Recently I have started another sort of media broadcast other than video. I recently did 2 interviews with 2 great people on PPC Marketing and Being Passionate about your Niche. Both these interviews were not my standard email interviews. I actually spoke to these people live and we had a great discussion and interview. I decided to dive into podcasting after Affiliate Summit West. The reason for this is because I wanted to be more interactive than just the standard text.
Text interview becomes boring - there is no interaction. Standard text can not be very interactive; you can not jump in and over discuss a specific topic or go into greater detail. Podcasting gives me the chance to learn more about the person, as if we are talking to each other over a drink. With podcasting I can ask the generic question then go into greater detail on a specific topic they may have brought up.
Podcasting is defined as:
A podcast is a collection of digital media files which are distributed over the Internet, often using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The term podcast, like "broadcast", can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
Source: Wikipedia
You can even think about it as a radio show, similar to webmaster radio. This will not replace video blogging for me but podcasting will definitely be chosen as a first alternative to email interviews. Podcasting for me helps me as a person and helps the readers get a feel of the interview or group discussion buy listening to what the discussion is about.
First I am a beginner, I only did 2 podcast - probably more than most who want to get into podcasting. My first mistake I made with my first podcast is I used my web cam mic to pick up the phone conversation with John Hasson. The audio was not of the utmost best quality but it was done and it was a good success. I then researched more and more into podcasting. I found some services that will let you stream from their servers and use a toll free phone service to call in to have a discussion. This is great!
I personally did not want to run another interview with my web cam mic and a phone on high speaker. This way audio can be evenly balanced and more clearer. I did not have to try to use audio software to try to evenly distribute the audio balance etc. This service actually helped out a lot.
There are multiple services out there which you can record your podcast and stream from.
- I personally use GCast
- HipCast - it's easy to upload, record over the web, or phone-in audio and video
- PodBean - Social Subscribing site
- SwitchPod - hosting service, offering you unmetered bandwidth, the fastest speeds, the most detailed statistics
WIth all these services to chose from and there are many more you need a way to input the audio to your blog. If you are using WordPress, then PodPress is the way to go. It systematically combines your blog posts with your podcast audio. I found this very simple to use because there are multiple options to choose from. It gives your readers options as well. Readers can listen to your podcast by opening a popup or even download the audio to their ipod. A lot of options for your readers.
For the 12 year old beginners who want to get into podcasting here is a great intro video about podcasting, pies, whales, and shrimp:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEmss2lg-ug[/youtube]
