The Business Case for Podcasting

The phenomenon of Podcasting has been getting a lot of press, lately. It seems everytime you turn around, someone else has a new pocast. Should you have one, too? Perhaps. According to Forrester Research, by 2010 podcasting may have as many as 12.3 million listeners. Somebody's got to create content for all those listeners -- maybe you're one of the "somebody's".

Now, you may think Forrester's numbers are about entertainment podcasts -- music, talk, and other audio distractions. What's the point of *your* business getting into *that* business? Actually, podcasting offers you the opportunïty to do more than entertain. And it's a lot more powerful than a simple personal online broadcasting platform.

When properly used, podcasting can -- and will -- take prospect contact and customer care to a whole new level... with the sound of the human voice, not just the code from a keyboard. Podcasting lets you put a human touch on your customer contacts -- and it's delivered to your subscribers' computer for you.

10 Ways Podcasting Can Help You Do Business Better

1) Reach exactly the people who ask you to

When someone subscribes to your podcast, it means they are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. They're not a "cold call" -- they're an interested prospect (or an existing customer) who has taken the time to subscribe to your podcast with the expectation that they will hear from you regularly. This model is quite different from the e-mail model, where people often opt-ïn with their e-mail as a reflex, and then don't bother to read the messages they receive. It's also a complete departure from direct mail, where recipients are often "hapless victims" who resent the intrusion of too many unsolïcited messages.

2) Bypass the restrictions of e-mail communications - you won't get blocked by sp@m filters

One of the (many) beauties of podcasting, is that it's a great way to communicate with a receptive audience without being blocked by sp@m filters, or getting lost in an in-box. Podcast clients (or "podcatchers") can automatically pick up the latest and greatest podcast you have available, without subjecting it to a filter. iTunes does have restrictions on "explicit" content, but if you're using podcasting for business purposes, this is a non-issue. Your message will get through to people who want to hear it.

3) Tailor your message to literally speak to your prospects, for a more personal touch

The human voice is far more expressive, than an e-mail or a web page. Podcasting lets you connect with people and communicate with much more than words. Intonation, inflection, emotion, all carry on the human voice -- they get through to your audience on your podcast in ways that the written word can't.

4) Give your customers, or another target group, a personalized message they can listen to *anytime*

Another great thing about podcasting, is that your audience can listen to your audio anytime, when they use an mp3 player, like an iPod. They can also download your podcast to their computer and listen there, or burn it to a CD and take it with them. Your message gets to them on their terms, in their time, in the way they want it. Podcasting really is Personal-On-Demand-Casting. It's not just about iPods.

5) Reach your customers in a variety of ways

Podcasting isn't just only about audio, either. With your podcasts, you can include text messages that your audience reads in their podcatcher. Include website urls in your podcast, or add last-minute information they may find useful. Podcasting gives you the best of both worlds in a very small package.

6) Find out what your audience's degree of interest *really* is, with stats reporting

When you send out an e-mail or a direct mail piece, it's impossible to tell if people received it, if they read it, and how they responded to it. With podcasting, you can measure the statistics of your subscriptions and find out how many people each month are picking up your podcasts and downloading your audio. If they keep picking up your podcasts, you know you're doing something right.

7) Get real-time metrics on who's bailing on you

You can also find out if people are unsubscribing to your feeds. If your numbers go down from week to week or month to month, something may need to change. You can find this out immediately with podcasting, whereas e-mail and direct mail responses may take much longer to analyze.

8) Keep in closer touch with groups

Podcasting doesn't only have to be for businesses. Social groups can also use it, for re-broadcasting important meetings, or sending out messages to members who need to keep in touch. Recordings of training sessions and workshops can be put into mp3 and distributed via podcast, as can motivational talks. Anything a group experiences 'out loud' can be recorded and placed in a podcast, for all the members to subscribe to and enjoy later at their convenience.

9) Technology does the work for you

Because podcatchers automatically pick up the latest file(s), you don't have to notify people that the audio is available by conventional means -- including e-mail. As long as you update your feeds regularly, and your audience checks their podcatchers regularly, they will get the latest and greatest audio you have, without having to search for it.

10) A potentially huge audience is ready and waiting

Podcasting is big, because there's such a huge audience for it. iPods sell like hotcakes, and they're given away as premiums by many businesses. Gear is amply available for playing mp3s in the car, during exercise, on home stereo systems, and of course, on computers. People download podcasts, they're familiar with the concept - and downloading commercial podcasts from businesses they value and want to patronize is the next logical development in podcasting. When done properly, business podcasting can be fun, entertaining, and a valued service for valuable customers. The only barrier to putting it to good use, is the limits of human imagination.

In sum, podcasting may very well revolutionize the music broadcasting industry, but the *real* power lies in how it will impact the small and medium-sized business community. Whether you own a business yourself, or patronize those who do, there's tremendous potential for podcasting to deepen and enrich customer experience, as well as the ability of businesses to serve their valued clientele.

So, chëck out podcasting as a whole new way to reach the kind of people who want you to reach them. What you don't know about podcasting won't hurt you... but it won't help you, either.

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PodCasting 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Merle MCPromotionsPress.com

Everywhere you turn online these days you hear the word "podcast" or "podcasting." No, it's not some broadcasting method used by Martians, even though it might sound like it. A Podcast is just an audio file that is syndicated via an RSS feed, that you download and listen to with your computer or a portable device such as an iPod.

What makes it different from an ordinary RSS feed is the audio component included in the "enclosure field." Think of it as a feed that talks to you.

Podcasting is increasing in popularity. According to Forrester Research, by 2010 podcasting should have about 12.3 million listeners. That's a pretty big audience. For more info see http://tinyurl.com/84tyo.

Similar to a talk radio show, podcasts can also take the format of an interview. Topics range from business to hobbies; even rants and obsessions. Lengths vary, but a typical podcast will run anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, but I have seen some longer. So far, there are not many music podcasts due to the red tape and cost of music licensing -- although musicians and/or small record labels bypass that issue by utilizing their own recordings.

Before you think you need some special device to listen to a podcast, let me assure you that you don't. Most RSS readers have the capability built in to play podcasts. Any software that can play a sound file can play a podcast. If you want to take them with you to listen to while on the road you'll want to invest in a portable MP3 device like an iPod.

Like other RSS feeds, you decide which ones you want to subscribe to and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Online business owners should think of podcasting as yet another avenue for promoting your products and services. Like an ezine or the RSS feeds you already use, it's a simple inexpensive method of syndicating your audio files online. It would appear that a podcast is a bit more personal. Instead of just reading, like an ezine, people can listen to the sound of your voice and make a more personal connection.

Now that I have your attention you may be wondering "How do I create a podcast?" Well, it's really pretty simple if you follow the easy steps below:

1) First you'll need to use software to record your own audio file. A good frëe one is Audacity which you can download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net. While there, you'll also need to download the Lame MP3 Encoder which allows MP3 exportation.

2) Once your audio is recorded you'll need to create an RSS feed file which is simply a special text file with an RSS extension that also includes a particular enclosure tag. For step by step directions on making a feed file see this site:

Make-RSS-Feeds.com

There's also a great tutorial on RSS at:

Mot.net

3) Once your audio and RSS files are completed you'll need to upload both of them to your server/website.

If you'd like to read more, hëre are some additional online sites to help guide you.

Make Your First Podcast

Create Podcasts Using Your PC

If you don't want to do all this work manually, there are software tools specific to podcast creation.

ePodCast Creator

Pod Producer

That's it. Wasn't that simple? Remember, you can't get subscribers if people don't know about your feed, so make sure you add it in a prominent place of your site. You want to make it easy for them to subscribe and add your feed to their news reader.

Audio files are rather large and can take up a lot of space on your server, so make sure you won't run out of bandwidth. If you're tight on space you can always farm it out to a third party service such as http://www.PodLot.com . For only $5.00 they'll give you 150 MB of storage space with no bandwidth limitations. Your domain will look like this: nameofyourshow.podlot.com

If you think you're going to have a hit on your hands and want to try to generate cäsh from your podcast, chëck out PremiumPodcasting.com. They provide a system that allows you to charge for your shows and also include private access to them, track who is listening and more. You can try them out for a four day trïal for only one dollar.

Once your podcast is live you'll want to make sure you list it with the various directories that exist for just this purpose. You'll find a nice list at:

Podcast Bunker

Open Media Network

Podcasting Station

Robin Good has a huge list at http://tinyurl.com/9rusq

So now that you see how easy it is to create a podcast, what's stopping you? Remember, this is a great tool to add to your marketing mix and if you're a bit on the creative side this might be just the ticket. Have fun with it, experiment and you'll become an expert podcaster in no time.

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Crash Course in Getting a #1 Google Ranking

First, here's the rundown of some of the terminology I'm going to use in this article –

Inbound Links – Links coming into your site
Outbound Links – Links leaving your site
Cross Links – Links that you have "traded" with another site (i.e., they've got a link from their site to your and you've got a link from your site to theirs)
PR (Page Ranking) – Google's measure of how "important" your site is.

SEO Is Not Dead

Ok, nöw lets talk about what you really want to hear – how to get those coveted 1-10 ranks for your keywords. Remember this - SEO is not dead. In fact, it is very much alive and important. The first thing to do in order to raise your site rank is target specific keywords. I say specific, because you need to target "keyphrases," meaning more than one word keywords. Some people use the words interchangeably (me included) so just ignore one-word keywords altogether. You will waste your monëy if you shoot for these, because chances are, there are other, much largër companies who already have you beat, and will continue to have you beat unless you've got a bottomless wallet.

Chëck Out Your Competition

Take this example, for instance, if you sell computers, you should not try to optimize your site for the keyword "computer" or "computers." First, think about all of the businesses that do anything with computers. Yeah, that's a lot. They'll all show up if you search for "computer." Nöw try to think of who would show up at the top of that list. I'll make it easy, it's Apple, Dell, Computer World, Computer Associates, IEEE, Computer History Museum, Webopedia, ASUSTeK, WhatIs.com, and HP. I'm going to go out on a limb hëre and say that I 99.9% guarantëe you that you'll nevër get into that top 10 list. The HP link has almost 5,000 backlinks (discussed later) and a PR of 7/10. Good luck.

Then What Should I Do?

So what should you try to target? Lets re-visit your computer store. What types do you sell? PCs, ok, what types of PCs? Custom. Ok, that's a little better, "Custom Computers" is still a vague keyword, though. (How many people build custom computers?) What kind of components do you use? Intel? AMD? SoundBlaster? GeForce? There you go, that's a little better – "Custom GeForce Computers." That returned 476k results instead of our previous 633 million with "Computer." Just a little bit less competition.

I Want More

Want to go further? Forget what types you sell, go for what do your customers want. What do they use your computers for? Gaming? Try "Custom Gaming Computers" - There are 672,000 results hëre, but the # 1 spot has a PR of 5/10 and only 41 backlinks. That shouldn't be too hard to beat, we've just got to know who is linking to them, and beat them at the backlink game.

Oh yeah, before we move on to beating the pulp out of your competition, don't forget to SEO optimize your site for your chosen keywords before spending any time on backlinks. Otherwise, this next section won't mean much.

But I Digress...

Ok, nöw that your site is thoroughly optimized, how do we find out who their backlinks are? Well, you can do it by hand, or you can purchase a very helpful tool called SEO Elite that will analyze all of the backlinks to a site (and more). But, since you don't have SEO Elite yet, we'll do it the long way.

First, go to toolbar.google.com and download the Google toolbar, this will save you some time. Ok, nöw type in your keywords – "Custom Gaming Computers." The first link should be overdrivepc.com (if it's not, then someone may have already read this column and risen above them!) clïck to go there. When the page loads, go to your Google Toolbar, clïck on Options >"More" Tab > Make sure the "Page Info" box is checked. Then, clïck on the blue circle with the i in it. (This is the aptly named: "Page Info") It should drop down and allow you to select "Backward Links," choose it. Nöw you should be looking at a Google search page again, but this one is different, it only shows pages that link to overdrivepc.com. (Wow, that's handy!) At the time of this article, there are 41 pages that link to the site, and you can view them all. Some are other pages in the site, others are third parties.

Get Your Site Some Friends!

Follow each third party link and chëck out the page. Does it have to do with your business? Would their visitors benefit from coming to your site? (The answer is probably yes) If so, email the webmaster - there should be an email address somewhere on the site. Ask him or her if they would link to your site. Be willing to trade links with them, or to pay for a good link with a high PR. That reminds me – look just to the left of the Page Info icon on your Google toolbar, and you should see a green bar. That is the Page Rank of the page you're currently on. You want to target pages with higher page ranks than your own, because for each of those sites that link to yours, they effectively "give" you a little bit of their PR. Kinda like in high school when the head of the cheerleading squad flirted with the nerd in the hallway, she "gave" him more popularity.

By the way, if you can manage to get a link from the # 1 site itself, do it!

Do this for all of these links you can, then move on to the #2 listing for your keywords. Then #3, and so on. Don't get discouraged if some webmasters don't reply to you, it may take an email or two. If they say no, thank them for their time and move on. I try my best not to burn any bridges – you nevër know when you'll need to contact that webmaster again, and if he remembers you were polite, that will make you look good.

Whew, Finally Done.

This is a very easy way to move up the Google SERPS, no "expertise" required, just good old-fashioned hard work. It will take some time for Google to re-index those pages and realize that they have a link to you nöw. And it will take even longer for your PR to go up (from what I hear, it's been around 3-4 months since the last PR change [Today is 7/14/2005]) But be patient, get links upon links, and keep adding great content to your site, and you will jump up in the SERPS by leaps and bounds.

To Your Success, and Your # 1 Website!

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Back to basics in SEO

There has been a lot of talk about Google and MSN's new algorithms and Yahoo's search engine changes. When these changes finally do occur, it is always important to remember the number one rule in SEO: Don't Panic!

If there is one guaranteed constant in this business it is that there will always be changes in the search engines' rankings. Our job, as search engine marketers, is to stay on top of the changes and to monitor how the change affects our clients' site's traffïc.

I am actually excited about any algorithm change, because it means that the search engines should actually get better.

What follows is a "back to the basics" on getting good rankings:

Keyphrases

First things first: Always be sure to research the keyphrases you intend on using. Find out what keyphrases Internet users most often employ to find your product or service. There is no point optimizing your site for "online web marketing" if everyone types in "Internet marketing".

Once you have a list of potential keyphrases with a high amount of Internet traffïc, comb over that list and see which keyphrases best describe your product or service. These are the ones you should consider.

Hëre are some sites that can help you in your research:

• Wordtracker
• Google AdWords (Click to sign up, it is frëe to do the keyphrase research)
• Snap

Competition

Research your competition with these questïons in mind:

• What keyphrases are they using (take a peek at their keyword Meta tag)?
• What are the titles of their sites?
• When you do a search for the keyphrases you are considering, who comes up in the top five rankings?
• What is their title/keyphrases?
• Are the top ranking sites your competitors or are they industry associations?

Use the keyword effectiveness index (KEI) tool at Wordtracker to compare the effectiveness of your keyphrases. A higher KEI signifies a better ratio of demand-to-competition for a keyphrase.

Do a link search to see who is linking to your competition. In a search engine, type in "link:" (without the quotes) followed by the URL you want to verify. This will allow you to see all the important links to the site that the search engine tracks (I would recommend doing this in both Google and Yahoo).

• Can you get links from the same sites as your competitors?
• Are there industry associations or organizations that are linking to the top sites, but not to you?

Get your link campaign going! (see the article about linking for search engines to learn why links are important)

Optimizing Your Web Site

Now that you know what keyphrase you are optimizing for, hëre is how to optimize your site: write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases.

Above all else, this is the single most important factor.

Sure there are other on-site factors such as:

• Getting the keyphrase into the title (this is the second most important factor)
• Getting the keyphrase into the Meta description tag, the Meta keyword tag, the headers and sub headers, the alt tags, and into some link text (some of these factors are VERY minor)
• Having a good site map so that the search engine spiders can easily navigate your site
• Having a robots.txt to include the pages that you want the search engines to include
• Don't use frames
• Use flash wisely (not the WHOLE site in flash)
• Use external files for your java-scripts
• Use cascading style sheets (a .css file)
• Use dynamic URL's wisely (Avoid using URL's with ? or & in them)

Content is king

Oh...and did I mention that you need to write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases? All of the points above are superfluous if you don't have good content. Content is the food that the search engine spiders like to gobble up with a voracious appetite. The items below are just the side dishes. You need good content to get decent rankings, but you need the side dishes to become a serious competitor in your market.

• Write about your keyphrases.
• Write extra pages.
• Write about your industry.
• Write about your product or service's uses.
• How will your product/service improve the life of the consumer? Find out, and then write about it.
• Why is your product/service better than your competitor's? Think of a reason and write about it.
• What is the history of your product/service? Or your industry? Write about it.
• Who are you? Everyone always enjoys "about us" pages...
• And of course, be sure to serve the search engine spiders with a tasty main dish full of keyphrases!

Whatever you do, be sure that you don't write junk or filler copy and double chëck that everything reads well. Keep in mind that writing about your keyphrase doesn't mean adding the keyphrase unnaturally into the text. If you have any doubts, employ the talents of an expert to do the writing for you!

Links

Start soliciting links today! Get people in your industry to link to you. Contact:

• Industry associations and organizations
• Web sites about your industry
• Sites related to your product or service
• Suppliers
• Resellers
• Competitors who don't compete in the same region
• Sites that sell products/services that relate to yours, but don't compete directly

Submissions

Submit to all the directories you can find, so long as they are related (e.g., don't submit to the Abba directory unless your site is about Abba). Submitting to a directory should not be a mindless activity. Read the directory's directions on how to submit Very Carefully. Write your description very well, and tailor it to each directory in order to follow their guidelines. Make sure you submit (and get in) to www.dmoz.org - it is probably the most important directory out there today.

Do research and find "vertical directories" that focus on your industry, and submit to them. These directories are very important because, for example, if you have a dodo bird site, what better potential client than someone who found you through a dodo bird directory!

Search engines and directories are different. Do not confuse them. You can submit to all the search engines you can find, but it usually won't do much because the good search engines will find you anyway. Submitting to random search engines will usually only increase your email sp@m. Don't waste your monëy on search engine submission software for the same reasons.

Hëre is a partial list of the current important search engines:

• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN

Conclusion

• Build your web site for your customers, within the guidelines that the search engines set out.
• Don't make the site awkward by over-conforming.
• The site's first focus should be on what your clients want.
• Create good content. Good, quality content that reads well and flows seamlessly.
• Update it regularly. An active, living site is healthier than a stagnant, dead one (the search engines spiders like their food alive and full of life).

And remember: Content is King!

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