Can A Podcast Help Your Blog Succeed?

kaelyn · Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 42

What could be better than reading quality content? How about actually listening to it! Podcasting is still a relatively new phenomenon that has had its ups and downs, and while it might be fairly difficult to monetize a podcast on its own, it could be a valuable asset to your blog. However, be warned, podcasting is not for everyone.

Purpose of a Podcast

Everyone here has probably noticed that Performancing now has a podcast -- Perfcast. For those of us (including myself) that are not camera material, it is a great way to connect to your audience that written words just might not allow. Even I have tossed around the idea of doing a podcast for quite awhile, and there are a few good reasons for it:

* It is another way to connect with readers
* It can attract people that like to listen to podcasts
* A podcaster can voice on any topic he or she chooses
* It can help with public speaking and verbal communication
* Provides motivation to expand knowledge on the discussed topics
* It is just plain old fun!

There are many other reasons as well; however, podcasting takes time. Time is valuable to many of us. Not only that, but podcasting can be very expensive -- it depends on how much control is desired. It also requires quite a bit of dedication and motivation.

It would be best to attempt podcasting without the added pressure of listeners. The first episode might be the one opportunity to impress current readers, and if it sounds bad the first time around, they might be hard pressed to give it another chance later on. Keep this in mind before you publish anything live.

How to Make it Work

There is one site I would recommend any future podcaster to visit first -- I would highly recommend checking out Podcast Alley where there are many helpful members with plenty of podcasting experience. If Google can't steer someone toward an answer about podcasting, the members of the Podcast Alley forum certainly can.

To gain the skills and experience necessary to be a decent podcaster, it is best to find and listen to other podcasters to observe how it is done. Each podcaster must come up with his or her unique style, but learning from others is never a bad thing. Try to experiment, and be sure to avoid a monotonic voice.

The audience should determine how to approach the podcast. Should the length be 10 minutes or an hour? Should the tone be comedic or serious? Should you have guests? Plan for these things!

To make that voice sounds good, a podcaster will want to have a high quality microphone -- there is no bigger turn-off to me than poor audio quality. No matter how good the podcaster actually is, if the quality is not up to par, the podcast will not receive the attention it fully deserves. I would recommend Shure microphones.

WordPress users are in luck as there are a few plugins to make things easier for podcasters, but there are also a great amount of resources that can be found through Google which can guide a new podcaster on how to accomplish this on their own.

Finally, a podcast needs to be hosted somewhere. Depending on the audio quality, amount of control, and number of listeners, this can be from absolutely free to a couple bucks per month.

Either way, podcasting can add be a great addition to any blog, but there are many things to consider before diving in. With the right attitude and motivation, podcasting very well might help your blog succeed. Just be sure to be patient and do it right the first time around.

genilia · Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 32

Podcasting is quickly becoming a buzz word among the techie crowd. So what is podcasting, anyway? Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. Many people liken podcasting to radio on demand. However, in reality, podcasting gives far more options in terms of content and programming than radio does. In addition, with Podcasting, listeners can determine the time and the place, meaning they decide what programming they want to receive and when they want to listen to it.

Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.

Podcasting can be used for:

1. Self-Guided Walking Tours - Informational content.

2. Music - Band promotional clips and interviews.

3. Talk Shows - Industry or organizational news, investor news, sportscasts, news coverage and commentaries.

4. Training - Instructional informational materials.

5. Story - Story telling for children or the visually-impaired.

Podcasting is the syndication of audio files using RSS. Podcasting works the same as a standard RSS feed reader or news aggregator, the only difference is that the feed you subscribe to contains an audio file in it. Instead of reading content in your RSS feed reader or aggregator, you can listen to the contents of your feed using a reader or aggregator that supports podcasting, or you can listen to them on an iPod or similar device. While podcasting was named for the iPod, you do not have to have an iPod to listen to a podcast. Podcasts can be displayed on websites with clickable links to audio files and many of the standard RSS readers, like FeedDemon's latest beta, have begun supporting audio enclosures.

The audio file that makes the feed a podcast rather than a standard RSS feed is contained in the 'enclosure' tag. The easiest way to think of this is as an e-mail attachment.

Although the "enclosure" tag is not new to RSS feeds and has been included in the RSS v2.0 specification for about four years, podcasting has only really been around since August of 2004.

Webmasters are finding creative ways to provide media-rich content. The syndication aspect and potential increase in audience size are an attractive lure. Listeners benefit from podcasting because, like RSS, podcasting is a means to publish content that ultimately gives the recipient the control over the information they want to see or hear.

It will be interesting to see how this publishing medium develops. Currently, only the technical crowd has endorsed podcasting as a new audio medium, but the potential is real and the process is not overly complex. With a little time I think this field will develop and prosper.

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