One of the latest buzz in online world is – podcasting. How can you start with podcasting?

What is podcasting

The simplest definition is that podcasting is audio blogging, so podcasts are blogs in audio format. Podcasting refers to distributing recorded voice using RSS. Recorded files are usually in MP3 format. So using podcasts finally everybody can be heard on the Internet. Literally.

The first indicator about popularity of every technology, industry or company is Google and number of search results for certain keywords.

Here are number of search results (as of January, 2006) on Google for:

- podcasting – more than 36 million search results
- podcast – more than 85 million search results

You have to admit that it is quite impressive for a technology which started in 2003.

In their research “The Future of Digital Audio”, Forrester Research predicts that 12.3 million U.S. households will use their MP3 players to listen to podcasts by the end of 2010.

“Consumers want to listen to what they want, when they want, on the device of their choosing. New formats like online radio and podcasting, where downloadable content is sent directly to an MP3 player, give consumers more programming and ultimate flexibility,” said Forrester Research Vice President Ted Schadler.

Jupiter Research conducted a survey on 4,000 Internet users about blogs, RSS/XML and podcasts. They came to the conclusion that blog and podcast users are people with more than 5 years of Internet experience and that have high income. They found out that RSS/XML are most appealing to people in the age range of 35 to 44 while blogs and podcasts are most interesting to people between the ages of 18 and 34.

You can see that blogs & RSS derivate different technologies for communication like podcasts and videoblogs (vlogs). This is excellent for marketers who want to reach their target audience using every available communication technology. Also beside all those new communication channels, we know that email is “killer application” and also IM is used by more and more people and free casting calls for private and business correspondence. So you can see that communicating on the Internet has never been easier and more diverse. More and more individuals start with podcasting – it is easier to talk then to type. You have to use it for your business, as well.

Business podcasting

No matter how cute one technology is, in order to jump from the buzz bandwagon to mainstream bandwagon it has to offer people the way to apply that technology to their business. Podcasts are not mainstream yet, but they will be definitely because they can boost business results for every company. Especially for consulting companies.

Blogs with podcasts are excellent way to give your web site a so called “personal” touch. To show your visitors and clients that there are real people behind your web site.

Companies can place the interview in audio format with their CEO instead of having a press release only. We have also mentioned that podcasts are great for consulting companies and for companies which sell content. This will be even better when video blogs (vlogs) become mainstream. For example, software company won’t need to offer tutorials on how to use their products in plain HTML format with photos. They can offer their tutorials like podcasts and vlogs. The same goes with whitepapers.

The main purpose of podcasts is the same like with blogs – more personal communication and establishing you as an expert in your industry. All those communication channels like blogs, RSS, podcasts and vlogs revolutionize how companies interact with their stakeholders. Podcasts can be also used like a memo for upcoming meetings and conferences.

How to start with podcasting

To start with podcasting you will need a microphone and software. There are many free and fee based software for audio recording. Good free software is Audacity and you can get it from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. If you need specialized podcasting software, the most popular are:

• iPodder – http://ipodder.sourceforge.net
• jPodder – http://www.jpodder.com
• iTunes – http://www.apple.com/itunes

Also, it doesn’t hurt to mention that these great podcasting software are – free.

You will also need an encoder (if your software doesn’t already offer that) to convert your audio files to the most used audio file type on the Net and that is MP3. You can get a Lame MP3 Encoder from http://lame.sourceforge.net or fee-based encoder Blaze Media Pro from http://www.blazemp.com.

Podcasts are audio files so you will need appropriate bandwidth and web space for storage. If that is problem for you – no problem! There are services that will host your podcasts free of charge.

The most popular are:

• OurMedia – http://www.ourmedia.org
• Internet Archive – http://www.archive.org
• BlipMedia – http://www.blipmedia.org

Promote your podcasts

In order to be heard you will need to promote your podcasts. Besides placing your podcasts on your web site there are specialized podcast directories where you can list your podcasts so other people can get them and listen to what you have to say.

Podcast Alley – http://www.podcastalley.com
Podcast.Net – http://www.podcast.net
Podcast Directory – http://www.podcastdirectory.com
Podcast Bunker – http://www.podcastbunker.com
All Podcasts – http://www.allpodcasts.com
Tech Podcasts – http://www.techpodcasts.com

Find great podcasts here:

IT Conversations
TWIT
Yahoo! Podcasts

If you have something useful to say – start with podcasting. You can see that it is very easy to become a podcaster and this is great way to enhance your visibility, maximize your market reach and profit.

Happy podcasting!

Tags: podcast podcasting

A blog (short for “web log”) is a web-based diary that represents frequently updated web site about any given topics in reverse chronological order. Several years ago, back in 2001. blogs were still a “buzz word” and now they are mainstream. Blogs are popular because blogger services offer content management system (CMS) so that even if you are without any technical knowledge you will be able to have your own site and to make posts.

Blogs are hot topic. There is even a name for the blogging community called a blogosphere. Blogs were one of the most read news sources about politics after September 11th and the war in Iraq. Many people read several political blogs because they are un-censored.

According to research made by Pew Internet & American Life Project more than 50 million Internet users read blogs regularly, every day 12,000 new blogs has been created and there are more than 10,000 blog updates per hour! You can see that blogs have quite a big importance.

All major Internet players have their own blog services. Google has Blogger, Microsoft has MSN Spaces and Yahoo has a service called Yahoo 360°. Also, the most famous computer magazine PC Magazine in their traditional election for “People of the Year” for 2004. chose founders of Blogger.com and Six Apart.

To start blogging you will need a blog service or application. There are several good free and fee-based blog software. In some of the next articles we will write in more details about blog software. In this article we will only make several recommendations. Good free services for blogging are Blogger (www.blogger.com), b2Evolution (www.b2evolution.net), NucleusCMS (www.nucleuscms.org), WordPress (www.wordpress.org). The most popular fee-based services are Movable Type (www.movabletype.org) and TypePad (www.typepad.com).

Business blogging

Business blogging can be very useful in establishing one company or individual as an expert in their industry. There are more and more business blogs written by high-level executives like marketing gurus Tom Peters and Seth Godin, Jonathan Schwarz COO of Sun Microsystems, Bob Lutz VP of General Motors, Bob Parsons President of GoDaddy.com, Alan Meckler CEO of internet.com and many more…

Blogs written by high-level executives are often very popular and their posts often get many comments from their readers. Business blogging is a better way to communicate than using classic Press Releases. People like to read posts from humans and not from some faceless entities like corporations.

If you want to become a business blogger you have to decide what will be your niche or target area. You have to take your business blogging seriously because your prospects and clients form opinion about you and your company reading your blog. You have to be aware that you will have to spend at least an hour per day to keep your content up-to-date and to have repeat visitors. Your blog posts should be short and concise because many people don’t have time to read lengthy articles.

You have to focus on needs and interests of your visitors and clients, to focus on your business. So you shouldn’t write about politics and religion in your blog unless your business is related to those areas. If your focus group are owners of small and medium businesses that want to use the power of the Internet for their business you should write about topics like Web and email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), web hosting, branding, current industry news and happenings from those fields. It is important to create your own personal style and to give your comments on latest news. Some high-level executives that have blogs make mistakes so they write about some personal topics or topics that are not related with their business.

One of the benefits of blogs is that search engines give better ranking to blogs. It is because of the fact that bloggers often make links to related blogs, refer to other posts in their posts or using a so called trackback feature so you can have a good link popularity that is one of the most important things in having a good placement on search engines. Also, one of the main reasons for good search engine placement is that blogs are usually often updated and search engines like sites with fresh content.

Some high-level executives have their links on hundred even thousand web sites. Also, many blog services automatically offer content syndication using RSS/Atom so your readers will be able to read your blog using news reader without having to visit your blog. Every time you add a new post they will know it. Syndication is very important because of promotion, too. Using content syndication and ping you will be indexed on major blog and feed search engines like Technorati, Feedburner, Feedster, Bloglines, Blog.gs, Weblogs.com and etc.

Happy blogging!