For a long time I was reluctant to add podcasting to my list building arsenal thinking it was simply another task on my already long To Do list and, to be honest, it sounded tedious ... manually submitting my podcast episodes to the various podcast directories so that people knew they were there; I didn't have time for that! Little did I realize how easy it was to implement this strategy, and reach a whole other audience too - those who prefer to learn by listening! But now that I know how easy it is to create a podcast, I want to share that information with you! What is a podcast? A podcast is a collection of individual audio recordings saved as a digital file, such as an Mp3 or WAV audio file. Each individual audio recording is called an episode. People can listen to your podcast (collection of episodes) on the Internet, on their PC, or transfer the file to their portable device such as an iPod or MP3 player. You can also create your own radio show through using podcasts... think about all the Internet Radio Shows you've listened to online or read about. People can subscribe to your podcast using RSS feeds and therefore receive new episodes automatically whenever they become available. You can easily create your podcast episodes from your newsletter articles and once you've recorded several articles you'll have a well-stocked podcast. So now you know what a podcast is, let me tell you how you can create your own podcast in three easy steps! Step 1: Create your template When you record a podcast episode (i.e. your article), you need to include an introduction and a closing paragraph. It's not enough to simply record your article without any beginning and end - even though the article itself has a beginning and end! You need to tell your listener who you are, what you do, what your podcast is about, and at the end tell them where they can go for further information, i.e. your newsletter sign-up URL. Step 2: Choose your recording medium If you're already using one of the online streaming media services check out their services. I'd been using my service for over a year before I realized that I could use the same account to create my podcast. And the best bit... my service will automatically syndicate each new episode to the various podcast directories meaning that my episodes are published and accessible immediately - even to iTunes! I don't need to manually submit each episode to the various podcast directories. Step 3: Use a cueprompter Now, I could just print out my podcast template (complete with article) and read off that into my microphone and record my episode. But the danger here is that you might not sound natural; in other words, you may sound like you're reading from a page. What you want to do is let your authentic self come through to your listener. And the best way I've found for doing this is to use a CuePrompter - like newsreaders do when they're reading the news, or presenters when they're presenting a TV program. Search "cue prompter" and you'll find several to choose from! So now you've created your podcast template, chosen a recording medium, and loaded everything into a cue prompter, you're ready to record and create your very first Podcast episode! The whole process takes me about 15 minutes tops! And reaches a whole new target audience too.
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