Online Marketing Strategies From Online Marketing Expert Nick Smith

In Part 2 of our excerpts from this book, we discuss how it works and its advantages/disadvantages …

How does it work?

Essentially, podcasting allows you to select the things you’d like to listen to, subscribe to them, have them downloaded to your computer or portable audio device, and listen to them when you want to. Once you’ve subscribed, they will update automatically for you, like a magazine you don’t think about until the subscription arrives in your mailbox every month.

What is the advantage of a podcast over other types of broadcasting? Podcasts assimilate radio, portable CD players, and satellite radio, into one convenient format, and allow new uses not previously available. So what is it that you can listen to? What kinds of podcasting are available? The answer to those questions is this: everything you can possibly imagine! You will be amazed at the volume and variety of podcasts out there and the possibilities that exist.

Just as the Internet has allowed pretty much anybody to create visual files of information and entertainment, called web pages, podcasting has allowed virtually anybody to create audio files of information and entertainment. While the technical details are not important here, all someone needs in order to become a podcaster is a computer and an Internet hook-up. You don’t even need a microphone to create your first podcast. (You may want to get one later, but you don’t need one now).

Who can podcast? Anyone can podcast! We’ll go into much greater detail later about who might want to podcast, but generally speaking, there are several reasons why everyone would want to podcast:

• Organizations like churches and nonprofits will podcast to keep people up to date with what’s going on, providing news, seminars and speeches, meeting transcriptions, etc.
• Businesses will podcast to maintain their name in the marketplace, offer information on products or strategies, and position themselves as the expert in their industry.
• Individuals will podcast if they have something to say to the world. Opinions, rants, and artistic offerings are all fair game in podcasting.

Podcasting formats are as varied as the types of podcasts available. Some podcasts are like monologues where one person simply shares their ideas into a microphone for the listener to hear.

Other podcasts are a dialogue between two or more people and may or may not follow format. Some podcasts are unscripted while others seem to be very scripted. Podcasting contain music, interviews, and while audio podcasts are quite popular now, audio/video podcasts are slowly gaining popularity as well.

All the history you need to know… and nothing else

The history of podcasting is well chronicled. But you’re not reading this book to get a history lesson. You’re reading this book to develop a new hobby or business or enhance an existing one. So we’ve condensed the information here so you can get up to speed in about thirty seconds.

The idea of sending files of sound over the Internet is not new. It was just a matter of taking existing elements, like MP3 (a type of audio compression that makes sound files really small and therefore quicker to download) and RSS (Really Simple Syndication: a method of syndicating news and the content of news-like sites around the web) and reworking them to allow technological visionaries to create a new form of communication.

Personal web journals called web logs, or “blogs” have been around for a while so people could voice opinions and provide information to others. People use these blogs as a personal platform so it was only natural to add files of sound to their textual offering.

RSS was a file format for sending sound but was not extensively used. It was developed into RSS-with-enclosures, allowing someone to attach MP3 files.

When attached to an RSS file, these sound files could be sent automatically to subscribers, people who were interested in hearing what the person had to say, and downloaded to be heard at their convenience.

The term “podcasting” was coined in 2004 and in just a few months it went from being an unknown concept and an uninvented word to a Google-search result in the millions! Podcasts are springing up nearly every day, like weeds. But good weeds!

Now everyone is jumping on board the podcasting bandwagon from politicians, pundits, professionals, producers, and even pornographers. Anyone with something to say or a product or service to sell or an opinion to share can podcast… and many already are!

Advantages/Disadvantages

Podcasting, just like any other technology, has advantages and disadvantages. There is one primary factor that is both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time: podcasting is the unexplored country, the Wild West of technology.

This means that anyone with something to say has an opportunity to say it, whether they have political views they want to share at the world, or success tips to help people improve their lives.

And the result is you’re going to get podcasts which provide real value and podcasts which waste your time and podcasts which could potentially offend. You’ll get podcasts with nothing to say and podcasts that say way too much.

Until a regulatory body is established that will bring some structure to the industry, podcasting is open to anyone and everyone who wants to get in on it, whether the things they have to say are of value to people or not.

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. Seeing what kind of podcasts are out there, though, and selectively choosing the ones you want, will allow you to take advantage… of the advantage!

Tomorrow, I’ll reveal 3 killer ways to use podcasting to help your online or offline business make you more money …

See you then …

Cheers

Nick