I have recently been reviewing my Social Media Strategy and have taken a look at my Podcast analytics.
Since launching my Podcast, A Conversation with The Six Minute Strategist in October 2011, I have recorded 62 episodes which have been downloaded a total of over 710,000 times!!!
To me that was a staggering surprise! And my thanks to you all who have downloaded and listened to my Podcast.
Stitcher Radio
A quick announcement – I am very excited to tell you that my Podcast, A Conversation with The Six Minute Strategist – is now available on Stitcher Radio. If you listen to Stitcher Radio please check out the Podcast there.
Introducing Podcasting
In these two episodes/posts, my intention is to help you to consider whether Podcasting is for you and whether you should make it part of your Online Marketing Strategy. I was reading my friend, Chris Ducker’s blog and he explained how he launched his new Podcast The New Business Podcast – you can read the blog post here.
This made me think about my Podcast and I went back and did some analytical work. WoW! Was I surprised? Over 710,000 downloads and 62 Episodes. As I have not been numbering them, I really had no idea.
I am now also aware that my Podcast is reaching a huge audience and helping to build my online brand. You can definitely expect more podcasts from the Six Minute Strategist.
You can listen to the Podcast that goes with this Blog below:
In Part 1 I am going to share with you where you can learn how to podcast. This is largely a curation post – sharing two amazing resources to help you get started in Podcasting. Both Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income Blog and Cliff Ravenscraft – The Podcast Answerman have great free tutorials which are so amazing that I really could better them.
You can find Pat’s How to Start a Podcast Free Tutorial here. Cliff’s Free Tutorial Learn How to Podcast 101 is here and you can find his more advanced courses some of which he charges for are here. (Full Disclosure – these are NOT affiliate links)
So, Why Should You Podcast?
If you are a content producer, you should think seriously about including a podcast in your media mix. Don’t take my word for it, let Pat Flynn tell you. In the introduction to his “how to Start a Podcast” blog post – linked here- about which I will tell you more later in this post, he is very clear that his Podcast is one of the major reasons for the growth of his business and his blog. His Analytics tell him that over 25% of his new subscribers to his blog come through his Podcast.
Can you afford to ignore this much traffic?
So How do you set about producing and launching a podcast
There are six key steps
- Plan the Podcast and its content
- Get your Recording Equipment organised
- Organise Intro and Outro
- Record the Episode
- Launch
- Promote and Syndicate
At this point I recommend that you go over to Pat Flynn’s website – link here – and read his blog post and follow his free video course. As ever with Pat when he produces a course, it makes more sense to let him tell you how to do it than reinvent the wheel here. if you like his content and need to follow any of his affiliate links, then thank him by doing so, as I have in the past, because his content is really valuable and easy to follow.
What are the key points you need to consider before starting your Podcast…
1 Title : make it catchy but don’t forget to include keywords in the title with “pipe” dividers. Mine are Business Strategy | Online Marketing | Entrepreneur
2 Host Talent Name, include a couple of relevant keywords here too: John Colley, The Six Minute Strategist | Business Strategy | Social Media | Blogger
3 Podcast subtitle: although this does not always come up, a couple of sentences should further assist your SEO
4 Podcast Summary / Description. You have 4000 characters so make it interesting and include a few more keywords
5 Artwork. Needs to be visually arresting. This is what people will see. Needs to be 1400 x 1400 pixel square image (this is important because of high quality retina displays on smart phones and tablets). Should be readable at 300 x 300 pixels. Follow Pat’s video course to learn all the technicalities
Pat Flynn’s Tutorial
Here is a summary of Pat’s Video Course and what he covers
Video 1 Podcasting Equipment and Software: Pat explains the equipment you will need to consider and provides some links to where to get them.
Tip: Apart from my Mac, I use a Samson GoMic which cost me around £35. It has the great advantage of being very portable. If upon want a more professional set up then consider some of Pat’s recommendations, including getting a popping screen.
Tip: Remember, if you are starting off, you can do this for free. On my Mac I started with Garage Band and my in-built microphone, you can also use Audacity free software to record and I uploaded and still do to iPadio.com which gives you free hosting and also takes care of getting your podcast up on iTunes and syndicated back to your blog.
Once you are more established, considered spending a little money on upgrading your microphone to get better sound quality. In his first Video, Pat demonstrates the sound quality from different microphones which is really helpful
Video 2 Pat’s10 Recording Tips
Video 3 Exporting and Tagging your MP3 file
Video 4 Web and Media Hosting – external hosting of your podcast is important. Follow Pat’s advice or consider using iPadio.com as I do.
Video 5 Setting up your feed. This is a technical step which Pat explains. iPadio does much of this for you semi-automatically.
Video 6 Submitting to iTunes and other sites. Getting your syndication right is a key part of the process of being found and listened to.
Cliff Ravenscraft Learn How To Podcast 101 Free Course
This is a brief summary of Cliff’s content. If you are serious about Podcasting, I would work through both courses.
Learn How To Podcast 101 is split into 7 main sections:
- An Overview of How Podcasting Works
- Tagging Your Mp3 Files
- Podcast Equipment Options
- Website & Media Hosting Recommendations
- How To Properly Set Up A Podcast RSS Feed
- A Proven Podcast Production Workflow
- How To Create A Podcast In Under 20 Minutes
The Seven Videos are:
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 1 – An Overview of Podcasting
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 2 – Tagging Your MP3 Files
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 3 – Equipment Options
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 4 – Website & Media Hosting
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 5 – Proper RSS Feed Setup
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 6 – A Proven Podcasting Workflow
- Learn How To Podcast – Part 7 – Your Journey Starts Today!
Tip: ScreenFlow/Camtasia. One of the advantages of recording with these (paid) software packages is that it is really easy to strip out the audio track to an mp3 file. If you record your screencast (when making your video) with this in mind, you can repurpose the audio track as a podcast episode and link back to the video on you site (or embed on your show notes page). This means you have created two pieces of content in one go and will almost certainly reach a wider audience as a result.
Part 2 – Syndication and Promotion
In Part 2, which will be published at 09.00 on Wednesday 20th March 2013 (UK Time) I will share with you my approach to Promotion and Syndication, as well as encourage you to read Chris Ducker’s Blog post about How to Launch your Podcast.
Did You Enjoy this?
Be careful using free services for your hosting. Many have come and gone, and its a pain in the butt to switch, plus you can’t update iTunes to say “Hey my feed is over here now.” Google podango, and other free media servers. You can end up in quite a pickle.