Smart Podcast Marketing

Remember back in 2005... (It seems like a hundred years ago, doesn't it?) when podcasting was just starting to get some traction? iPods were brand new and very cool... the iPhone was probably just being sketched out in the design phase, and people were starting to download those (relatively) small audio files to listen to while they worked or surfed the web...

Back in 2005, I had a strong hunch that things were going to be changing rapidly with regard to rich media -- and the changes in richness we were going to see, were not just going to be about the kinds of media, but how people used it all. Yes, our media technologies keep getting better. Yes, our computers are better able to handle audio and video, than ever before, Yes, most of us now have iPods or other MP3 players that can store vast amounts of video and audio.

But I personally think that the real revolution in rich media has been not only around the technology, but around our usage. Not only can our computers and iPods and iPhones and MP3 players and flash drives/thumb drives and CDs and DVDs all store a whole lot more audio and video for us to watch and/or listen to, but the way those technologies have been integrated into our lives has made our viewing and listening activities even richer.

Being able to download so much free audio and video is revolutionary, in itself. But being able to watch or listen to it whenever we want, however we want -- whether it's in the car on the way to work or during our workouts or while we're at work or while we're standing in line at the post office waiting to mail out our holiday presents -- is even more revolutionary.

Think about it -- once upon a time, listening to a record could be a very involved process, depending on the quality of the record. If you wanted to listen to your favorite song, you had to be at home, near a record player, and you had to keep an eye on the record (sometimes) in case it skipped or the record came to an end and you had to lift the arm off the vinyl (in my long-ago days of youth, I recall the wonder that I felt when I saw the first automatic record player arm that could sense when it was at the end of the recording and lifted itself from the vinyl and moved itself out of the way). You couldn't even start listening, unless you picked up the arm and set it on the record at just the right place. You had to make sure there wasn't fuzz and buildup on the needle. And you had to listen to one record at a time. Unless, of course, you had one of those fancy record players that let you stack a bunch of albums on top of each other and dropped them one-by-one in the proper sequence.

But now, a simple touch of a button can launch you into a shuffled playback of thousands upon thousands of your favorite songs. And you can listen anywhere you please, whenever you please. There's no need to establish a relationship with a stationary record player that needs a new needle, and tend to it, in case your recording has a scratch. There's none of that, these days, and thinking back to the times when it was the case... well, that seems as though it was light years back.

It amazes me, how quickly people have adopted new technologies, especially around music. I've heard it said that if the entertainment industry advanced its technology as quickly as the automobile industry, we'd all still be listening to transistor radios. I have fond memories of my dad's little handheld transistor radio, so I don't have quite the derogatory rush that others might. But the thing that matters about the analogy, is that when it comes to audio and video and sensory sorts of technologies, people adopt and adapt very quickly. Far more quickly than many experts would probably expect, too.

That being said, I am presently taking advantage of people's love of audio and information, and I'm beginning to market my newest project, "From E to Ink - How to Turn Your eBooks, White Papers and PDFs into Printed Books that Sell". I first wrote this book over two years ago, after I'd published something like 15 books/projects on Lulu.com and saw the potential for people to turn electronic info products into great-looking printed books at very low cost. I think it makes total sense, and it's an idea whose time has come. But then life got in the way, I had to deal with family and health issues, and the project got shelved.

Now, I'm back, and the book is ready to go out there.

From E to Ink walks you through the different, unique aspects of print publishing that you might not consider when you're putting together an eBook or some other digital info product, and it shows you how to turn your electronic information into professional-looking printed books that look as good as -- and sometimes even better than -- commercially available books.

It's available right now as a download for $29.95 at Lulu.com -- http://www.lulu.com/content/632515.

What I need to do now, is market it. Promote it. Sell it. And probably the best way I know how to do that, is by leveraging podcasting to get the word out about the book. This work is ideal for podcast promotion. It's pure information that can be broken down into different pieces. It's educational. It's electronic. And by podcasting my promotional efforts and reading through and talking about the material in audio, I can actually expand and deepen not only my own approach to the work, but also add more "texture" to others' experience of it.

What's more, since I'm using print-on-demand, if I come up with new angles for the infomation, I can add them to the book and release updated editions in the future. There's something about reading material aloud that causes it to take on a different feeling, and add to the overall experience. And that makes for better information, a more refined product, and better "user experience" in the long run.

So, with that being said, I'll sign off for now and start planning my podcast for my latest project "From E to Ink - How to Turn Your eBooks, White Papers and PDFs into Printed Books that Sell".

Labels: audio, book, digital, E to Ink, interactive training, iPod, Lulu, MP3, on-demand audio, podcast, podcasting, podcasting tips, print-on-demand, promotion, publishing

Good news for those of us hoping to explain just how huge an opportunity podcasting presents to businesses and individuals seeking better, deeper, wider exposure for their products and services.

ipod familyApple announced this morning that the 100 millionth iPod has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history.

The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle.

“We want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that.”

The iPod has also led to an “iPod economy” of over 4,000 accessories, ranging from cases to speaker systems to iPod vibrators and iPod toilet paper dispensers. More than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

Apple lined up a collection of celebrity endorsements for the milestone:

* “It’s hard to remember what I did before the iPod,” said Mary J. Blige, GRAMMY Award-winning singer. “iPod is more than just a music player, it’s an extension of your personality and a great way to take your favorite music with you everywhere you go.”
* “Without the iPod, the digital music age would have been defined by files and folders instead of songs and albums,” said John Mayer, GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist. “Though the medium of music has changed, the iPod experience has kept the spirit of what it means to be a music lover alive.”
* “I take my running shoes and my iPod with me everywhere,” said Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France champion. “I listen to music when I run. Having my music with me is really motivating.”

All this gadget-centric hip-hip-hooray-ing aside, podcasting actually does reach a lot more people than the well-heeled celebrities who have plenty of cash to toss at Mr. Jobs. PODDcasting -- Personal On-Demand Digital audio-casting -- reaches a whole lot of people who listen on their computer, either when they're online, or when they're not.

I, myself, download shows and listen to them at my leisure -- usually when I'm not neck-deep in a conundrum at work. In some ways, listening online is even less convenient than just downloading a show and listening whenever it works for me.

Again, the concept of Personal On-Demand Digital audio comes front and center.

But all this aside, it's still a great thing to see the iPod and Apple doing so well. And to think, within recent memory, folks were worried that Apple might go under.

Underdogs, indeed!

Labels: iPod, on-demand audio, podcast, podcasting

Want to learn more about getting started podcasting? Check out the new Getting Started Podcasting Podcast over at Podtopia.net.

I cover what podcasting is, how you can benefit from it, the different components of podcasting, and some considerations if you're just starting out.

Labels: audio, podcast, podcasting, podcasting tips, recording

I've been working on my latest project, "Getting Started Podcasting", which is a podcast "redux" of the presentation I did at WAM! last weekend. I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and record in stereo, to get a "richer" sound.

But I'm finding that the two channels are not precisely matched, which gives the sound file a slightly "off" feeling. I'm adjusting the right and left levels to bring them closer together, but it's added work. And I am really strapped for time.

Next episode, I'm recording in mono. Smaller files, easier to manage.

The time issue has really come front and center for me, lately. I have a full and rich life -- and I have, for some months, which is why I've "faded". Finding ways to record quickly and cut down on the production time is key.

Some of the tools I have to help me are:

An iRiver that records directly to MP3.
Words cannot express just how important this is -- if you're going to podcast as an individual on your own time (or as a pro with plenty of other things to do), you have to find a way to get your files to MP3 quickly and easily. Audacity is great, but it can be a huge time-sink, which can contribute to podfading.

My laptop which lets me import the sound file(s) and rename them in a few quick steps.

My new wireless connection, which lets me post my MP3s and updated podcast feed file(s) to the web without all the extra steps of walking the files from one computer to the next.

Certainly, the old way of doing things worked. When you have only one podcast to post, recording your audio and setting up the files on an un-connected machine is relatively straightforward. But if you have several, like me, time is of the essence, and you have to invest in some time-saving tools.

Like a portable MP3 recorder. Like a laptop. Like a decent internet connection.

For those who want to take their podcasting to the next level, you'll need 'em.

Labels: digital, MP3, podcast, podcasting tips, recording, wireless

Jason Van Orden has been educating folks about how they don't need an iPod to "consume" podcasts, which is a very valuable thing. And other folks have been doing some creative work around it, too...



I’m really glad people are starting to move in this direction. I did a presentation on “Getting Started Podcasting” at a women-and-media conference at MIT this past weekend, and when I told folks that you don’t need an iPod (I’ve been podcasting since late 2005, and I don’t even own one! I’ve held one in my hands once or twice that I can remember), the relief was palpable in the room.

I think that linking podcasting with iPods really introduces an imaginary class barrier — people think it’s only for rich folks who can afford to drop a couple hundred bucks on a 21st century version of a transistor radio, and they think that it’s totally out of their reach.

This is awful news for people who could really get a lot of mileage out of podcasts -- activists, people on the fringes of mainstream media, and others who are looking for alternative means of communicating their messages. Podcasts are probably the cheapest and most effective way to communicate complex ideas quickly and to a broad audience, that we've ever had. But people are dismissing them, because they're technophobes or they associate podcasts with haughty gadget-heads who use their MP3 players as status symbols.

But when people stop and consider the full truth about podcasting, and it sinks in that PODdcasting is more about Personal On-Demand Digital media, and that they can do it (on the cheap-and-grainy) with a sound recorder of just about any kind (plus a patch cord), and a computer with Audacity… or even just a telephone and a free conference call service that lets you record your calls for free… things start to look a lot different.

And then we get to the real power of podcasting.

Maybe we need to change the name to PODDcasting — Personal On Demand Digital - casting, to decouple the concept from Apple…

Just an idea.

In any case, I think that our early adoption and our early segmentation into a niche of our own may have worked against us. Now comes the challenge of educating people about this topic.

In fact, I’m shifting the focus of my own site Podtopia.net away from providing podcast services, to providing training and outreach and tutorials — education for everyone — to help address this issue and make the world safe for podcasters and podcatchers everywhere.

Labels: audio, digital, iPod, media, MIT, podcast, podcasting, women, YouTube

I've just unveiled a new feed creation tool to make podcasting easier and quicker for people -- and less expensive, too. It's Podtopia Quickfeed and it lets you create valid RSS feed files for both generic podcasting and for iTunes.

I unveiled it at this year's Women, Action & the Media conference at MIT. I gave a quick demo on it yesterday, at my Getting Started Podcasting presentation. Didn't have a whole lot of time to get into it, but I did do a demo, which went great.

I've been using Quickfeed to create the Women In Music podcast feeds for a while, now, and it's saving me a whole lot of time and hassle, that just slowed me down. This way, I can just plug in my meta info, that I keep on a spreadsheet for tracking purposes, and generate the feed file code.

Then I save it off to an .xml file and post it to my server.

For folks who are brand new to podcasting, this might seem like a bunch of extra steps, but it makes my life a whole lot easier!

Labels: feed, generate, podcast, xml

I've just created and uploaded a 13-minute tutorial for how to remove noise from an audio file with Audacity. I've been looking at the Podtopia stats logs, and lots and lots of people (hundreds, in fact) have been visiting the page on Podtopia.net about how to remove noise from audio files with Audacity. I've updated the page, so it's better formatted, but I've also created a video that demonstrates the process I follow, and also talks about things to take into consideration. Watch and learn and enjoy!

Just a note to remind you that your RSS feed file offers you an excellent chance to catch people's attention, turn them on to your podcast, and convince them to subscribe to your feed for more. That text you put in the description field will show up in people's podcatchers, as well as many podcast directories, so the words you use in there are very important.

Don't leave typos uncorrected.
Make sure the link to your site is functional.
Give your (potential) subscribers enough information to want to listen -- and subscribe -- and come back for more.

RSS text is a great way to highlight your podcast. Don't assume that because it's text, it's less important than your audio. If you skimp on the text, folks may never even hear the audio.