Podcast Promotion Tips
By S. Housley

Podcast Promotion
Podcasting is a great new medium, but creating a podcast is
only half of the work. Promoting a podcast is equally
critical to it's success.


1. Educate the Public.
It is important to remember that podcasting is a relatively
new technology and not everyone understands or knows what
podcasting is. It is particularly important to educate users
if your audience is not technical. Not only is it important
to explain what a podcast is, but it is equally important to
explain how your podcast will help listeners. Instruction on
how users can listen to podcasts should also be included.


Understanding Podcasting -
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/podcasting-articles.htm


2. Graphic
Add a graphic to your website to let website visitors know
that a podcast is available for your content. Colorful
graphics have become the signature to alert listeners that
podcasts and RSS feeds are available. The podcast flags were
initially bright orange rectangles but as the popularity has
grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit.

A free online RSS graphic tool is available that allows
users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text and
the color scheme of the button enabling webmasters to
coordinate their podcast flag to match their website color
scheme. Graphics experience is not required. Simply select
alternative colors and insert text to personalize the feed
graphics.


Online Graphics Tool -
http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm or
choose ready made graphics fom:
http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-graphics.htm .



3. Descriptive Content
Be sure the podcast RSS feed contains enough information
related to the contents of the podcasts to grab the interest
of listeners. The description should be keyword rich. A link
to the audio file should be included in the description
field. The audio file link is a great way for listeners to
sample a podcast.


4. Press Release
Send a press release about the podcast. In addition to
distributing the press release to editors, be sure to submit
the release to free online press release directories.

Submit Press Release -
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/pressreleases.html
(scroll to submit release)


5. Podcast Directories
Submit podcasts to the podcast directories. Podcast
directories contain podcasts that cover a wide variety of
topics. Inclusion in the podcast search engines and
directories will tap a whole new audience.

Submit to Podcasting Directories -
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm


6. Consistent Theme / Interesting Content
The last thing you want to do is to turn off listeners who
have subscribed. Provide consistently formatted and
consistently themed audio files. Interesting content that is
consistently presented will gradually increase your
listening base.



7. Create a Community
Encourage feedback and dialogue with listeners. Listen to
the feedback of listeners and test their suggestions.
Remember the podcast is for them not you.


Podcast promotion should be approached with the same tactics
as website promotion. Identifying and informing your
audience will increase communication and dialogue.


About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon
manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a
wireless text messaging software company.