 'radio', can mean either the content
itself
or the method by which it is syndicated;
the
latter is also termed podcasting. The host
or
author of a podcast is often called a
podcaster.
The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the
name of
Apple's portable music player, the iPod,
and
broadcast[1]; a "pod" refers to the iPod,
and
"cast" to the idea of
broadcasting."
Put simply, a podcast is
a way
to publish regular audio and/or video
files over
the Internet. People can use iTunes (the
most
popular podcasting software) to subscribe
to your
podcast and automatically download it onto
their
iPods.
You can add new audio/video files to your
podcast
using special podcasting software and
iTunes will
automatically copy the new files onto your
iPod
for you, keeping your copy of the podcast
up to
date.
In this week's newsletter I'm going to
show you
how we've just setup our first podcast.
I'll show
you everything we did and I'll also give
you some
reasons why you should consider setting
up
a podcast for your business.
A Sample Podcast
If you have an iPod then open up iTunes
and click
the Advanced menu. Choose the "Subscribe
to
Podcast..." option and copy the URL
below:
http://www.interspire.com/email_marketing_podcast/podcast.xml
This is the URL to our new email marketing
podcast
that I'm going to talk about in this
newsletter.
If you subscribe to our podcast it will
appear in
iTunes like so:
Our podcast is all about email marketing
and includes 6 tracks totalling 30 minutes
in
length. You can subscribe to our podcast,
download
it to your iPod and listen to it in the
car or
when you exercise, just like you can with
all
podcasts.
I've submitted our podcast to iTunes
(Australia),
so it will appear under the Business
->
Management and Marketing category
within a few
days.
Enough about our podcast. Here's how
and why
you should create your own.
Why Start a Podcast?
The main reason to start a podcast is to
position
yourself as an expert in your area of
interest. A
podcast is a great way to build trust and
show
potential customers you know what you're
talking
about. At the end of the day a podcast is
a great
marketing tool, with the ultimate goal
being more
customers for you.
It doesn't matter which industry you're in
- you
can use a podcast to educate and inform
your
customers and prospects about topics
relating to
your industry. For example, if you're a
web
designer you could start a podcast where
you talk
about the factors involved in building a
usable or
profitable web site. If you're a marketer
you
could start a podcast to share marketing
tips.
How to Start Your Own
Podcast
In reality a podcast is nothing more than
one or
more audio tracks that you've recorded
attached to
a specially formatted RSS feed. Here are
the steps
to create your own
podcast:
- Come up with one or
more topics for your
podcast that you could write/speak about
with
authority.
- Buy a microphone for your computer.
Any type
will do.
-
Download Audacity (a free audio
recording
tool) if you want to record your own
voice for
your podcast.
- If you'd rather have someone else
voiceover
your podcast or you're short on time
then you
can find someone on
Voices.com.
I chose to use an Australian voice-over
specialist from Voices.com to record our
podcast.
His name is Justin and he did a great
job.
- Record your podcast and save it as
an MP3
file, or send the script of your podcast
to your
voice-over specialist.
- Now you need to create the RSS feed
for your
podcast. The RSS feed for a podcast is
similar
to a blog's RSS feed - it's a simple way
to list
the details of your podcast in a single
XML
file.
Apple has created the ultimate guide to
creating
an RSS feed for your podcast, which you
can
read here.
If you're stuck you can see what the XML
content
of our podcast's RSS feed
here.
- Upload your RSS feed and MP3 files
to a
public folder on your web site.
- Go to the podcasts section in iTunes
and
click the "Submit a Podcast" link. Type
in the
URL to your podcast's RSS file and
follow the
instructions.
As you can see
there's a few hours of work
involved in creating a podcast using the
method
I've described above, however it's well
worth it
in the end.
Podcasting With ArticleLive
We've just finished the implementation
of
podcasting into
ArticleLive however it isn't ready for
release
just yet as we're working on a few other
features
for the ArticleLive NX 1.8 update first,
but
here's how it looks:
You simply upload an MP3 file from your
hard drive
or you can type in the URL to your MP3
file
online. ArticleLive will then add it to
your
podcast and automatically generates the
RSS feed
which you can submit to iTunes to have
your
podcast listed there.
Conclusion
I hope this brief introduction to
podcasting
has been useful. Podcasting is a great way
to
expand your reach and attract new
customers whilst
being seen as a credible expert in your
industry
at the same time.
If you have any comments or questions on
podcasting you can
post them here.
Podcasting Resources
... and of course you can
subscribe to our email marketing podcast
here. |
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