How Podcasting Can Improve Your Business
The term a course in miracles has been floating about on the radio and in discussions with
friends, but you’re still not sure what it’s all about and if it’s relevant to your
business. A podcast is the combination of an audio or video file and a RSS publishing file,
placed on an Internet server and available for downloading.
Let’s say you plug a microphone into your computer and record a 15 minute blurb
about an area of knowledge you have. Now you have a sound file on your computer
waiting for a home, and you want that home to be on the Internet for millions of
people to listen to. You will first need to find a “host” company to take your file and put it on their
“server” to make the file available to the world. This is called a “podcasting” server.
Once you have contacted a server and have placed your file on their server, you will
want people to find your file. To do this you have to create a special document that
“publishes” your file to the world. This document is called an “RSS” file – which stands for Really Simple Syndication. In
this document you will put vital information like subject matter, keywords, website,
contact info and other information about the podcast and your business.
When this RSS file has been created, it is placed in the same folder as the audio file
on the podcasting server. When you have posted an audio file and published it using
your RSS file, you have successfully created a “podcast”.
Now you want people to be able to find your podcast
There are many online directories for podcasts that have searchable databases.
These services are generally free. On these sites people with new podcasts fill out a
form telling the world about the subject of the podcast, which is posted to the
directory. Once your podcast information has been posted, anyone visiting that directory
searching for podcasts containing the subject matter of your podcast, will
immediately find a link to your podcast.
Of course the more directories you list with, the more people you’ll expose your
podcast to. Another great thing about these directories is that Google and other search engines
visit these sites to find content, so there is an even greater chance of people finding
your podcast. Once your podcast has been posted to a number of podcasting directories, it is now
available to millions of potential listeners worldwide.
It is very simple. Once they have clicked the link on the directory or your website,
the podcast will automatically download and play in whatever audio player is
appropriate for the podcast file.
The beautiful thing about an RSS file is that once it is registered with a directory,
you don’t need to go back to the directory if you decide to add new podcast
episodes. All you need to do is update your RSS file to show that there more
episodes associated with the podcast. Listeners will be made aware of this if they
locate your podcast after a new episode has been added.
Millions of listeners and Google users are searching for information in podcast form
to listen to at their leisure. This is the most beautiful part of podcasts. The listener,
once they have downloaded a podcast, can listen to it many times over, at their
convenience.
