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Podcasting Articles
Podcasting - What You Don't Know Could Hurt
Your Business
by Steve Humphrey
If you've been online recently, I'm sure you've heard about
podcasting. You might be wondering "What's in it for me?"
Or perhaps "Why should I care about that?" There are
many valid reasons for you to get informed about this hot new
technology.
Think of a podcast as a way to deliver audio content to a very
large worldwide audience. The easiest analogy is to think of
this technology as giving you the power to create your own online
radio program.
First, the name is a little misleading. It comes from 'iPod'
and "broadcasting". It doesn't mean you need an iPod
to get involved. You can listen right on your computer.
Podcasting is made possible by RSS (a type of XML computer code).
But have no fear! You don't need to know programming at all.
RSS is simply a delivery system that allows people to subscribe
and stay up to date any time you add a new podcast show.
Having an iPod or similar digital MP3 Audio player is not required.
You can download audio files to your device and take the audio
shows with you. Or you can simply stream the audio and listen
to the podcast show on your computer.
There is a lot of free podcast audio for you to listen to online.
Do a search for "podcast" or "MP3" and you'll
see what I mean.
What's out there? Music, interviews, seminars, educational shows,
technology shows, news, sports...the list of topics is amazing.
Some people say that podcasting it's going to replace radio
and TV.
Not True. However, podcasting is changing the face of online
audio and traditional radio. Podcasters already number in the
thousands. The number of businesses and individuals making podcasts
is growing at a rapid pace.
So where can you find these podcasts? Check out any of these
sites:
www.podblaze.com www.podcastalley.com www.podcastbunker.com
Or search for more of these directories with Google, Yahoo,
and other search engines and directories.
What about making your own podcast for your own business or
website? That's not exactly rocket science. Get some sound recording
software (Audacity or WavePad, for example) and a microphone.
Then record some MP3 files yourself.
All that's left is to get them up on the web somewhere and have
them formatted into RSS. Some blogging software and services
allow you to attach audio to a blog post. There's even free
programs you can use.
For example, you could open a Producer account at:
www.podblaze.com
You can start with the free account, which lets you store up
to 40MB of MP3 files on their server. It's enough for about
four half-hour shows.
That's an easy and risk-free way to try out podcasting. They
also have paid accounts for people who want to do more than
experiment with this new media.
Now why would you want to podcast? I can think of many good
reasons. Here's a few: Put some recordings of your band up and
maybe you'll get a recording contract. Sweet!
If you did a teleseminar, make it available to the world. Position
yourself as an expert and people will take you more seriously.
Maybe you know about news items that the local and national
media won't pick up. Podcasting gives your story a chance to
be heard. Maybe you just want to share something personal with
the world.
Whatever your reason for wanting to put your music or voice
on the web, podcasting is an easy and inexpensive way to do
it. So pick up that microphone and record your thoughts. I'm
waiting to hear it.
About the Author
Steve Humphrey spent almost 20 years in the telecom industy
before becoming a free-lance programmer and consultant. He's
taught himself 7 (or more) computer languages and written two
ebooks that teach people how to use CGI, Perl and PHP. He was
using the Internet several years BEFORE the Web existed. He
started building web pages the old-fashioned way - by hand in
NotePad. Likes DreamWeaver but still works mainly in text editors. |
