Learn how to podcast and blog to establish thought leadership, extend your brand and engage your target market

Social media, such as podcasting, result in constant waves of new content hitting the Internet. The amount of information is staggering. How can an individual find something of interest, let alone get his own content noticed by others? Many web users have adopted a method of categorization called tagging, an informal and collaborative way for web users to categorize information on the Internet.

Millions of content creators and consumers freely choose words to describe photos, web sites, blog posts, podcasts and more. The idea is to allow the people who create and use the content to label it anyway they want. Many social networking sites use tagging for sharing and indexing web content. 

(more…)

Clicks from search engine results pages are one of the most sought after sources of traffic on the Internet. This traffic is free and tends to produce well-targeted visitors. There’s a good chance that someone who clicks to your site from Google wants something that you have. This is called organic search traffic to distinguish it from paid search listings, such as the ones that appear on the right side of Google’s search results.

The goal of search engines is to serve up the most relevant information when someone searches for a given phrase. The engines give top search placement to web pages that they think offer the searcher what she’s looking for. Your goal is to get ranked as high as possible in search results for phrases that are relevant to your podcast’s topic. To get one of the top positions you need to provide content that the search engines see as on topic and good in quality.

(more…)

Your audience will only grow with consistent effort. Do at least five things every week to promote your podcast. This is the rule of five. There are over 100 tips in Promoting Your Podcast for you to use in your ongoing promotional efforts.

Quotes from your listeners are very powerful marketing tools. When you get an email or audio comment praising your show, ask for permission to use it in your marketing. There are a lot more ways to use testimonials other than just playing/reading them on your show. Here are 4 ways you can use listener testimonials to market your show:

1. List them on your site for visitors to see
2. Create a promo using a collection of audio testimonials submitted from your audience
3. Use them in your show description
4. Quote them in your media kit

(more…)

Did you know that the best advertising available in the media is free? The free exposure that comes from an article or interview mentioning your podcast is even more powerful than a full-page ad in a newspaper or a 30-second spot on TV. This kind of promotion is better because it is:

1. Free
2. Seen by a lot more people
3. More credible

(more…)

The growth of your audience will happen in increments. It’s something you have to stick to and do consistently. Little by little you’ll create little streams of traffic that will turn into an audience of oceanic proportions.

The best way to accomplish this is to create objectives and goals to accomplish each week and month.  Track your results. Do more of what works ditch what doesn’t work.

(more…)

The name of your podcast is likely the first exposure most listeners will have to your show. Your title usually only has a few seconds to do two things:

1. Give the potential listener an idea of what your show is about
2. Entice them to click to give it a try

(more…)

A great way to find listeners is to go where people who are interested in your topic are hanging out online. Give them a taste of what you’ve got. Command some attention and turn them into loyal listeners.

Whatever your podcast’s topic, chances are there are message boards dedicated to it. Get involved in these communities. Forums are great places for you to find loyal listeners. People who participate in them are often rabid about the topic being discussed.

(more…)

Your podcast should have a logo. When I say logo, I’m referring to the square image that appears in your listing in iTunes and other directories.

iTunes has stated that your podcast must have a logo in order to be considered for their featured listings. A logo will also make your podcast look more professional and catch more attention in the directories.

(more…)

Keywords are words and phrases that potential listeners and site visitors might search for to find content such as yours. Targeting the right keywords is extremely important to the success of your marketing campaign.

Using the right keywords in your podcast title, feed, description, episode titles, and show notes will greatly increase the amount of free, targeted traffic you get from the search engines.

(more…)