A comprehensive guide to successful podcasting

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Christopher Columbus once said that success comes for not those who do different things, but for those who do things differently, it was very true if you take his example and a few other success stories give us the same moral.

When there were too many static sites with nothing more than the same content saturating the web, a few visionaries took to blogging and this was way back in 2005 or 2006, at that time there was no platform like wordpress, so most of them did face initial hardships and thats what helped them the most in the long run, today most of the successful bloggers are those who started at that time. This includes Jeremy Schoemaker, Darren Rowse, John Chow and Michael Arrington, most of us describe their success as beginners luck, but its truly not that way.

Right now blogging too has become saturated, thats why 75% of the newbie bloggers fail to achieve there goals and I also feel that this is the best time to innovate and move on the something different. According to me the uprising trend today is video blogging and podcasting, which has been successful for many people already. Right now this is twice as double work than making a blog post, but if you can work hard now maybe you’ll be like Darren Rowse or John Chow in a couple of years. This guide is a brief How-to on podcasting, most of it is based on my research, although I did have a few experiences when it comes to podcasting,

Creating a podcast (the technical part)

Creation of a podcast is 3 times harder and two times more time consuming than a simple 1000 words blog post, but its not rocket science either, while creating a post other than some small technical parts only the content was something that mattered, but here the technical part takes its own expertise and skills which one learns only with practice, I’m extremely sorry if I’m discouraging you but you need to know the A-B-Cs of these toys even before you think of creating your content.

First thing is your most basic needs such as mikes, speakers and a camera if your including video and I’m sure most of you know this and hope I don’t have to spend more time on this, after you have all these you need the highly sophisticated softwares for mixing, editing and recording your podcast, a recommended few are Propaganda, Audicity, Gabcast and Hipcast.

The above softwares are the best in the business and they require a hell lot of practice, you don’t need any sort of training, but still you need to experiment a lot to master the art of these creations, if you can’t handle such sophistications then you can find a few easier softwares meant for beginners, but they won’t have much flexibility and customization options, so you can use them as a beginner, but you need to change as and when you grow, the best you can find for this purpose is MyPodcast.

Creation of content

After you feel comfortable with your hardware and software, its time you put all your skills to serious use, firstly you must have already planned what niche or topic you want your podcast to be on, you must also decide the time length of each and most importantly the frequency on which you’ll be producing.

This plan has to be in order for you to work properly, this is although very basic, so you’ll also need to include the amount of information you’ll be covering in each podcast and before every edition you need to keep editing that list.

After this,  research about your topic and create content, it can be on one single subject related to your niche or it can be varied, but you can’t keep changing the format. Make a list of all the things you’ll be covering and try to showcase as much information as possible, if its a video podcast then you’ll need to include pictures and videos of the topic, as audience would like to see those than just hearing you speak about it.

Lastly you must organize your podcast flow, you need to organize when to put up what type of event, divide it into parts are organize each properly and in the end organize it back together and edit it.

You also require a proper script, you don’t want to start shooting and stammer and take breaks in the middle right, moreover its a waste of more time by doing so. Create a script, read it once or twice and have it in front of you during the the creation process. If your making a video podcast you must also take care of the background, make up and even siting arrangements, you must also edit the video in the end to make sure it is not a static image.

Creating a podcast feed – RSS or XML

A podcast feed is necessary in order to distribute your podcast to multiple directories, if you have a high posting frequency its a huge headache to inform them all, but with a feed everything is done automatically. For this purpose there are many podcast generators, a few include PodcastGen and PodcastBlaster.

Their are also two other best generators, but for which you’ll need to have a blog, the first is PodPress which also helps you to add Itunes tags directly, moreover your readers can listen to your podcast from your wordpress post itself, the second one is Feedburner smartcast which has the same Itunes feature and any feedburner subscriber can listen to your podcast.

Distribution and marketing of your podcast

Thanks to the 100 million sold Ipods your biggest audience will remain Itunes, so after creating the feed the first place to submit it will be Itunes, you must download the latest version of Itunes on your PC and submit your podcast feed, the feed is checked everyday so if yours is of good quality its sure to be accepted, and your podcast will reach a wide audience from there on.

Other than this there are many other directories as well and many of them are as popular as Itunes, many popular ones are Podnova, PodcastDirectory, Podanza, PodcastBlaster and Blinkx. If successfully get accepted into all of these you can surely expect instant success and very soon you will have a decent number of audience, it all depends on your description, tagging and style, the later popularity comes from the quality of your content.

In case you own a popular blog then embedding your podcast into your blog is the first place to start your promotion, this is useful only in the beginning, after a few days your podcast will be capable of promoting your blog. I have already mentioned about Podpress, which is the only tool which you’ll need for this.

Monetization – the fun part

Because this is a new segment their aren’t many ad networks or agencies which provide publisher brokering services, but this is a positive problem, although you won’t have any income before your popularity touches a certain height, which will surely happen sooner. Though methods are less, opportunities are already high and increasing.

In this post I’ll provide you with most of the methods for monetization, but let me make it clear that this segment is growing and it as of now it still isn’t as profitable as blogging. The best source of revenue is the same as advertising and I’ll provide different options and methods for the same, but their are also a few which blogging didn’t provide us.

1) Podvertising networks are the most used methods today as they are easy, flexible and most have a wide range of audience, basically they are same as podcast directories, but other than hosting, displaying and promoting podcasts they also help publishers monetize their work through either pay per view or share in advertising revenue.

There are literally 100s today but the best and most recommended are blip.tv, Bluebrry, Podango, Podshow, Podtrac, Revver, Talkshoe and YouTube Partner Program.
2) Podcast Networks ‘Got audience, we’ll provide you the sponsors’ such as Mevio, Podtrac and WizzardMedia are adding 100s of podcaster’s into their network, they usually don’t have much requirements, all they ask for is quality content and medium sized audience and then they categorize them and sell ads on those podcasts usually on a CPM basis or general sponsorships priced according to popularity.

There is also a CPA basis which is given to only big podcaster’s, in this method a particular coupon code is promoted which could be used for the purchase of a certain product of the sponsor and you’ll be paid on the basis of the number of times the particular coupon has been used.

3) Direct advertising sales happens to be one thing common in both blogging and podcasts, blog owners have their own advertise here page and place links next to their ad zones, similarly most podcaster’s monetizing this way announce in the end either with plain closing text or by telling themselves about the advertising opportunities, this seems simple but its not ineffective as tons of mails would flow in if you place a mail id just for a few seconds.

Its really not a good idea to tell about your advertising opportunities in detail, just a small sentence telling ‘for advertising opportunities please visit this link or email us at advertising@podcast.com’ will be all that takes. Once you have a bit of audience this small trick works like wonders. Because your all on your own, in such a way you can provide any type of advertising, video, stripe ads and small text at the bottom of the screen and anything else you feel innovative. The only drawback here is the sale process which takes plenty of mail exchanges and hours of time, which would usually require someone else to do so.

4) Making money the traditional way with the help of donations isn’t such a bad idea when it comes to podcasts, blogs failed at it because they failed to give potential donors what they want, but their are many who succeeded with this method and something which was different in them was their content, they provided their readers more than just content something like a freebie or an amazing trick which is really unique.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll make good money with this, but I can surely tell you that podcasts have a better chance with this than blogs, the reason is clear podcasts are easier to understand and much easier than sitting and reading pages of posts so this creates a natural satisfaction inside any viewer, so it increases the rate of a donation. Whatever it is I’m strictly against depending on this as the only source of revenue, it can be used during startup stage and as additional revenue when your grown, but not as the only source.

5) Make money by making your content premium is the best way of monetization is every niche and all types of internet businesses. If your podcast is of very high standards people will surely pay to view what you’ve got. This method will definitely end up in a failure if you directly opt to this, its necessary that you have a bit of popularity first, get some loyal subscribers and some well maintained social reputation.

After you feel you’ve achieved this you can successfully opt to this, you’ll surely not get the majority of your viewers, only 20% to 30% will be ready to pay the premium costs, but that alone can double or even triple your income.

There are two recommended ways for you to do this, you can make your podcast completely paid after you’ve achieved the above conditions, directories like Itunes does not allow paid subscription to podcasts, so you’ll have to use premium tools such as premiumcast.com. The other way and the most efficient way is to provide one part of the content for free and charge for the other. There are a few shows which are free for the first quarter and need subscription for the rest, its usually organized in such a way that the lesser known content is provided first and the finer once in the rest, to make people subscribe.

On to our readers

Podcasting is serious business, it can help you make tons of money if done in the right way, I am planning to write a lot more on this topic so to keep up with further posts please do subscribe to our feed and also follow me on Twitter.

Tagged as: audio blogging, comprehensive guide, creating a podcast, make money from a podcast, monetizing a podcast, podcasting, video blogging