Now that your podcast has been planned, written, practiced, recorded, and edited, it is time for the hard work to pay off. You need listeners – otherwise, the entire process was kind of pointless. Getting listeners is easier than you might think.
First, remember that the PodPress plugin automatically sends a ping to iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts, Podcast Alley, and Podcast Ready. So those directories are covered.
Go to Feedburner at http://www.feedburner.com and sign up for a free account. List your podcast here, and this will generate a great deal of traffic to your podcast very quickly. It also gives people several options for adding your podcast to their specific aggregator.
Use common promotional sense. Put a link to your podcast on every page of every site that you currently own. Also put a link to it on every profile page that you have at various sites, such as MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo, etc.
Obviously, you would include a blurb about your podcast, along with a link to it in your signature file. Your signature file will be used on every email that you send out, in forum posts, in testimonials, in news group posts, and anywhere else that you participate online.
Hit the podcasting directories, other than the ones that PodPress already pings. These include:
Podcast.net – http://www.podcast.net
Podcasting News – http://www.podcastingnews.com
Pod Spider – http://www.podspider.com
Vital Podcasts – http://www.vitalpodcasts.com/
Podcast 411 – http://www.podcast411.com
Audio Weblogs – http://audio.weblogs.com
Podcast Lounge – http://www.thepodlounge.com.au/add.php
Blogebrity – http://www.blogebrity.com/
Podcast Directory – http://www.podcastdirectory.com
Idiot Vox – http://www.idiotvox.com
PublicRadioFan – http://www.publicradiofan.com
Pod Blaze – http://www.podblaze.com/podcast_directory.php
Business Resources Pod Cast Directory – http://www.businessresourcespodcastdirectory.com/
Podcast Directory.org – http://podcastdirectory.org/
iPodder – http://www.ipodder.com
Podcast Pickle – http://www.podcastpickle.com/
These directories are just a start. You also need to get listed in the major search engines and directories as well. Also, look for niche specific directories. In these places, however, you won’t be listing your podcast; you will be listing the page where your podcast resides.
Even though it is possible for people to subscribe to your podcast with RSS, you should also set up an autoresponder, along with a sign up form on each page of your podcast site. This allows people to sign up for what will become your newsletter. Not only can you notify them when you’ve updated, but you can then send them other topic related emails as well. Don’t pass up this opportunity to build a list.
Announce your podcast with a press release. You can write a press release and distribute it through either a paid or free service. One nice service that is free is I-News Wire, at http://www.i-newswire.com.
Use social bookmarking. Sign up for a free account at Only Wire (http://www.onlywire.com). Next, sign up for a free account at all of the social bookmarking sites that they list. Put the only wire icon on your browser toolbar, go to the main page of your podcast site, and hit that icon. It will send the bookmark to all of those sites, with the tags – or keywords – that you’ve indicated. This gets a great deal of traffic in a short amount of time.
Become a listener and reader yourself. One of the best ways to promote your podcast is to listen to and comment on other people’s podcasts, as well as their blogs. When you leave a comment, you are typically able to leave your link as well. You can also use your trackback feature on WordPress if your podcast relates to or quotes someone else’s podcast or blog. Comments and trackbacks are what makes the blogging/podcasting world go ’round.
Become someone that others want to interview. Typically, the person that is being interviewed gets the opportunity to plug their website, blog, product, or in this case, their podcast. Find other podcasters that cover your niche, and offer to ask them to interview you. A good way to get them to do this is to return the favor.
Become friends with successful podcasters. Once you’ve established a friendship, ask them to give your podcast a mention, and of course, do the same for them.
Don’t forget yourself! Sign up for a free account where you can create a customized homepage everywhere possible, and subscribe to your own podcast through those pages. While other people cannot typically see what you are subscribed to, these services can, and it is likely to get listed within that service much faster.
Naturally, you will use the ‘usual suspect’ marketing techniques as well. This includes article marketing, forum marketing, offline promotions, Craig’s List, email marketing, and even traffic exchanges, if you feel those methods will work in the promotion of your podcast.
Word of mouth is still the most effective form of advertising. Build relationships with the people who listen to your podcast. Ask them to contact you. Read their mail and answer it. Recognize them on your podcast show. The more they like you, and your podcast, the more likely they are to tell their friends and relatives about it.
Make sure that you are using all of the white hat search engine optimization techniques on the site that you host your podcast on. Natural search engine traffic is very valuable. Also, if you stand to profit from people listening to your podcast, you should strongly consider pay-per-click advertising, such as Google’s AdWords program.
The main thing is to not be quiet about your podcast. Remember that the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, and you want to be that squeaky wheel when it comes to getting the word out about your podcast.
You will need a name for your podcast, and possibly some sort of memorable slogan. Try to make the name interesting and catchy, while still going with a name that fairly well describes what your blog is about. Unless you are already a famous person ‘John Doe’s Podcast’ is not going to cut it in the podcasting world. You need a good name for your podcast!
Further brand your podcast with a graphic. This is a graphic that is 300 x 300 pixels wide, in JPEG format. This graphic will appear on sites such as iTunes. The graphic can be a picture of you, or whatever you want. Ideally, a picture of you, the podcast host, works best for branding purposes.
As much time as you’ve spent producing your podcast, be prepared to spend at least three times that amount of time – or more – promoting it. Promoting a podcast is just like promoting anything else. It requires time and effort on your part. However, because of specialized promotional outlets, such as podcast directories, promoting a podcast is easier than promoting a product or a website. The same is true for blogs, since there are specialized ways to promote blogs as well.
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