What is a Podcast and How Can I Use One? – Day 9
July 26, 2008 by Antony
Today I want to do a brief introduction into the idea of ‘What is a Podcast and How Can I Use One’ so that everyone can familiarize themselves with the idea and then plug into the system to start generating some traffic to their website.
Definitions
The term “podcasting” was created by MTV VJ Adam Curry and is used to describe the technology used for push audio content from websites to another medium, typically an iPod. Hence why it was termed “podcasting” as it is a broadcast which was created for use on portable items such as iPods and other MP3 players.
While the term itself isn’t directly related to Apple’s iPod or iTunes music service the company was a huge contributor to its success and understood the importance of such a service. Think of the service as a TiVO and DVR of the MP3 world, allowing consumers to benefit from the record now and listen later feature. Podcasting is free of charge and extremely easy to use, hence why it has become so popular.
What’s so special about Podcasting?
The beauty of Podcasting is the simplicity of it all. Podcasting is based off of the XML technology called RSS. As you would subscribe to any blog or content syndication, you can subscribe to a podcast. Thus allowing you to have your podcasts come to you, instead of making you go out and look for them.
You can subscribe to podcasts exactly like you would do to any RSS feed. In fact, most Podcasts are typically distributed through a blog making it extremely convenient for those readers that are already subscribed to your RSS feed! Making it easy and convenient for everyone involved.
Living in this instant gratification lifestyle we are all accustomed to means that we want instant access and ease of use. Depending on your RSS feedreader each can and will have a different means to displaying a Podcast rather then a normal RSS post.
One of the most popular podcast subscribing tools, iTunes, allows the podcast subscriber to have to put little to no effort in downloading and uploading the Podcasts to their iPods. iTunes will take care of the whole process for them, keeping the podcast listener up to date without ever having to download and upload the MP3’s manually to their music player. The whole process is done for them!
Podcasting Taking Over Talk Radio
Talk radio’s new competitor doesn’t look like it is going to back down any time soon. An internet podcaster has the ability to reach millions of targeted listeners efficiently and conveniently. All from the liberty of the Podcasters home with simply a computer and a microphone! Thus anyone has the ability to become the next internet podcasting phenomena and reach millions of listeners without becoming a professional talk host on the radio.
Because of the conveniance of this technology it allows for the listener to decide when and where they want to listen to your Podcast. Traditional radio doesn’t allow for the consumer to decide when they want to hear a specific show. Not everyone has the same schedule or flexibility, but with Podcasting it doesn’t matter. Podcasts allow you to listen to the audio content whenever it suits you, whether thats on the train going to work or during your workout.
Podcasting and its Future
With Web 2.0 and the progression of the internet comes new websites and utilities that empowers individuals to decide how, where, and why rather then the old static internet that we were used to. Podcasting is a form of this new medium and allows for dynamic content to be published easily and effectively. It is impacting traditional industries such as journalism, entertainment, and even our educational system. Podcasting is only the beginning of this transformation into the the future of the internet.
Videocasting is the next step and will allow individuals to literally create their own video content for the world to see and hear. Over time, the radio, television, and the internet will merge into a single channel for distribution allowing for the user to determine when and how they will view or listen to this dynamic content.
Getting Started with Podcasting
So you have decided that you want to take a jump into the Podcasting world? There are few decisions that you are going to have to make.
- What is going to be the theme of your podcast? I’d suggest having it based upon your websites theme obviously! Try and pick something that you are passionate and knowledgeable about.
- How are you going to distribute your podcast? Are you going to do a videocast? Or are you going to stick to audio only? I typically suggest focusing on traditional audio podcasting and working your way up.
Today I want you to figure out if Podcasting is a reasonable method for you and if you are willing to take it on full force! If you are then I will be writing another day focused on this strategy and giving some in depth tips and tricks so that you can become the next Podcasting phenomena. Until then familiarize yourself further with Podcasting by downloading a few and becoming a subscriber to a feed or two.
[tags]What is a podcast, how can I use a podcast, podcast marketing, podcast help, podcast faq[/tags]
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It’s good to see someone presenting some originail and distinct information on podcasting. As podcasting has been misunderstood for long, and it’s about time people understand the psyche behind it and what kinda benefits they can dervie with their own podcast… Anyway since im not a technical person, I use the free service offered by http://www.rapidfeeds.com … But if you are someone who can handle everything yourself then i’d say start podcasting now 🙂
Awesome post.
Just a reminder, in Step 6, make sure you select the “SmartCast” service when you’re burning your feed with FeedBurner.
Eric Lunt
FeedBurner
Thanks mate. been trying to get some podcasts going from my campus. This helps a lot.
This is a great post.
I tried this out with various files as a test and found that iPodder also will pull almost any file as a syndicated feed. So podcasts now enable any media type to be sent on demand.
Check out Podcast Central. Every media file type I could find, from MP3s to RAM, WMA, WMV and even ZIP files, short of sending jpegs and straight text – even linking directly to streaming feeds. I found that iPodder tended to hang up on streaming feeds, better on static feeds.
Your solution means that people can search and promote their favorite mp3 or other media, meaning that this enables “Long Tail” niche promotion of any media anyone can find.
Excellent article. We too have found press release distribution to be an integral part of our marketing strategy. Something that we did find interesting though was we tried two different types of press release service. A large name brand (www.PRNewswire.com) and a smaller company http://www.24-7pressrelease.com that we had never heard of (they showed up fairly high under press release service, so we thought we would go with them). The interesting part is that for the “name brand” service, we paid a fair amount, the 24-7pressrelease.com site we paid $45. I don’t know if it was the subject of the release, or timing, but we found the 24-7pressrelease.com site to give us better results! They also gave us image attachments, and keyword linking. Have you (or anyone else) heard of them? I am also keeping my eyes out for clipping services if anyone has any recommendations.
ow, too bad…this wasn’t available when I began my LP to CD conversion process. I have s
o many LP’s that I likely won’t have completed converting them before I die! lolI am usin
I’ll take credit for fake ‘staches becoming acceptable at sporting events. You get the assist for writing about it, Steinberg
make sure you get your episodes on oditt 😉
thanks for the informative little podcast guide. This’ll surely be of help to my colleagues at Know More Media. We’re “podcastless” at the moment, but simple pointers like yours will guide us as we consider what services to use and where to look for more podcasting info.