Tips for Using Podcasting for Your Next Teleseminar

There are many companies and businesses, including health and wellness practitioners, that use the strategy of teleseminars very successfully. But, that's just the point. So many companies are already using this solid strategy, how can you make your company stand out among the rest? Updating the traditional teleseminar format to become a podcast allows you to make use of many modern technological advances. In today's tough business market, you really must do anything you can to gain an advantage!

Podcasting is simply the use of the Internet to transmit your teleseminar, rather than the old fashioned standard use of the telephone. Adding in the visual component will make your teleseminar far more meaningful and memorable. Participants love to "put a face with the name." People who conduct most of their business over the Internet often find themselves craving any kind of personal connection. And, believe it or not, seeing your face on a screen often is enough! Keep in mind that podcasting doesn't have to be just a video image of you sitting there presenting your information. This type of presentation allows you to incorporate screen shots, video clips, photos and any other type of visual support you can dream of. It can be a very dynamic way to project your message and promote your product or service! For the best success with your podcast teleseminar, consider the following important tips:

Remember that image does count, especially for health and wellness practitioners-you want your audience to believe that what you tell them will get them on the right path toward health and wellness! Using podcasting for a teleseminar adds a visual component to your image that wasn't an issue with the audio-only type of presentation. Be professional, and be sure that the environment that is around you and visible to others is also professional-appearing. This means that if you conduct your successful Internet business while sitting in your boxers on your living room couch, you will need to spruce things up a bit for this occasion. Prepare what you are going to say ahead of time. Nobody wants to hear you ramble on and on. Have an outline, and follow it, but don't simply read from a script. If your podcast or teleseminar does not allow for direct user interaction, encourage your listeners to email you with questions or comments, and develop a regular "series" for your site! Answer last week's questions today. Keep it short, and stick to the designated time frame. Be respectful of your listeners' time-they have set aside a certain time to pay attention to you and have other things to do, too! Use good equipment, like a good quality video camera and a good quality microphone. Make it easy for people to listen! Include frequent references, both verbal and visual, to your site's URL. Make this piece of information one of the most important "take home" messages from your teleseminar, podcast or presentation.

Using the Internet to promote your health and wellness products and services is getting easier by the day-if you know the right techniques and strategies to use!

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Can You Benefit From Producing Podcasts For Your Website?

Podcasts are basically a downloadable audio segment which you can download to your computer or MP3 player, with most podcasts being a short and sweet burst of information or possibly a selection of information taken from a much longer piece. Radio shows often release a podcast at the end of each week, giving all of the "best bits" or the most relevant parts for the listener to be able to playback at anytime and indeed, at any place.

Being an SEO company, we believe that podcasts are a great part of any Social Media opportunity and regularly recommend our clients to produce them, from product descriptions right the way through to the articles we write for them, people do want to learn more but at their convenience. No matter what product you sell or what service you might offer, in the same manner as writing articles, you can always find something to talk about, so producing Podcasts is a great way of getting your thoughts, opinions and informative conversation recorded and published to the Internet.

Podcasts can be downloaded to any computer or MP3 player quickly and easily and they can then sit there and be listened to at the listener's convenience or when they really need to find something out. This means that your piece of recorded information can stay with someone for a long time and if it's really worth listening to and free, they will no doubt send the podcast onto all of their friends, family and colleagues, in the same way they would send a link or a recommendation.

There are many places to get your podcast broadcasted and these include:

Your own website Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter Podcast directories Music and Podcast stores Specific Podcast search engines Syndication websites

Podcasts are pretty much like videos online, if they go viral and get really popular, before you know it you will have thousands of people listening to your content which really shows the power of the Internet.

One thing to remember is that in the same way as writing content or releasing videos, make sure your Podcasts has something worth listening to, else you will just end up boring people and they will not want to listen to any of your material again, which in the long term sense is a massive disaster for your business.

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How to Make Your Voice Sound Clear While Podcasting

Have you ever found a podcast or teleseminar which promised really important information to you? So you go in and download it. And then you go and try to listen. But you can barely hear what they are trying to say. It may have had great information but the recording is so bad that you can't listen to it.

A podcast that you can't understand is worse than no podcast at all!

So how do you make you voice sound clear while podcasting? As a creator of podcasted content, you need to worry about content and organization sure, but you also need to worry about delivery.

In this article, I'm going to give you some hints to help you make your voice sound clear while podcasting. In fact, these hints apply to any audio product.

A clear voice starts with a clear voice. No, I'm not trying to be smart. Podcasting is just a form of public speaking. Your voice is your instrument. You need to learn how to get the most out of it. There are a number of tricks that any public speaker learns to help them speak clearly. I'm not going to go into them in detail here since I want to cover the recording tricks. But they include things like standing when you speak and having warm water or tea (not cold or hot or coffee) available.

As you may have guessed, the key to having a clear voice in your podcast is having the best recording possible. The quality of your recording is dependent on the microphone which you use. Never use a desktop microphone. No matter how good the recording itself will never be of sufficient quality. The best microphone for the job is a standard headset. Even a cheap set will be capable of recording your voice well.

The one thing that your microphone must have however, is a wind guard. These small puffballs of foam fit over the microphone itself. They prevent wind from your mouth showing up in the recording. You'll find the pops from Ps and whistles from the Ss are virtually eliminated with a wind guard.

The placement of your microphone is also a key to clear recordings. The microphone should be placed roughly at the bottom of your jaw when it is fully open. In this way, the microphone will pick up the sound reverberated through your chest. The pops and whistles are also further reduced since your breath does not roll over the microphone.

The next step in your recording is the recording itself. Clarity in this case is dependent on the fidelity of the recording. With a digital recording you have the ability to record at a number of different levels from telephone quality (11 kHz, 21 kb/sec) up to CD quality ( 44 kHz, 172 kb/sec) and higher. Generally speaking, you want to record at as high a quality level as possible since reducing quality is easy while improving quality is not. In practice however, you'll find there is a limit to the level based on the speed of your equipment and the size of your hard disk and memory.

By this point, you should have a very clear and high quality recording. Of course, should and do are not necessarily the same thing. The final step in the quality process is editing your recording. Using an editor such as Audacity is one way to correct any problems that have occurred to this point. Audacity (and many of its free competitors) has a number of filters and modifiers which will help you remove extraneous noises, any clipping that has occurred or any buzz which causes your voice to be less than clear.

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Learn One of the Quickest Techniques to Learning a New Subject Or Hobby

Many times you find yourself wanting to learn a new subject or hobby but are unsure where to start. There is a ton of information on the subject online which can make it rather confusing and you are not completely sure you want to spend money yet buying books or information.

There is a solution to this problem that actually is free and helps you learn quickly. The solution is podcasts.

Podcasts are kind of like amateur radio shows that can be downloaded online. Many are actually very professionally done and give you more content than what you could find on the radio. Many of these are on topics that will help you learn things.

The good thing about podcasts is that you can find them on just about any subject imaginable. Search the internet for "your subject podcast" or go to iTunes and look under the podcast section to find thousands of ones to listen to. You will in a very short period of time find so many to listen to that you can never really get to them all.

The advantage this technique gives you is that you can learn the subject or hobby from someone who is passionate about it. They will know where the best websites are, what the best books are, and where the best information is for people new to the subject. You will also be able to pick up a working knowledge of the subject in a very short period of time.

Find one or two that you find entertaining and put them onto your mp3 player or listen to them at the computer. Gradually you will start to understand the subject well enough that you can hold a conversation on it. You may not remember everything, but you will gain enough information through listening to figure out whether you want to pursue the hobby further or not.

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Money Making Ideas - Make Money With Podcasts

If you're looking for money making ideas that are both fun and easy to do, then here is a great example.

Can you talk? Do you have a computer and an Internet connection?

If you add a free software (Audacity), you have all that is required to enable you to make money.

Listen, I know what I'm talking about, because I told my husband how do it and he was very successful.

After we moved to France, my husband wanted to attract some traffic to the French copy of his original Danish web site. The changes I proposed to him skyrocketed the visitor count, as you'll learn in a moment.

In the beginning, his site averaged around 25 visitors daily. Then he started doing 3-4 minute long appearances on our local radio station, five days a week. However, many listeners complained about not being able to listen to his segment when they were out of range of the radio signal, or simply forgot to tune in.

I had recently heard about something called "podcasting" which is, in fact, sound files you put online, and that people can easily download with iTunes or a similar program. And I've also heard that, by talking to people using this medium, you will become more familiar and trustworthy in their eyes.

So all in all, this podcasting idea seemed like a winner.

My husband went ahead and created his first podcast (actually just a "hello world") telling people about how they could download the podcast, and also how they could subscribe to it through iTunes.

We saw an immediate spike in the visitor count. It went up from 76 daily visits to over 200, and has only been rising ever since.

Now, visits to a homepage, in itself, will not make you money - so how can you monetize your podcasts?

* Find a sponsor.

* Sell something from your homepage.

* Put ads on your homepage.

* Sell somebody else's product as an affiliate.

If you acquire a large number of listeners, you can endeavour to obtain a sponsor, and use a few seconds promoting the sponsor in each of your podcasts. Whilst this gives you immediate money, it's normally not something a beginner could use to advantage. You have to build up your listener count first.

Meanwhile, you could create products and put them up for sale on your homepage. Then talk about them in your podcast, while remembering ALWAYS to offer valuable information at the same time. You could also put ads on your site, and profit from the subsequent clicks when people visit your site.

And/or you could find related products developed by other merchants and promote these, both in your podcasts and on your site. Many products offer affiliate programs which you can join for free.

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Top Reasons to Use Podcasts to Generate Sales!

Internet has provided opportunity for many to do business online. Creating product and selling it can be done easily without having a shop or employee. There are various strategies and technologies used to generate sales of your product. You can use any old type of strategy or utilize the latest and advanced one. One such advanced, effective and inexpensive method is Podcasting.

Podcasting is a system adopted to allocate the multimedia files electronically. This can be music videos, audio file, an interview, training session or even a recorded seminar. Podcasting is also used in talk shows, story telling, tutorials, commentaries, sportscasts etc.

To use this facility, you need to subscribe for a podcatcher. With this podcatcher you can look for the new files and if you find anything new, you can download it to your personal computer or your portable music player.

Benefits of Podcast

* Podcasting technology is beneficial for the people who would like to watch or hear to specific content. Here you can select the any of the programs playing which is not possible in Television and Radio.

* Podcasting is convenient for the users as the user can load fresh material in their iPods or music players and listen to it anytime they require.

* Using Podcasting you can easily convey the message and ideas to the people living worldwide. You just need a broadband connection to reach the potential users and invite them to subscribe. Podcasting is like an internet that is you can choose the program you want and start listening to it.

* Podcasting is cost effective. You need only small equipment and fewer amounts to use this technology if you own a personal computer and internet connection. Podcasting is like a radio station through which you can transmit your ideas. Podcasting takes your ideas fast to the audience when compared with radio transmitters.

* Podcasting is commonly used to build online communities and to get feedback on various programs. In the latest trend, podcasting is the cheap way to advertise any of your products and hence many business people worldwide are using podcasts to convey messages to their customers and to their employees as well.

The overall conclusion is that podcasting is an effective and less cost marketing tool that can be used by any businessman for various activities. It may be used to train their employees, increase the sales target or even to grab your customers.

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Market Your Business With Podcasting!

A podcast is a collection of audio or video files that can be easily downloaded to any portable player and mobile devices. You can store it in your mobile device and listen to it any time you wish. It was the famous computer based company Apple gave life to podcasting through the iPod in the year 2004. But, in the present trend it is not compulsory to use an ipod to listen to podcast, as it can be downloaded and stored even in personal computers.

Advantages and uses

* You can store the podcast in your computer for any number of days and listen to it even when you are not connected to the internet.

* You can subscribe for a podcast once and download the new podcasts automatically. Updating podcasts is very easy and quick.

* Of all the latest technologies available for developing the business, podcasting is the best one in terms of cost and as well as in quality. You can quickly communicate the message to the audience who is living millions & millions of miles away.

* Through podcasting the content and information is reached to the audience exactly how you want to convey. So, you will gain only loyal customers through podcasting marketing.

* Podcasting is the latest and innovative technology used by marketers. Normally, business people grab the audience through article writing to their website and make them read the contents. Podcasting is not so. You can save it in your mobile and listen to it while you are jogging, driving, hiking or working. You can conveniently listen to it any number of times.

* Some time your key employees may fail to attend the conference and presentations due to personal problems. In such cases, you can update the message to them through podcasting.

* Details of every new product you launch can be updated to your sales representatives using this latest program.

* Distribution of podcasting is simple. Especially, submitting and publishing your podcast through social network directories will have great impact with the audience.

Podcasting technology will turn out to be a successful one, if you follow certain tips. The podcasts should be short in length and should carry only quality information. This is just like video marketing, so people will not spend more than 3 or 4 minutes to listen to your video file. Using a quality podcast you can build cordial and long term relationship with your customers.

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Market Your Business With Podcasting

A podcast is defined as a series of digital media files mostly in the audio format. Apple's very popular portable media player iPod formed the basis of the term podcasting. In fact, the term has been coined from the words "pod" and "broadcasting". Podcasting gained instant popularity in the year 2004, and today, online businesses use it as a powerful online marketing tool.

Some advantages of podcasting are:

• Podcasts are downloaded by interested customers and thus, they remain stored in their computers and media players till they want to hear them. • New software and setups allow newly added podcasts to get automatically delivered to subscribers. • Podcasts target audiences that are interested in listening to the content you provide.

From the business point of view, here are some advantages of podcasting in the field of online marketing:

• Podcasts can spread the business message to the global audience. • A regular mode of communication with listeners and customers is established through podcasting. • Value-added content is supplied to subscribers that that make up a significant percent of the loyal audience. • Podcasts increase the market visibility of the business and also have a positive affect on sales and conversion rates.

Here are some ways to make use of podcasting as a useful online marketing tool:

Providing News and Updates to Subscribers

The subscribers to your business website podcasts receive news and updates about your business and products on a regular basis. Whether it is the opening of a new branch, launch of a new website, or an announcement for a new business product, the information is effectively delivered by podcasts to the subscribers.

Establishing Internal Marketing

For a business to grow online and offline, it is important to keep all employees involved in various company events. Podcasts can help you establish internal marketing within the organization, which further translates to efficient external marketing. Here are some ways of doing so:

• Business presentations and conferences that are not attended by all employees can be podcasted to keep them updated. • Sales representatives can be easily updated on new products and guidelines using podcasts.

Marketing Your Business Expertise

Podcasting helps a business group create programs that offer guidance, suggestions and advice, and solve common queries of the customers. You can involve the expert members of your staff in discussions that can be recorded as podcasts and made available to subscribers. This maintains the interest of subscribers to keep in touch with the podcasts released by you.

Podcast the Business Feedbacks

Podcasts are quick ways to inform subscribers about the feedback received by the business in the market. You can integrate customer feedback in regular podcasts and make them available on the internet. It is a good way to make an impression on those who have recently joined your podcast subscriber list.

Distribute Your Podcasts

Podcasts can be easily distributed across the web by submitting them to online directories. The links to podcasts can also be distributed on social media marketing platforms. This helps enhance the market reach of your business.

How to Make Podcasts Effective

Here are some useful tips to make the best out of podcasting for online business marketing:

• Just like online videos, podcasts must be short in length, but should carry valuable information for subscribers. • Quality is an important factor in podcasting. For this, you must use popular recording devices and editing software. • It is important to make the content informative and entertaining to bind the interest of the listeners. • Regularly update the content of the podcasts, and don't allow much gap between two consecutive podcasts. • Make sure to submit podcasts to genuine online directories and search engines.

Podcasting provides a great opportunity for online businesses to regularly communicate with their targeted prospects. Remember that podcasting is the medium to build up long-relationships with the customers and to enhance the brand value of your business.

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Why Podcasting Works

You've probably heard by now that you should have a podcast. That podcasts are an excellent tool that should be in every learning content product marketer's toolkit. That they increase traffic. That they increase reputation. That they are wonderful marketing tools.

But why does podcasting work?

In this article I'm going to share seven reasons why podcasting works. Of course there are many other reasons. But here are the seven that first came to mind as I thought about why podcasting works.

1. People like them.

It's always easier to market with a media that people like for its own sake. People tolerate sales letters. People try not to let ads get to them. People try to ignore video ads. But a podcast isn't perceived as advertising. They're perceived to be an information or learning content product. Sort of a mini-teleseminar. They're convenient and they're well accepted.

2. They are personal.

Only video is a more personal medium than audio. Podcasts give people a chance to listen to you in action. They get to hear your passion. They get to hear your emotions. Podcasts give people the sense that you are accessible to your audience.

3. They provide short bytes of information.

We are busy today. There's no other way to put it. We're so busy that we are having difficulty absorbing the information -- the stimuli -- that are being aimed at us. Podcasts provide information in short, easily absorbed chunks.

4. They are regular and repeating.

Podcasts are generally released on a weekly basis. But whatever the schedule they are regular and recurring. That means that the message they are carrying -- whether that be reputation, branding or something else -- is regularly repeated and reinforced.

5. They are easy to do.

Podcasts don't really require a lot of equipment. Nor do they require a great deal of thought. A headset and computer with a copy of Audacity is quite sufficient. A basic outline of the points to be raised and a clock is all that one needs to produce a podcast. Complex outlines of multiple chapters and hundreds of points are not required.

6. They are quick to create.

Because podcasts are relatively simplistic and short, they are very quick to create. They don't take a lot of time. A fifteen minute show can be scripted, recorded and edited within about two hours.

7. They are inexpensive to distribute.

Bandwidth costs. Podcasts are relatively inexpensive since they can be recorded at a fairly low quality and still sound good. As a result they don't cost very much to distribute. Not only that, but there are free podcasting services which will distribute your podcast for you.

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Virtual Coaching Business Models That Leverage Podcasting and Teleseminars

Virtual coaching business is big business. If you are a service professional or engage in any kind of consultative expertise from industrial equipment design, to medical practice to marketing consulting, you can create a powerful marketing stream or profit center through podcasting and teleseminars.

Virtual coaching and consulting has grown alongside capabilities in online collaboration and communication. With both coaching and online collaboration growing by leaps and bounds, fast moving entrepreneurs have moved in with innovative business models that leverage both trends.

5 Virtual Coaching & Consulting Business Models

The following sections illustrate how different criteria can be combined or split up to form business designs that appear unique as a whole but share much the same fundamental characteristics. Each model can be enhanced by using teleseminars or podcasting tools.

1. Digital Infopreneur

An infopreneur business model rests on the ability to spot the informational challenges facing a market segment and to aggregate, package and promote an informational bundle that meets the needs of that market segment. A digital infopreneur accelerates the whole cycle by using the online channel as her primary platform for market research, information gathering, product creation and distribution.

Due to the low overhead of doing business mostly on the internet, a digital infopreneur business can often grow very quickly while maintaining significant profit margins. One of my favorite ways to get infopreneurs started is through the use of teleseminars and podcasting systems for lead generation and information product creation.

2. Virtual Counseling

A coaching client of mine was able to convert their marriage counseling business from a local scope to a national and international one. We did this by adding virtual counseling capabilities to their website. More than just sticking up a website and advertising nationally, virtual counseling involves the ability to turn generic counseling needs into a packaged list of situational and service themes.

By carefully segmenting the marketplace for degree of severity, desired counseling time frame and demographics, you can convert your expertise into a powerfully pre-selling content marketing system that attracts just the right people. In addition, you can use free tools like freeconferencecalling.com to give people an organized way to interact with you and receive optional access to recorded sessions.

3. Individualized Skills Coaching

Many executives and business leaders find that they need soft skills coaching for their subordinates. Skills like phone selling, negotiation, customer service, communication and others that are verbally-oriented can be taught by phone.

4. Small Group Coaching

Many business coaches also use teleconference services to run facilitated group coaching, mastermind sessions, strategic visioning sessions and other such team activities. Depending on the context, teleseminars can be an excellent way to transfer new professional knowledge and skills to a small group of people.

5. Recurring Membership Groups

Almost any small business can profit by incorporating recurring revenues in the form of memberships. This could be a loyalty rewards club for your highest referring clients, frequent user programs for the top 10% of your client database, or public-facing profit center established to solve challenges in one narrow problem area.

Teleseminars are a great way to build up your content and deliver it easily and conveniently to a large group of paying subscribers. Even free teleseminar services are often very scalable, allowing groups from 1 to 500 on the same call.

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How to Run Your Own Podcast

More than ever before, podcasting is incredibly easy to accomplish. It takes only a few seconds to access one of a dozen free tools that will record audio and upload it to your website. The key is to establish a solid outline of content and good technical tools to record quality audio.

Recording the Podcast

First, you should know how to record a good Podcast. You'll need quality tools that will allow you the freedom to record audio in your own house. It may seem like just another simple Podcast, but people expect to hear you, not your washing machine, so having the right mic and software is important.

One of my tools of choice is the Technical Pro Podcast System (or the Digidesign Mbox for those who can afford something a bit higher end). This standalone recording system will reduce feedback and ambient noise that is unavoidable with a plugin microphone.

It is possible to record your podcast with a standard microphone as well, but don't expect the world's best audio as a result. Sometimes, when starting, this may be necessary, but upgrade as soon as possible to a higher quality, standalone audio device.

Regarding software, there are a number of desktop audio recording software programs that can create MP3s for uploading. My favorites include Audacity (which is free) or Adobe's Audition 3 Suite (quite a bit more expensive).

For an extremely simple option, however, consider one of the many browser based services that can create a podcast and syndicate it at once. Blogtalkradio allows you to record a Podcast with your phone or upload your own MP3 (created with your standalone system).

Other sites with similar services include Gcast.com, Wild Voice Shout, and Podcast Assistant (a desktop tool that creates the XML that will broadcast your Podcast).

What to Have in a Podcast

The hardest part for many people I think, is actually getting a good Podcast in place that listeners will return to on a weekly basis. You don't need iTunes distribution or a major website portal to get those listeners.

You just need quality content that people need to hear. Below are some tips for what listeners will return for repeatedly.

* Interviews - Whenever you can interview an expert in your field, listeners will tune in to listen. It can be hard, especially early in your career, to lean these big interviews, but try to build a relationship early and you'll benefit substantially from it.

* Specific Tips - Offer specific, detailed tips and strategies, not rehashes of things people have heard before. Many times Podcasts are audio versions of free reports floating around the Internet. Develop better, more consistent tips that will deliver value to your readers.

* Questions Answered - Interaction is the key to engaging your listeners. The easiest way to interact is to solicit questions and answer them every week. Leave an email address or a phone number that they can call them in on.

* News Updates - Don't just report news in your niche -discuss how it affects listeners. For example if you're in the solar energy niche and a new system is released by a major company, with higher output ratings, discuss how this can affect someone's home solar system.

The key to a good Podcast is to offer something unique and engaging that your listeners couldn't get by reading your blog or articles. Be entertaining, provide regular value, and update frequently (consistency is very important here), and your podcast will deliver exactly what your listeners are looking for. Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   

Coming Up With New Podcast Subjects

So you're sitting there trying to write your next podcast and what happens? Nada! Nothing! Total blankness! You just can't seem to come up with an idea. You haven't got the glimmer of a subject to talk about.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're not alone. Everyone has blank days. Everyone has points where they just can't think of anything to say. And if your podcast consists of multiple columns in a single recording then the problem is even worse!

So how do you do it?

How do you come up with new podcast subjects?

Well first off you need to realize that ideas are everywhere. No I'm not talking about in the ether -- although that may be true too. I'm talking about everywhere you are and everything you do. They're in the books that you read. They're in the television that you watch. They're in the newspapers and the radio. You just have to open your eyes and your mind to them.

Unfortunately, that means that they won't necessarily appear when you want them. Instead they appear at totally random times. So the first trick that you need to remember is always to have a notepad with you. This can be a little notebook that fits in your pocket. Or it can be a digital memo recorder (your MP3 player often has this built in). How you keep notes is irrelevant. Having something to record the ideas down when they occur is what matters.

Of course there's one source that you may not have thought of. Scary thing is that it's the best source of all. I'm talking about your customers. Or your audience. Or both. Ask them what problems they are having. Look at the questions they are sending you. Surely there are ideas in there. And they'll be the best ideas because they focus on your customer's questions.

The next little trick is to be efficient with your ideas. What do I mean with that? You've come up with an idea -- say "how to create ideas". Cool. One idea, one podcast. Right? Nope. Turn that idea into seven tips (or ten tips or top ten or top five or whatever). Now do a podcast on the overall idea. Do a podcast with the seven tips. Now do a podcast with each of the seven tips. Let's see, that one idea has now turned into nine podcasts. That's efficiency. Want to give away the farm? Add how, why and when to the mix. That works out to twenty seven podcasts. That's a half-year of weekly podcasts! From one idea.

Finally, remember that your podcasts can be turned into segments or columns. You may have an idea that won't give you enough material for a fifteen minute podcast. But what happens if you create a podcast with five six minute segments in it? Yes, you'll need more ideas but each idea will only need six minutes worth of material. That means more of the ideas will be useable. And the podcast will be longer!

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The Power of Podcasting for Creating Viral Organic Traffic

What is a Podcast and how can it help me get people to my website?

A podcast is basically a recording of you talking to yourself or another person about your specific topic that your website is centered on. I think of a podcast like a shorter version on an audio book. It is informative, it tells me what I want it too but it is much shorter.

How can this help you and your website? Well, first you have to make a podcast. To do this you need a microphone and some recording software. There is some good free recording software if you go to Google and type in "free recording software" you will find several really good ones to pick from.

Once you have your microphone and your free recording software you are ready to go. You can record anything you like about the subject that your site is focused on. So, just start recording and start talking about your subject. Take things off the top of your head about the subject and talk like you would talk to your best friend.

When you are starting to make podcasts make sure that you speak on a subject that you know well if you choose a subject that you are unsure of you are very likely to have pauses and say "err" or "aaggghhhh" of other very embarrassing situations. Practice makes this easier but speaking about a topic you understand will make the process more fluid.

You do not need to be stiff and boring with the information. Play with it, make it fun and crack some jokes if appropriate as well. Granted, if it does not fit the subject then keep the humour to yourself. But you can still be interesting to listen too without being boring.

Have you ever seen on TV infomercials Anthony Robbins the self-help guru? He's been doing them for at least the last 20 or 30 years. Well, he talks the way you want to sound on your recordings. He is just dripping with sincerity, passion and conviction for his subject.

He sounds totally believable and you should as well. This guy makes other people want to listen to him. Do you think if he was boring and monotone people would listen to him? This guy is exciting and his voice is all over the place.

So, go ahead and give it a try. After all, people can't see you so be as wild and crazy as you like and sound like you actually have something to say to the people.

This is going to get more and more people to listen to you and get them to your website because they like what you have to say. So, get out there and spread your message because no one is going to do it for you.

Just make sure you have a good microphone and some free recording software and you will be good to go. Do not underestimate the power of a good microphone, make sure you use digital and not analogue, the difference has to be heard to be believed!

Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   

School and College Radio

This article is a quick and simple introduction to school radio and the internet. The set-up and running of a school radio station can be exciting and fun!

It is a great way to bring together school curriculum and technology and to encourage young enterprise.

Radio broadcasting allows children and young people the chance to engage with and participate in their school and the wider community - helping to bolster confidence, language skills, and awareness of current affairs at both local and national level.

Starting out

One of the quickest and easiest ways for a school to have their radio shows broadcast is via podcast.

You can get your first school radio show online by recording your broadcast to computer by using a microphone. You will need audio recording/editing software - this way you can record your radio show and include music and sound effects before saving the finished show as a MP3 file and uploading it to your school website.

To help cut costs in the initial stages of setting up your station, there are a number of open source (free) recording/editing software downloads available online for both PC and Mac applications.

If your school does not have an official website, there are free and commercial school podcasting sites where you can upload your radio broadcasts for download by your audience.

Cost

The cost of your school radio station will, of course, depend upon your budget and your school's individual requirements.

There are a number of school radio installation companies who can supply and set up anything from Radio 1 style studios to portable studios which can be transferred between classes. Prices for supply, installation and set-up for radio equipment range from between £1,500 - £15,000.

However, if you have a couple of media savvy teachers/parents/pupils on board, a simple setup like the one described above can be achieved for as little as £600.

Broadcasting License

At the present time, you do not require a broadcasting licence for school podcasts. However, OFCOM will be looking at licensing web broadcasters at some point in the future. Please bear in mind that if you intend to broadcast on FM or AM, you will need to look into obtaining the relevant broadcasting licence.

Music License & Copyright

Internet Marketing - Using Podcasts   Six Benefits of Podcasting   The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way