How To Podcast

Podcast Promotion - part 1

Now that your podcast has been planned, written, practiced, recorded, and edited, it is time for the hard work to pay off. You need listeners - otherwise, the entire process was kind of pointless. Getting listeners is easier than you might think.

First, remember that the PodPress plugin automatically sends a ping to iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts, Podcast Alley, and Podcast Ready. So those directories are covered.

Go to Feedburner at http://www.feedburner.com and sign up for a free account. List your podcast here, and this will generate a great deal of traffic to your podcast very quickly. It also gives people several options for adding your podcast to their specific aggregator. Use common promotional sense. Put a link to your podcast on every page of every site that you currently own. Also put a link to it on every profile page that you have at various sites, such as MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo, etc.

Obviously, you would include a blurb about your podcast, along with a link to it in your signature file. Your signature file will be used on every email that you send out, in forum posts, in testimonials, in news group posts, and anywhere else that you participate online.

Hit the podcasting directories, other than the ones that PodPress already pings. These include:

Podcast.net - http://www.podcast.net
Podcasting News - http://www.podcastingnews.com
Pod Spider - http://www.podspider.com
Vital Podcasts - http://www.vitalpodcasts.com/
Podcast 411 - http://www.podcast411.com
Audio Weblogs - http://audio.weblogs.com
Podcast Lounge - http://www.thepodlounge.com.au/add.php
Blogebrity - http://www.blogebrity.com/
Podcast Directory - http://www.podcastdirectory.com
Idiot Vox - http://www.idiotvox.com
PublicRadioFan - http://www.publicradiofan.com
Pod Blaze - http://www.podblaze.com/podcast_directory.php

These directories are just a start. You also need to get listed in the major search engines and directories as well. Also, look for niche specific directories. In these places, however, you won't be listing your podcast; you will be listing the page where your podcast resides.

Even though it is possible for people to subscribe to your podcast with RSS, you should also set up an autoresponder, along with a sign up form on each page of your podcast site. This allows people to sign up for what will become your newsletter. Not only can you notify them when you've updated, but you can then send them other topic related emails as well. Don't pass up this opportunity to build a list.

Announce your podcast with a press release. You can write a press release and distribute it through either a paid or free service. One nice service that is free is I- News Wire, at http://www.i-newswire.com. Use social bookmarking. Sign up for a free account at Only Wire (http://www.onlywire.com). Next, sign up for a free account at all of the social bookmarking sites that they list. Put the only wire icon on your browser toolbar, go to the main page of your podcast site, and hit that icon. It will send the bookmark to all of those sites, with the tags - or keywords - that you've indicated. This gets a great deal of traffic in a short amount of time.

Continue.. (part 2)

Podcasting 101 | Listen to Podcasts | Record a Podcast | Publish a Podcast | Promoting a Podcast | Video Podcast | Podcast Tools | Podcast Resources

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