The Business Podcasting Primer

By Mitchell Harper

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.

3 Responses to "The Business Podcasting Primer"

Fill in the form below to leave a comment and share your thoughts.

John Bignell

said this on 26 Jul 2007 10:02:25 AM CDT

I would like to see the ArticleLive read other Podcast XML files so that people can submit there programs much like they could submit articles. If people have to submit each Mp3/video file everytime they update there show they will not bother with our site.

[From Mitch: Hi John. The whole idea behind podcast support in ArticleLive is that you release a new part to your podcast every few days/weeks. When someone subscribes to your podcast in iTunes and you add a new part, iTunes will automatically sync up their copy with yours, so they have the new parts as well. They don't have to resubscribe. Hope that helps.]

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Paula

said this on 26 Jul 2007 1:37:53 PM CDT

Your guys' emails are great. I'm just starting out making up a website for my company and there's just so much to learn. Thanks for all the great ideas!

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John Bignell

said this on 01 Sep 2007 10:32:10 AM CDT

Thanks Mitch for your comment, but I am not sure you understand what we want to do with podcasting and RSS feeds on our site. We would like to take all the podcasts related to our site and create a portal of podcasts. If could read other feeds then we could have many different programs that are from the same nich.

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