Podcast Freq

The world is getting smaller with the internet but there are still many people who are on dial up connections, or indeed no internet at all. As a podcaster you may want to remember the power of the telephone to reach these potential customers as future clients. The Podcast Sisters’ latest show is all about how to promote your business through teleseminars and also how to repackage the content to audio content. Check out Show 12 here at Blubrry - The Podcast Sisters are Krishna De, Heather Gorringe and Anna Farmery.

As podcasters if we want to grow our audience and I say IF because that is not necessarily your goal, then we usually need to find ways that don’t cost the earth. In this series of Promoting Your Podcast we are looking at 26 ways of promoting your show at little or no cost. Today we look at N.

N= Notes. Many podcasting sites and communities have forums that allow you to post a promotion for your show. I am an avid admirer of the Blubrry Community and within the forum section they have a podcast promotion section. Find the sites that allow you to promote and then concentrate on writing a great post, one that attracts the eye and delivers 3 key benefits that people will gain from listening to your show. These promotions are free and easy to do, so again the question is not why do it but why not?

I was delighted to receive a nomination for the Best Business Podcast of 2007 for The Engaging Brand. The voting starts tonight and I would encourage all of you to go and vote for your favourites. The awards are a great way of showing appreciation for all the hard work podcasters put into their show. Before you smile, I would say that whether I was nominated or not, honest! I will be voting for my favourites as a way of showing my appreciation.
Todd Cochrane of The Geek News Central podcast organises the awards and has shared on his blog the results of the nomination process. There are some lessons for all podcasters.

1st 4097 shows were nominated that is up from 3281 shows nominated in 2006

2nd Of the 4097 shows that were nominated only 2911 had a visible RSS feed link on their Page or was auto detectable.

3rd Of the 4097 shows 3761 of them had an iTunes link on their page it was obvious that many podcasters think iTunes is the only way to consume a podcast.

4th Of the 4097 shows nominated only 2012 had a physical link to their podcast show media on their show postings or had a media player of some sort.

5th Of the 2911 sites that had a visible RSS feed, 82% (2387) had feed errors. The 2387 that had errors 61% (1456) of those feeds were completely invalid according to FeedValidator.org.

7th 81% (1933) of those sites that had RSS feed errors, where being hosted on a Wordpress blog.

6th Of the 2387 RSS feeds that had either RSS errors or were invalid 93% of the feeds were being served up by FeedBurner.

7th The biggest RSS feed this year was a whopping 1.1 megs. The podcasters listing had not updated in iTunes in over 1 year. The podcaster received 2 nominations, yet had produced a show each week for the past 16 months. When we e-mailed the podcaster he was astonished to find his listing had not updated in iTunes and had no clue that their was feed size limitations.

8th Their were approximately 230 feeds whose size was over 250K

9th Of the 4097 Shows nominated only 41% had a means to contact the host where it be through a voice mail hot-line or a email contact.

It is worth checking that none of the above issues are relevant to your show - if your feed is not working then no matter how great your content you will not attract the listeners.

Today we are looking at M and giving you an idea of how to promote your podcast when you have little or no budget.

M=MOO Cards are a wonderfully cheap way of creating a business card for your show. Carry them with you and share them with people that you meet. I have one friend who always leaves them on tables, on tube seats, on the train, bus anywhere! Put your album art on the card and try and think of a catchy phrase that will entice people to find out more…. Podcast addresses are notoriously difficult to remember so even with friends you can give them a card - or even give them 5 to share with their mates!

I am not a believer that you should force your work on others, but if people are interested in your work or intrigued by the concept of podcasts then the card will act as a great promotion tool.

We are looking at ways that you can promote your podcast on a shoestring budget - today we look at “L”

L=Local Contacts. One of the power’s of podcasting is that it is a truly global media, you have the ability to attract a global audience. However, don’t forget your local contacts. For instance, speak to your local library and see if you can leave a leaflet or business card at the desk, what about your local bookstore, colleges, universties. I often speak to local students about social media free of charge - the benefit is that they then act as brand ambassadors. Podcasting is still a relatively new media, so contact your local paper to cover your podcasting story. In your desire to build a global audience don’t forget the thousands of potential listeners within your local area. What I love about this, is that you can combine some great community work with the benefit of promoting your work. This is truly a win-win.

Continuing our series of how to promote your podcast for free, I want to talk about “K”

K=Kudos. Give other people kudos during your show. There are people, including bloggers and podcasters that are influential on your progress within the social media world. Don’t be afraid to recognise who has inspired an idea, where you have got an idea, which shows that you listen to, which blogs that you read….. I am a believer in givers gain, the more you help to promote other people’s work the more you will benefit in the long term. I think there is another benefit - as you share the content, the more you share your values and more about yourself. This gives a greater insight into your personality.

Show 11 of The Podcast Sisters is up and running and talks about Second Life - not just what it is but also how business is using it to

1) Make money
2) Promote their brand

The Podcast Sisters is a show for the non geek - it assumes no knowledge of any subjects so if you want to learn more check the show out at Blubrry

Continuing our series of how to promote your podcast for free, I want to talk about the microblogging growth. Wikipedia describes micro blogging as
“Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that lets you write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) about your life on the go and send them to friends and interested observers via text messaging, instant messaging, email or the web. The most popular service is called Twitter, which was launched in July 2006 and became popular among techno-gurus at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. The main competitor to Twitter is Jaiku. Recently, however, many new services, with the same feature of micro-blogging are being born. Digg founder Kevin Rose, together with three other developers recently launched a service called Pownce, which integrates micro-blogging together with file-sharing and event invitations. The popular social networking websites Facebook and MySpace also have a micro-blogging feature, called “status update”. Microblogging is expanding to europe with frazr (french and german twitter copycat) and in china with zuosa.

J=Jaiku. Jaiku and indeed Twitter are incredibly popular communication tools. Having a presence on these tools is a great way of connecting with people - even people who may not be listening to podcasts. These micro blogging tools are another way of building your personal brand, your podcasting brand. You can build engagement with listeners, by sharing your thoughts you can build interest in your work. You can also use it to inform people of your latest shows, competitions.

Producing the podcast is only part of the work, we all need to look at promoting our work to ensure that we reach as many listeners as possible. I am running a series of posts on the A-Z of Promoting Your Podcast and today we will look at I

I=Image. It is really important to have strong album art for your podcast. The album art needs to attract the eyes of the “searcher” and stand out from the crowd. I prefer strong colors as they automatically attract the eye and also try to convey the feeling of the podcast in the artwork. The artwork is not just an album cover, it is your advertising hoarding, your brand and your marketing. New listeners find you through search, either through top 10 lists, or by searching a category. That is why it is so important to invest a little time and possibly money to this area. iTunes rarely pick as favourites or new podcasts without album art so you are reducing your chances of further promotion without it.

Over at The Podcast Sisters, we have just published Show 10 which is a fascinating look at a case study of how Wiggly Wigglers have thrown out the traditional advertising budget and used podcasting to market to their customers. It is a great insight for any small business owners who are looking at cost effective ways of advertising their business. To listen to the show you can find it here at Blubrry or iTunes.

I am really looking forward to attending this year’s podcamp UK. For those of you in the UK and into podcasting, I think it is a must attend event -

“PodCampUK is a two-day event bringing all the excitement and ideas and energy of a PodCamp to the UK for the first time. This unique event is taking place on the 1st and 2nd of September at the New Technology Institute in Birmingham, and promises to be a brilliant mix of ideas, technology, live music, free food, great people and much more…”

I will be holding a session with Heather Gorringe and Janet Parkinson - really looking forward to that, on the Sunday. Let me know if you are going to be there - would be great to meet up with you.

Producing the podcast is only part of the work, we all need to look at promoting our work to ensure that we reach as many listeners as possible. I am running a series of posts on the A-Z of Promoting Your Podcast and today we will look at H

H=Have an email option for listeners or readers to your blog. This is a great way of encouraging people who are not into podcasting to listen to the show. If you have a customer e-mail list then let them know that the show is up and ready to listen to…all for FREE! You can offer an email subscription so they know when you post something new. Many people do not want to go the iTunes route or understand “podcatchers” so by offering an e-mail option you will reach out to people who would not normally find you. Free services like Feedblitz manage all the publishing process which has the added benefit of freeing up your time.

Many of us independent podcasters do not have huge budgets - often no budget at all, so here is an A-Z of ideas of how to promote your podcast without a budget. To read A-D here is the link of promoting your podcast. Today we are looking at G

G=Groups. Within google and yahoo there are many podcasting groups. Within these groups you not only get the chance to increase your network, promote your work but also to develop your podcasting knowledge. The key is not to promote your work directly - , instead promote your ideas, thoughts and then put your site in your signature for people to check you out. People will see your knowledge, passion and ideas then hopefully come over to check you out. Remember the more you give to the groups, reach out to help others then the more likely people will check out your work.

Many of us independent podcasters do not have huge budgets - often no budget at all, so here is an A-Z of ideas of how to promote your podcast without a budget. To read A-D here is the link of promoting your podcast. Today we are looking at F

F= Facebook. Why not set up a group on Facebook, I have done that with The Engaging Brand and we have also created one for The Podcast Sisters. It is a way of connecting with listeners and potential listeners. Social networking is a great way of connecting with people and using the packages to carry on the conversation after the show has been published. It allows you to message all the members, poll them and also discuss issues coming out of the show. Again it is free, so the question is not why but why not create a group?

Many of us independent podcasters do not have huge budgets - often no budget at all, so here is an A-Z of ideas of how to promote your podcast without a budget. To read A-D here is the link of promoting your podcast.

E= E-mail signature. A simple way to promote your work to friends and colleagues is to add a link in your e-mail signature. I prefer to put a sentence describing the show as a teaser to encourage people to click on the link. Although I have 3 shows, I only promote my main podcast as I don’t like signatures that “overdo” the promotion - but that is personal taste. Imagine how many people you e-mail - this is another free way of gaining PR for your show.