· Brand Recognition
· Episode Archive
· Listener Interaction
· Daily Updates
· Humanize Yourself
· Monetization

Brand Recognition

Building a successful podcast is not just about putting out new content. If you want to grow your audience and attract listeners, one of the best things you can do is create, build, and nourish your brand. I spend a lot of time talking about the elements of a brand in this article. The website for your podcast is your opportunity to pull the listener away from iTunes or Libsyn for a moment and introduce them to your brand. Who you are, what your podcast is about and all kinds of other elements that just don’t translate into the podcast medium. Building brand loyalty among your listeners keeps them coming back for each new episode and will give you a strong foundation in the even you ever, start a second or third podcast, or get into some other type of online venture.

Episode Archive

Over time you will accumulate a large library of podcast episodes. For one reason or another you may find that you don’t want iTunes to list all 150 of your podcast episodes in the directory. However, every day there are going to be people finding your podcast for the first time and if they enjoy your podcast they are going to want to be able to go back to the beginning and listen to everything they have missed. Having a website allows you to have a central location where every single podcast episode you have produced can be easily found by a new listener.

It will also give them the opportunity to explore all of the other content that you have on the website that they may not have otherwise been exposed to if the only interaction they have with your podcast is through iTunes.

Listener Interaction

The website is another way for you to interact with your listeners. While some members of your audience may not feel like leaving a voicemail or sending you an email directly, they might be willing to leave a comment on a post the find on the website. The comments portion of your website is another great way for you to connect with and interact with your podcast audience. It is also a great way to remind all of your listeners, outside of the podcast, about all of the different ways they can contact you: email, voicemail, etc.

Daily Updates

Sometimes there will be news or events related to either your podcast topic or the podcast itself that is time sensitive. It may be that by the time your new podcast episode is released the information will no longer be applicable or you may have missed a deadline. The website is a great resource for immediate interaction with your audience to let them know what is happening now.

In addition, there may be some things happening in your niche that may not be applicable to your podcast topic but is something that you know your listeners will be interested in. A quick post on the website to let them know what is going on is a great add-on value to your podcast.

One word of caution about this utilization of your website. The same rules for your podcast hold true with the website. If it is not good quality content that provides something of benefit to your user then it doesn’t go on the website. If people who frequent your website find it increasingly full of garbage then they will stop visiting the site. Always be sure to make your website posts interesting with your own added value to keep them coming back for more.

Humanize Yourself

Depending on the nature of your podcast or your podcast topic, you may find it hard to just be yourself sometimes. It may not fit your podcast to be silly or sarcastic during the course of the episode. The website is a great chance to humanize the podcast host for the listeners. Step out from behind the microphone and be a person, not a podcast host.

Give your audience a brief update on how you are doing personally that week. If you are having a hard time getting motivated to put out a new episode, tell them, better yet tell them why. If you saw something that made you think of an email you got from a listener or something you said in a previous episode, bring that up to.

You might even use the website to give the listeners more insight into who you are personally that they might never get to see in the course of the podcast. Connecting with our audience on a human level will give them that much more appreciation for you when you get back behind the microphone as the podcast host.

Monetization

For many of you monetization may be one of the biggest reasons for having a website related to your podcast. Whether you use Google AdSense, Affiliate programs, or sell your own products on the website; in order to make money podcasting there is really no way around having your own website.

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Podcasting Technique #1

Discover podcasting

Even if you have a basic understanding of podcasting-do you know precisely what podcast is all about and how it works? Have you listened and subscribed to podcasts? I recommend you take a few days becoming familiarized with podcasting before attempting to record your own podcast.

Start Listening To Podcasts

As I described above it’s also a good idea to start listening to podcasts so you can get a feel for what podcasting is all about. Podcast Alley lists thousands of podcasts. There are several popular podcasting directories like Podcast Alley listing many podcast. Take a look at the top 50 podcasts listed in Podcast Alley and listen to some of those podcasts. This is an excellent way of getting a feel for what podcasting is all about.

Podcasting Technique #2

Understand Your Niche

What passion do you share with others? Who is your target audience? What is your goal? Understanding your niche will not only help you in your podcast marketing endeavors but in any type of marketing. If you’re doing article marketing you want to provide your niche with articles that will help your reader not just blast them with your affiliate link. This also applies to podcast marketing. Know your audience and what is you’re trying accomplish.

If your goal is to build your credibility online within a niche than you need to be offer real value and knowledge to your listeners. This will take more ongoing podcasting and offering expert advice. Compared to podcasting to be listed in the directories for tapping new traffic. Than all you need is a few short podcasts. I explain this in more detail in my Niche Podcasting Guide but regardless of what marketing campaigns you’re involved with the better understanding you have about your niche-the better you will do in that niche.

Podcasting Technique #3

Develop Your Plan Of Attack

What do you need to learn? There are many sources online that will help you start podcasting. Once you have the needed information (don’t waste time re-inventing the wheel use a guide) start developing your plan of attack. What equipment do you need? How about software? What specific date will you start podcasting? Do you have support in place to help you out?

Podcasting Technique #4

Find Your Voice

Most of us can’t stand the sound of our own voice. That was a tough barrier for me to break. But guess what-your recorded voice is not as bad as you think it is. Trust me on this. You might think it sounds awful but to other it won’t. So just start recording to overcome this obstacle.

Be yourself! The beauty of podcasting is that it’s not radio. The last thing we need is another radio DJ wannabe. You know what I’m talking about. It doesn’t matter if you’re from the Americas, Europe, Australia, Asia, we all have those over the top, cheesy, radio announcers. That is not what podcasting is all about. So be yourself and you will find your voice and you’re listeners will become rabid fans!

Podcasting Technique #5

Podcast What?

This is another fear many future podcasters wrestle with but you shouldn’t fret. The beauty of podcasting is that listeners don’t want the typical radio fodder so just be yourself. And don’t forget about video. Are you leveraging the power of video marketing (you should)? If you have videos on YouTube-use that same video file and turn it into a podcast. It’s an over looked fact that podcasting is not just audio. Video podcasting is very popular and you can use your existing videos and turn those into “new” video podcasts even if the actual video file is a year old.

Podcasting Technique #6

Just Do It – No Excuses!

I’ve bought many Internet marketing e-books and I’m active in the forums so I know how often folks say this: TAKE ACTION!

But a reason many successful marketers and gurus use that line is for a reason-it’s true. If you really want to step up your Internet marketing efforts, than podcasting will give a significant advantage. But you have to start podcasting. So no more excuses, stop procrastinating and start podcasting right away.

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