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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Podcasts and Podcasting For Beginners

Podcasts are web-based media files (audio, video or even text-based) that a user can download from the internet onto a computer or music player. Podcasting is different from media streaming in that it needs special software (example: iTunes) to be run/played. This software (also called pod catcher or media aggregator) works on retrieving readily available media files only after the user has subscribed to a Podcast. Podcasts are similar to magazine subscriptions in that they allow the user to receive updates all the way to his computer or iPhone. The update in a Podcast can be done manually or can be done automatically after a new episode is available depending on the setting the user has selected. Moreover, Podcasts are completely charge-free! Almost anyone could build a Podcast and make it available online. All that is needed to publish a Podcast is an account, a computer, a microphone, and an interest the user would like to share with other users over the internet. Two examples of Podcasts are radio shows and talk shows.

With its popularity increasing by the day, thousands of Podcasts are made available to users from all over the world. Podcasting has grown to be a very powerful tool to the extent that many musicians and artists have given permission to Podcasters to use their music or work on their Podcasts. Music, videos, or other media material would spread virally, especially on popular Podcasts.

Users associate many benefits to Podcasts. Some of the benefits are: 1) Aiding organizations, for example, keep their audience alert about recent updates, services added or current news. 2) Spreading awareness about a certain message, product, or service in an inexpensive way. 3) Combining several practical features possessed by radios and TV.

Going more in depth into iTunes's (the most popular in Podcasts) functionalities, the iTunes Music Store makes thousands of Podcasts available to its users for immediate, free access. In order to download those Podcasts, the user is required to select "Podcasts"from the iTunes left-hand column. Before deciding on the subscription, users can preview a Podcast in the Music Store through simply double-clicking on the episode of interest. If the user approves of the selection made, he can simply press the button "Subscribe" which is usually located at the bottom of the Podcasts page. Once the subscription to a Podcast happens successfully, iTunes now automatically checks the newly available episodes during specific time intervals. This update action may have the number of available episodes grow out of control, thus the user may subscribe to Podcasts that update once per day, for example, or more often than once per day. To choose the updating intervals, the user clicks on Podcast preferences and edits the rate at which iTunes checks for new readily available Podcasts; the rate may be adjusted to hourly, daily, and so on. Podcasts, taking into consideration the fact that they occupy a lot of disk space (from the computer or iPod space), may be kept in the library for as long or as short of a period, according the user's preferences. While the user browses Podcasts he has downloaded, he will come across a "Settings" button. After selecting this button, iTunes will take the user right to the Podcasts tab. From there, a "Keep" dropdown menu appears allowing the user to decide exactly how long to keep Podcasts, thus helping the user organize his library.

Also, at times, the user may find the Podcast number growing to an extent that he can no longer handle. Therefore, the user may choose to unsubscribe from certain Podcasts. Unsubscribing from a Podcast is easy. The user is only required to click the "Unsubscribe" button after highlighting the Podcast that is no longer in his interest. Moreover, the deletion of all related files to a specific Podcast is also possible through simply pressing the "Delete" key after selecting the Podcast.

A Podcast, though it may need management, is a practical technology that contributes to users in several ways, ranging from providing entertainment activities to educational ones.

How to Use Podcasting to Gain Authority For Your Business - Part Two 6 Tips to Eliminate Background Noise in Your Podcast How Simple Podcasts Add Value to Your Small Business Website How to Make a Podcast For a Website How Do You Promote a Podcast and Get More Listeners?

How to Create a Podcast Quickly and Easily

Choosing to start your own podcast can feel like a large and complicated task, especially if you are not overly confident in your internet 'techy' skills. The good news is you really don't have to be a technical wizard to create your own program with professional sound and quality. There are tools available to make it easy, affordable and fun.

First of all, let's touch on just what exactly a podcast is.

Wikipedia says: "A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication."

There are a lot of cool things about the 'web syndication' part. When your audio or video content is syndicated it means that people can pick it up automatically anywhere that your content is syndicated to. One well known example is iTunes. When you have your show on iTunes people can simply log onto their account and grab your podcast right from their computer. A podcast is syndicated through an RSS feed and allows people to subscribe through feed readers and even by email to get your content automatically.

How to Create Your Own Podcast

You need to have three main things:

1. An audio or video file 2. A place to host your file 3. A feed to syndicate your podcast

As the definition mentions, this won't be just one file. You'll want to release a series of files on a regular basis. Some shows are released weekly, others bi-monthly and some monthly. Whatever you choose, consistency is always best so you gain and keep loyal listeners or viewers.

Let's go over how to get set up with each of the three points above:

1. An Audio or Video File

There are a number of ways you can create your audio or video files: Record audio on your computer - Audacity is a free program you can use along with a computer microphone to easily create your own audio files Record video with a webcam, flip or other video recorder Record audio through the use of a teleseminar service - If you want to record phone calls or interviews you can use a conference call link such as freeconferencecalling.com Record audio using a software program such as Audio Acrobat

2. A Place to Host Your File

You have a few options for hosting your file. My favorite is to use Audio Acrobat. It's a program that not only allows me to host my files but also record, organize, syndicate and publish them.

Another option is to host your files on your hosting account. This can get very expensive if your program gets popular (and this is what you want!) so it's not usually a good option for anyone serious about podcasting.

3. A Podcast Feed to Syndicate Your Podcast

When you have your podcast ready to go you need to add it to a feed so that the people who are waiting for your syndicated show can receive it instantly.

One way to do this is use a feed set up through a Wordpress website. You can set up an RSS feed and then add your audio files to your wordpress site. They will automatically be added to your feed and your subscribers will be updated. You'll also want to make sure you submit your podcast to iTunes.

The easiest way I've found to syndicate through RSS and also have it submitted to iTunes is to use a service such as Audio Acrobat as mentioned previously.

I host a weekly podcast called Marketers Mojo Talk Radio. Here's the simple process I follow to do everything mentioned above: 1. Call guest 2. Use three way calling to call my Audio Acrobat number and start the audio recording 3. Conduct interview 4. Download and edit using the free Audacity program 5. Upload back to Audio Acrobat 6. Grab publish link for my site 7. Notify iTunes of new show within Audio Acrobat 8. Let guest know podcast is ready!

So now you should have a very good idea on how to create your own podcast. Don't let fear hold you back and get started with your podcast now!

Why Podcast Transcription is Important

Every podcast should have a transcript, and I'm surprised at how many don't bother to include them. Perhaps the owners skip having their podcasts transcribed because they don't believe it's worth the cost of having it done, or don't understand the benefit of hiring an outstanding podcast transcription service. Here are five great reasons to consider having your podcasts transcribed.

1. Transcripts are searchable - By having your podcast transcribed, you are generating more traffic to your website because the text is searchable and people will ultimately stumble upon it when browsing the web for content your podcasts deliver. Search engines will pick up the keywords. The audio and video for your show are not searchable. Transcripts are.

2. Content - Not sure what to put on your blog? Copy and paste your transcript and it's an instant blog post; no thought required. You can also use your podcast transcript to make into several short articles in a small amount of time, or newsletter content for your list.

3. Create products from transcripts- Once you have a few transcripts, you have an e-book. This creates more revenue for you; more possible ways to generate revenue from your podcast.

4. Attract a larger audience - While many people do prefer to watch a video or listen to an audio, many do still prefer a text version. They may not have 30 minutes or an hour to devote to your show. Reading the content takes half the time. They also may prefer to print the transcript so they can go back and read it whenever they want, or highlight the key points.

5. Reference - Once you have a handful of podcasts, you might remember you said something, but can't remember which show it was. This can cause you to spend a few hours of your time trying to find the spot in the audio you need so you can quote someone, reference, etc. If you had a transcript, all you would have to do is search through the text and it just takes a minute. Your visitors may also find this useful for the same reason.

Bottom line - podcast transcripts generate revenue!

10 Ways a Podcast Can Build Your Business

For any business owner willing to mix a little creativity with the new technology, podcasting is a great way to get your message out to a wide market. Here's why:

1. Use It as a Smart/Sexy Brand Builder.

The key is to create a podcast that fits your brand. For example, if you're a realtor specializing in New York City office space for small businesses, then your podcast should involve all things related to that (e.g., how your space makes an important statement about your business, how to maximize square footage with good interior design, how to decide the best neighborhood for your business, etc.) Depending on how well it's done, it also establishes (or reinforces) a forward thinking leadership perception of your business.

2. Use It to Create Broad, Free, Easy Distribution.

They don't call it Really Simple Syndication for nothing. RSS feeds, like Feedburner and iTunes, allow a worldwide audience to subscribe to your podcast with a simple mouse click. Both Feedburner and iTunes offer directions on how to incorporate their technology for your podcast.

3. Use It as an Ad Media Outlet.

A podcast is like having your very own advertising media outlet. So take advantage, but don't be tacky. Use a soft-sell approach with tasteful promotional plugs during the intro or outro of the podcast. You can even subtlely incorporate them as part of the program content. Because of the strong niche aspect of podcasting, interested listeners will be more receptive to your on-topic message.

4. Use It to Garner Outside Advertisers or Sponsors.

If you're feeling ambitious (and have the Web traffic to support it), you can also sell outside sponsorships within the podcast or on the website.

5. Use It to Deepen Your Relationships With Clients and/or Prospects.

Turn guests into clients. An interview format makes it easy to invite a guest that you'd like as a client. It creates a great opportunity to initiate and develop a respectful relationship with a prospect who might otherwise not take your call or e-mail.

6. Use It as a New Business Builder.

Podcasting is both engaging and educational, providing the opportunity to build credibility, establish value and ultimately convert. Know your audience's hot buttons and then offer your company's product or service-related insights, tips and solutions. For example, a corporate law firm might discuss the various differences and benefits of incorporating a business versus using an LLC. Or perhaps have a podcast on the legal options of money collection from deadbeat clients.

7. Use It as a Terrific Promotional Tool.

If you've got a particularly relevant and pithy 15- or 30-second audio sound bite from a podcast, you can create an audio clip and e-mail the attached mp3 to a current prospect. The audio clip makes a stronger emotional impact, and the "tease factor" of a small mp3 attachment makes it an effective e-mail tactic.

8. Use It as a Great Product Demo Opportunity. (w/video podcasts)

Any time you can effectively demonstrate your product attributes, do it. And with a video podcast, you can. This worked perfectly for an industrial blender company, Blendtec. Their videos of various (and strange) objects being successfully blended created a viral marketing phenomenon.

9. Use It as a New Kind of Public Relations Vehicle.

For new product intros, latest news, etc. For example, a company introducing a new product or service could invite its in-house inventor or developer to be interviewed on a podcast. A magazine (much like this one!) could invite its most interesting and relevant contributors to be interviewed on their podcast.

10. Helps with Organic Search Engine Optimization.

Your podcast "show notes" are your text description of the content (i.e., the things being covered in the podcast).They act as an informational preview to hopefully convince people that the podcast is worth a listen. The more relevant the text (key words and links), the more magnetic it'll be for searches. The issues and tactics involved with driving traffic to a podcast are similar to those for driving traffic to any website. But I believe it's always better to go the organic/non-paid route to improve your search rank, and that's where good "show notes" help.

Remember, it's not just about the new technology, it's about the innovative application of the new technology.

Large One?

Here's a proven, and truly easy way to start increasing your sales, immediately.

All you need to do is add these 2 words to your selling system, and you're good to go.

In fact, this trick's so good, I wish I could take credit for coming up with it, but the truth is, it comes from a little-known marketing legend.

Here's the deal:

In 1947, Elmer Wheeler was one of the best-known salesmen of his time. His "Wheeler Institute of Words" developed a "best practices" of selling, by testing a variety of words in over 19 million selling situations.

I'm right in the middle of reading one of Elmer's most famous books, "Tested Sentences That Sell".

And here's a great little selling trick that comes straight out of this book:

Ever go into a restaurant and order a drink?

Of course you have.

And what does your server usually ask you, right after you place your order?

They usually say "Small or large?", right?

Well, imagine for a moment... you're the owner of this restaurant.

Do you have any idea how much your sales would increase over time, if... instead of saying "Small or large?" after your customers ordered their drinks ... you told your servers to instead, say...

"Large one?"

Let me take the guess-work out of this and make your job easier for you.

Elmer Wheeler tested this experiment out in five-thousand separate selling situations. And the results showed, when your server asked "Large one?"...

7 out of every 10 people, answered "Yes!"

So, let's say a large soda costs you 35¢ more than a small soda -- are you with me on this? This means, by saying "Large one?"... 7 out of every 10 customers that walk through your door, end up giving you an extra 35 cents!

Now you may be thinking, "So what?... It's only 35 cents."

A-h-h-h, but remember....

Little Hinges Swing Big Doors Open!

Follow me here for a minute: If you've got 5 servers... and each of them does this with 100 customers a day, this means each of them will be serving large sodas to an extra 70 people a day.

That's an extra 350 large soda sales a day. (5 servers x 70 large sodas each).

350 extra sales, at 35¢ each, is $122.50 a day in extra gross sales for you... which translates into $857.50 extra a week, and over 52 weeks, this turns into...

$44,590 Dollars A Year... With ZERO Extra Marketing Costs Involved!

Not bad, hey?

And if your large sodas cost 50¢ more than your small sodas, in that case, your annual bump in gross sales would be $63,700 Dollars!

70¢ more? O.K., that one's easy -- just double the 35¢ figure -- now you're selling $89,180 Dollars more!

See how easy this stuff is?

It's insane, isn't it?

But what if you don't have a restaurant?

How can you use this trick in your business?

Well, let's say you own a photography store. When people are filling out their forms to get their pictures developed, instead of saying "Singles or doubles?", you can say "Doubles?".

If you own a landscaping company, instead of asking "Shrubs and lawn?", you'd say "Whole yard?"

And if you're a hairdresser, instead of asking "Cut and shampoo?", you just say "Shampoo?"

Make sense?

When it comes down to it, the basic premise of this selling trick, is...

If You Don't Ask... You Don't Get!

But polishing your request up so it's "benefit-oriented" to your prospect... makes this work smoothly... effectively... and without looking like you're trying to "sell more".

Notice how you're not asking "Do you want a large soda?" -- you're just saying "Large one?"

See, you'll have to experiment a little bit to find out what works best in your situation, but not you've at least got one helluva head start on things, no?

And can you think of any easier way to make this kind of extra money?

Elmer Wheeler really was a "selling genius" and you'll pick up quite a bit from him.

And, from the excitement and enthusiasm he comes across with, you know he enjoyed his work.

Here are a few of Elmer's famous quotes:

"Your first 10 words are more important than your next 10,000."

"People seldom want to walk over you until you lie down." And...

"Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle."

Unfortunately, Wheeler's books are all out of print. You'll find them showing up pretty consistently on e-bay though, and, you can also find some of them on http://www.abebooks.com or http://www.alibris.com.

P.S. Remember, little hinges really DO swing big doors open -- and success lies in the margins, not in the vast open spaces. KSo keep your mind open to finding the small things that others let slip... through the cracks.

Large One? Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls Large One?

Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls

Ten Marketing Pitfalls By Stuart Reid

If you want to make it BIG in Internet Marketing you need avoid some common mistakes. Here's a list of the top ten Pitfalls that catch out beginner Marketers (and many established ones too!).

The problem is you don't realise you have fallen into one of these holes until someone points it out. Marketers tend to be stubborn and suffer from tunnel vision - hopefully these may help you kick a few bad habits...

1. Procrastination

Putting things off is a killer where this career this is concerned. You NEED a plan and some kind of time management system in place. Prioritize your tasks and keep lists of everything that needs doing. And no matter how much you don't feel like doing something just get it out of the way and NEVER leave it until the next day!

TIP: Use post-it notes. They are low-tech but work great :-)

2. Striving for Perfection

You'll likely never have a "perfect" website or product but you know what? It doesn't matter! It's important you get started as soon as you can and make your site "live". You can tweak things as you go along and improvements WILL come later - but if you try to get everything "right" before you start then you'll never start.

TIP: Update your site daily in little ways, it saves doing everything at once and the search-engines it too.

3. Wasting Money

This one is important. Especially if you don't have money to burn! Don't get caught up jumping from opportunity to opportunity or buying everything that lands in your inbox. You'll be surprised how much you can get for free. Trust me - you don't need half the stuff you see online. Try to control your emotions and think before you buy. Write a list of pros and cons, and make sure that the product or service is essential to YOU.

TIP: Look for reviews by people without a vested interest in the product and ask questions in forums.

4. Not Spending Enough

Unfortunately you have to spend a little. It won't be much starting out, but you will need more as you grow. For a start you'll need a domain, a host, an autoresponder - but these are pretty affordable these days. The bulk of your expenses will be on promotion, usually ezine ads or pay-per-click. If you're paying someone to create your product or you're buying resell rights then this is another expense (but you can start with free affiliate programs).

TIP: Keep your "Internet Income" separate and re-invest. You'll be glad you did later.

5. Wrong Markets

This is a tricky one. If you are dead set on conquering a certain market you could end up on a long and expensive journey that is doomed to failure. Do some research first. A so-called "niche" market is a good find but only if this niche will spend money! Other markets, like Internet Marketing, are very busy BUT Internet Marketers spend money - and the drive to make money is a strong human emotion. There's a lot of them around!

TIP: Find something that interests you and use a site like nichebot.com to see how many searches there are for that subject. High Traffic and Low Demand are your goal.

6. Lack of Growth

You must continuously grow yourself and expand your mind. Learning is essential. If you don't you'll be stuck with the same skills and ideas and you'll never even notice when you are bogged down in complacency and routine.

TIP: Put some time away each day to read a few articles and browse some sites. Learning just one new idea a day can increase your potential rapidly.

7. Doing It Alone

You can do it alone but it is harder, and without support you are more likely to fail. It doesn't have to be much. On-line forums, for example, are an amazing source of ideas and encouragement. And with other people, by forming Joint Ventures or starting your own affiliate program you can really leverage your efforts and do FAR MORE than you could ever do on your own.

TIP: Visit forums, messageboards and maillists. Lurk for a while until you're ready.

8. Going For The Small Money

You ain't ever gonna get rich selling $20 items. Seriously, include some higher priced goods and services in your marketing. You'll get less sales, but more profits. You won't know if they sell until you try! But don't fall into the trap of selling any old thing because you get a high commission. Integrity is important, too.

TIP: High ticket sales work better with existing customers who you already have a relationship with. Try them as a back-end.

9. Separating Life and Work

One of the biggest pitfalls when working from home is the fact that life can enroach your activities - simply because you ARE at home. Try to separate the two and have fixed times when you work, and a set area to do it. Work doesn't have to take over your life, but neither should you let life interfere with your work.

TIP: Use a spare room or a spare corner and ONLY use it for work.

10. Be Ambitious

You won't know unless you try. Assume you can do *anything* - because you can! You may not be ready to do it yet, but don't set up mental blocks in advance. You can create your own profitable items, sell them well, and have others selling them for you. You can operate a range of websites, even host seminars, or teach others. YOU CAN.

TIP: Recognise excuses for what they are. If you need help, invest in a good self-help book.

I hope identifying these pitfalls help you look at yourself differently. Contrary to popular belief internet marketing is not an instant path to riches, but it is an achievable one.

Large One? Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls Large One?