Is It Smart to Charge For a Podcast?

There's no debate about Podcasting itself. Podcasting is one of the best techniques to adopt for an information marketer or someone in the advice business. They're easy to create. Powerful in the ability to influence. And valued by the audience. That's a powerful combination for any technique.

But there is a debate about Podcasting.

Specifically the debate is around whether it is smart to charge for a podcast. People are lined up on both sides of the table. They're taking sides and as usual they're quite vociferous in their support for their opinion. The truth, of course, is somewhere in between.

Some people believe that there should be no doubt about charging for podcasts.

Podcasting can be the basis for a very useful and powerful membership product. Many membership programs are built around newsletters or video products. But podcasting can provide a higher value product for more people with less work than the alternatives.

Ongoing revenue products are extremely powerful and profitable. But there aren't many methods of generating this type of revenue. Membership programs, newsletters and coaching are the normal techniques used. However, a podcast is a recurring product and therefore makes an excellent base for a recurring revenue product.

Podcasts can also be repackaged in many ways. By charging for the base product (the podcast) you can ensure that the subsequent products retain their value. After all the information is proprietary and shouldn't be shared without recompense.

On the other hand there are a number of people who believe that charging for podcasts is foolish. They also have a strong argument.

Not all products will sell equally. Changing formats may cause a product to suddenly start to sell. Even though it is essentially the same product. Podcasts are such a powerful source of subsequent products that selling them may fool you into believing there is no market when there really is. If the podcast does not sell well you may decide not to release the subsequent products. The result would be a major loss in profits.

Podcasts are an extremely powerful technique to increase credibility and build a reputation. As such they are a marketer's dream. Selling them would seriously impact their distribution and therefore reduce their ability to deliver increased credibility. Bluntly they are worth more as a free product than they ever could be as a paid product.

Podcasting draws part of its history and techniques from the broadcast media such as radio. But unlike traditional broadcasting it is a content rich media. And it is judged by both its content and its production values. As a free product both the audience and the producer will concentrate on the content and tend to ignore the production values. However, as a paid product the producer will tend to focus on production values thus reducing the actual value of the product.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   

What Is a Podcast and How Does It Work?

Podcasts can be an effective method of developing traffic, attracting customers and building your credibility. It can turn you from a want to-be to a true expert in the eyes of your customers and prospects.

But what is a podcast?

The term itself is a contraction of two words - iPod and broadcast. The Apple iPod of course, is an MP3 player. An electronic version of the old tape recorder if you will.

So the term itself would indicate that a podcast is some form of a regular broadcast using MP3 audio format and portable players -- the Apple name being optional. But a podcast is really both more and less than this.

For the purposes of this article I'm going to deal with what a podcast is on four levels.

1. A podcast is an audio file. In theory it is provided in MP3 format. MP3 format is a very capable, yet very compact format used for audio recording. It is also manufacturer independent. However, podcasts can also be provided using either the Windows native format (WMA) or Apple's Quicktime audio. In fact, there are a large number of audio formats available and podcasts can be found in any of them. However, MP3 is the most popular format.

2. It is intended to be retrieved from a website (e.g. iTunes or the creator's website) and downloaded to an MP3 player such as the iPod or one of many other manufacturers products. This recording can then be played back at any time while the audience is busy doing something else. Cars are a frequent location for the playback of these files. Busy commuters can listen to something useful while traveling to and from the office.

3. Content is whatever the podcast creator wishes. Like any radio broadcast. However, typically they tend to be focused on spoken content rather than music. This content can be provided in a number of different forms including teleseminars, interviews and readings.

4. In theory podcasts do not have to be regular. However, in practice they fit into two types. One time podcasts are usually not referred to as podcasts. The repeating podcast is repeated either once per week or once per month or daily. In short, they are meant to be a regularly re-occurring broadcast of opinion, information or news. In practice, audio files which are one-time only are referred to as MP3s. The term podcast is usually restricted to broadcasts which repeat on a regular basis.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   

How a Podcast Can Make You an Instant Success

Are you looking to be an internet guru? Are you looking to sell lots of information in the form of eBooks, webinars and other courseware? Then podcasting is one way you can become an instant success.

Not let's get serious here for a second. No one is ever an instant success. It doesn't happen. Not in the real world and not in the internet world. Instant success actors have been working for starvation wages for years. Instant success writers have been writing for decades. And instant success businesspeople have been building businesses over and over and over.

But if anything could make you an instant success podcasting could be one of them. And podcasting can make you a success very quickly with very little work.

But why?

Here are four reasons that podcasting is so successful.

1. Podcasting is a high touch medium. Not as high as coaching perhaps but high touch nonetheless. Your audience will hear your passion. They'll hear your emotions as you diss an idea. And listen as you blow off steam at something you hate. They'll pay attention to you as you try to convince them of the importance of something you are passionate about. And all this emotion helps them to feel closer to you. They'll believe that they know the real you. And just as in real life, they'll come to like you. (Or hate you!)

2. Podcasting is a recurring media. Unlike an eBook which only is read once (if at all) or a teleseminar which is watched only once, a podcast is repeated on a regular schedule. Every week or every month there'll be a new subject and a new chance to learn more about you as a person.

3. Podcasts are also a chance for you to show off what you know. Like a blog for the ears the format isn't set in stone. One week you can teach. The next you can complain. The week after you can critique. The week after you can compliment. All formats are available to you. And that means that you can use them as a teaching platform. And whenever you do that you will be building your reputation as an expert in your field.

4. Podcasts are popular and a great way to keep one's mind busy. As we become a world of commuters we need to fill up our wasted time. Sitting on a train for an hour and half is frankly boring. Consumers want to have some form of learning or entertainment during that wasted time. Podcasts are both well suited and popular for that purpose.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   

How to Record a Quality Podcast

After editing, mixing and mastering hundreds of podcasts, and seeing the same quality issues pop up again and again, I wrote this short guide to help new podcast producers produce better sounding podcasts and not make the same mistakes, which, once recorded, are difficult to fix. these tips are basic yet the most essential tips for recording any good podcast.

Format:

Format is one of the most important yet most overlooked aspects of Podcast recording. I am amazed to receive Podcasts recorded in wav 8 bit, 8000khz, or worse on 32 KBps mp3! To give you an idea, this is like packing a chocolate pastry in a matchbox! Nothing much of the original will survive!

I always advice recording in wav format at 44,100, 16 bit. This format renders the best quality for size. But the file size can be huge (1 min recording =10 mb approx). But once it is recorded, a sound engineer can mix, master, eq and polish it up and reduce it a small 15 mb file, ready to upload. This way the saturation and quality of the source is maintained the most and all other process like noise reduction and Eq yield beautiful results. If you are recording in mp3, I would suggest a bit rate of 320 kbps, 44,100 at the least.

Placing the microphone

Placing the microphone or Miking is an elaborate science in itself. If the mic is too close to the mouth, it will cause pops, and bass boost, making the sound muddy or harsh. If it's too far, the voice presence will suffer. It is always a good idea to record a couple of samples with different placements and see what gives the best results. Some basic do's and don't-

1. Keep the microphone as far away as possible from unwanted sound sources like CPU fans, A/c ducts etc.

2. Don't place the microphone directly behind a wall. This will result is reflections and will make the voice echo.

3. Place the microphone directly in front of your mouth, around 4-8 inches away. You can also place the microphone a little higher then your mouth and point it downwards.

4. Always use a pop screen/filter to reduce the explosive breath sounds.

Levels:

As a rule, the recording levels should never cross 0 db. A level higher then 0db causes nasty distortion in your recordings. The best way to avoid it is to do a sample recording and hear it back. Always monitor the levels on your recording software. Low levels can always be fixed, but distortion is nearly impossible to fix. My advice; don't record at the maximum levels. Reduce them a little and always check that your recording has no distortion. Or better, if you can apply a compressor in the signal chain, it will take care of the peak levels.

Location:

An acoustically treated room is the best place for recording. Though ideal, it might not be available to all podcasters. Never record in rooms which have lot of metallic furniture/items or a completely empty room. These will reflect the sound waves and will result in bad recordings. A room with carpet and wooden furniture is a better choice.

Make sure the location you choose has minimum ambient noises. Fans, exhausts, noisy CPU all contribute to broadband noise. Make sure that there are no phone ringing, the neighbor's dog or the doorbell!

Happy recording!!

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   

Producing A Podcast - Start With The Audience

Every once in a while someone will come up to me and say something along the lines of "I want to have a podcast but I don't know where to start."

My response is usually "Great. Who's your audience and what are you going to say?"

And usually the response is something like a blank look and "Well, I figured I'd talk about... since that's what I'm selling." At which point I have to stop them and explain that they are ahead of themselves.

You've got to start with your audience.

You see that's one of the biggest mistakes that new internet marketers (especially information marketers) make -- they start with their product. But information marketing needs to be a niche marketing endeavor. And the word niche refers not to your product but to your customer.

When creating learning content (aka an information product) -- and a podcast is a form of learning content -- you always need to start with the audience.

Why?

Because your audience is going to be buying your podcast. They may not be paying for it with dollars (although that would be nice). But they will be paying with their most valuable asset -- their time. And you need to provide them with value for their time. Or they aren't going to be interested in downloading or listening. And they shouldn't be.

You also need to be able to motivate your audience. You need to convince them not only to download your podcast but also to listen to it. You need to convince them that this is a must have, must listen podcast. You need to convince them that not only is it valuable to them but it's absolutely necessary for them.

The way to motivate your audience to listen is by picking topics based on what motivates them. It sounds simple. And it is. You need to identify what their biggest and most immediate problem is. You need to identify what they are afraid may happen. And you need to identify what they are hoping will happen. And you need to identify what is at the front of their minds at the moment. What has their immediate interest.

But of course, that's not all you need to do.

You also need to solve, avoid or achieve. That's right you need to solve their problem with your topic. Or you need to show them how to avoid the pain that they are afraid of. Or you need to show them how to achieve their dreams.

But to do that means you need to know them.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   

6 Things to Consider Before Starting Your Podcast

Podcasting can be a lot of fun. Through it you can get your message out to a large number of people, who will enjoy listening to you and what you have to say on your "internet radio show".

Podcasting, can also be a lot of work. Before you get started with your show, and possibly end up over your head, here are six simple things that you should consider.

Passion. You want to make sure that you're talking about your passion, or something that you're passionate about. The reason for this, is to help you stay motivated and continue producing episodes on those days that you have the "I don't wannas." An easy test for your passion is this: Can you come up with 50 different things related to the topic you want to talk about? Schedule. With what frequency will you be podcasting? Once you pick a schedule, stick to it. Once a day requires a huge commitment, once a month is not frequent enough, once a week is ideal. If you could come up with 50 different things to talk about (see #1 above) then you essentially have 1 year's worth of topics for your show. Blogging. Many of the same principles that apply to blogging, apply to producing your show. Like with blogging, your goal, should be to increase your subscribers. To accomplish that, make sure that you are providing good content and getting feedback on your content to make sure that you're on topic. Hosting. Ideally, you should host your files yourself on your own server, instead of hosting the files on someone else's. By hosting the files yourself, you avoid being inconvenienced should that third party go out of business. The biggest con to hosting the files yourself, is that it takes some time and a little technical expertise to setup your own hosting. Syndication. This refers to how will you distribute your podcast. People need to be able to subscribe to your show, so you need to pick a syndication platform that will make this easy for your listeners. The iTunes music store, Podcast Pickle etc. are examples of places where you can syndicate your content. Money. Are you planning on monetizing, or in other words, are you planning to make money from your podcast? I posit that you should not worry about making money from the get go, but rather grow into making money as your audience grows. Whether you plan to sell ads or sell affiliate products, make sure that you have a plan for how you are going to make money from your podcast when that time comes.

At the very least, you should address these issues before you start podcasting. There are many other tasks, such as growing your audience, growing your subscribers, finding guests, etc. that you may need to consider as well.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   How To Pick A Great Name For Your Podcast   

How To Get Started Making A Podcast

If you're looking to make a podcast, then good for you. A podcast is something that you can use to market your products and services very effectively. I can remember when I use to make a podcast from extracting the audio from my YouTube videos that I used to create. That was a long while ago, but I still remember how to do it.

But a podcast is a very effective tool that you can use to further market your website. A podcast is simply and audio file that shares information about a particular topic. One of my favorite podcast is the Suze Orman podcast. If you don't know who Suze Orman is, then obviously you have been living under a rock.

Suze Orman is a financial and money guru who has her own television show. Her show comes on at 9pm on Saturdays on CNBC. On the nights where I can watch her show, I simply download her podcast from iTunes. Speaking of iTunes, you will need to know what some of the popular podcast directories are that you can use to submit your podcast to.

By far iTunes is the world's leading and largest podcast directory - but it isn't the only one. In truth, there are a ton of podcast directories out there but you will get the bulk of your results from the top 3 of them. Luckily iTunes is free to submit to, so you will reach a lot of users using it.

The only drawback of a podcast is that people can't "click" to your website. You will either have to spell out your website on your podcast or say it very slowly for your users to go to. When I used to do my YouTube videos, I had a graphical display of my web address at the bottom of the screen for users to go and type into their web browser. But with podcasts, you don't have this option to do so.

Nevertheless, podcasts are still an excellent way to market your products and services. To get started with one, one of the most basic things that you will need is a medium. The medium that I suggest that you use is a blog. You can use your blog to host your podcast content. You can get a ton of hits to your blog by having people subscribe to your blog's RSS feed.

You can get an RSS feed from something called Feedburner.com. There's a special section on Feedburner specifically for people who have a podcast blog, and this will make your podcast content easier to get access to. Luckily the instructions on Feedburner are simple and easy to use, so you don't have to encounter any complicated situations with getting your blog set up.

Podcasts are the way of the future. Almost everyone is using podcasts to market their business, and it's a good thing that you're researching it also because it can really help you to get new customers. Keep these tips in mind when making your own podcast.

Good luck with making a podcast for your business.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   How To Pick A Great Name For Your Podcast   

Editing Audio to Make a Polished Podcast

Have you ever wondered how some podcasters can be so perfect? They never make mistakes. They never stumble over their words. They never have problems looking for the right name. They never have dead air. They're absolutely perfect!

You could never be that good, could you?

Well relax. You too can be as good as they are. And it doesn't take years of practice. It doesn't even take a high priced course! In fact, I'm going to give you the answer for free.

It's called editing.

Yup, it's that good ol' polishing step known as editing. Of course, the best speakers all practice over and over and over. And if you want to be as good as they are you'll have to do the same thing. But the reason they are perfect is because they have someone going over the podcast and correcting their mistakes.

And you should too!

So how do you do this here editing thing? First off, you're going to need a piece of editing software sometimes referred to as an audio editor or a sound editor. There are numerous ones around ranging in price from free to very expensive. Nero has one built into its burning software. I like Wavepad for my purposes. You'll have to find the one that meets your needs best.

You're also going to need a recording of your podcast. There are a number of methods to get this recording. But I prefer to just use the sound editor and a headset. And of course an outline or script.

Now before we start editing there is one thing you need to remember. Perfection is a machine quality. People are imperfect. Imperfection helps us to connect with other imperfect beings. In other words, don't try to be too perfect with your edited podcast. You want your audience to connect with you. That means you need to show emotion and you need to slip up once in a while.

There are six things you need to do while editing:

1. You need to add an introduction to your podcast. This can be a prerecorded intro but there should be some information specific to this podcast. You might also consider using music.

2. You need to add closing credits to your podcast. This can be prerecorded and modified if necessary for the podcast. Again some form of closing theme music should be used.

3. You need to listen for and eliminate excess dead time. Remember the rule regarding perfection. Some dead time is allowed. Too much puts your audience to sleep.

4. You need to listen for and eliminate speakers' delays. That's those umms, and ahhs, and hmms that we use to show we're still speaking while we think up our next words. You know the tells that we're told to eliminate in public speaking class. Yup. You need to get rid of those in editing -- no matter how skilled your speaker!

5. You need to listen for and eliminate mistakes. When recording if you make a mistake just repeat the line. The editor should erase the mistake and reconnect the recording so that the mistake disappears.

6. You should consider adding theme music. Just as music helps to carry emotions in a movie, music in a podcast will help your passion to touch your audience.

The Benefits of Starting a Podcast   Podcast Transcription: Converting the Spoken to the Written   How to Begin Podcasting the Right Way   The Art of Podcasting   How To Pick A Great Name For Your Podcast