There are some businesses and news sites that podcast, but they do it as a way to supplement their companies and to gain technological geek credibility, not to make money. This is an odd thing, but explainable in light of what podcasting is.

The free podcast problem is not difficult, and podcasting differs in several key ways from other media areas. First, podcasting involves the physical transfer of a file from the host to the users computer. An online radio station does not do this; all that they provide to their listeners is a streaming sound file that cannot be saved without difficulty and work. If someone did
manage to do so, the station would have strong grounds for suing them since they were never given the rights to keep and store the files. By podcasting the complete file to the users computer, express permission is granted the user to copy and use as they wish. Second, the podcasts are, for the most part, made by individuals who have low costs involved in creating and distributing the files, as opposed to a news broadcast or song by a music company. These individuals have little reason to charge for their work since there is little cost to them to do so.
Because the files are distributed in a way allows their copying and does not control the media, and since podcasting is a very low cost media outlet, feed producers have little reason or ability to charge for their work.

Update: Don’t worry, people want to get paid by their podcasting if at all possible. Big media hopes to start charging, but so far charging for premium content hasn’t survived in a context where most of the information wasn’t still available for free. “Boot strap” podcasters would still like payment but besides “emotional income” (that “warm feeling”) money comes in different ways. Many hope for donations or that you’ll come to their website and make “back end” purchases or “click” the google advertising. For now though, the operative word is still “FREE” because it’s more about the MESSAGE getting out.

A podcast is an easy way of distributing media files over the internet, and this article will tell how to make a podcast. The first thing necessary is a domain, and a host on which to store the media files for the podcast. Getting a domain is simple and easy, there are many domain registrars that can register a domain for someone for a small fee. Some of these domain
registrars are GoDaddy.com, Dotster, or Network Solutions are some that provide domains. The domain registrar will, for a small fee, enter the chosen domain, provided it is not being used, into the computers that form the backbone of the internet. These computers will be told where the domain is located on the internet; what host it is that holds the domain’s information. In
order to give them that information, the name servers that are held by the host need to be associated with the domain. Once the domain is in place, a good host should be found. The host that is chosen should offer a large amount of both disk space and a much larger amount bandwidth. Disk space is neccessary because the site which holds the podcast will be storing large media files; audio or video files that take up a lot of space and are difficult to compress. The large bandwidth is necessary because transferring these large files many times to many different people will use up the quota quickly. A good amount of diskspace would be several GigaBytes, bandwidth should be in the tens or hundreds of Gigabytes. Once the host is set up, it
should offer you a couple of addresses called nameservers. Inputting these server addresses into the site where the domain was registered will complete the domain setup and allow the site to be found on the internet.

The next step for people who want to know how to make a podcast is installing the software necessary to maintain the podcast. A small piece of coding called dircaster.php can be used to set up a basic level of podcast. Dircaster.php can be found easily by searching for it in any search engine. Once it is located, it should be edited to reflect the particulars of the domain and
uploaded to the site. Dircaster.php will generate an RSS file, or feed, that tells the subscriber about the new files available for downloading.

To begin podcasting, create the audio files that should be podcast, fill in the information about the file such as date, author, etc, and upload them to the same directory that contains
dircaster.php. You now have a podcast, and all that is needed is to publicise the address of the file dircaster.php. To update the podcast with new information, just upload the new files. Other things to make the podcast better might be a site that contains information about the podcast, but it isn’t necessary.

Here’s what I use for podcasting personally:

1. Namecheap.com domain service
2. Hostgator Hosting (affiliate link)
3. Edirol R-09 Recorder (Amazon link below). Start with that one if you have the money but cheaper ones are available (just check on Amazon). But if it’s just you talking, then you may want to just get a headset with microphone. I use a logitech one that I got at Amazon.

A podcast client is the software used to access and download podcasts. Podcast clients are also known as media aggregators, programs designed to automatically access an online file, or feed, and download the audio or video file associated with it. Hundreds of these programs exist, with names like IpodderX, Juice, Nimiq, and PodSpider. These podcast clients are easy to
find, and because there are so many available for free, it is easy to find one that suits an individuals needs and style. These programs run on the users computer, periodically downloading a small RSS file from sites that it has been told to monitor. The file tells the program about an audio or video file stored on the server, and the podcast client then downloads that file
for the user to view or listen to.

The podcast client thus allows the user to view information on a wide range of topics from their
computer, without even using a web browser. Just like blogs let people find writers they enjoyed for any niche topic they were interested in, podcasts let people do them same for audio and video. Its as if a thousands of radio and television channels were created to serve every possible interest, and more were made every day. Using the podcast client to access and download the files makes it as easy to keep up with the sites one likes as it is to publish the feed.

From a marketer’s perspective, video and podcasting are fast and easily done, but you’ve only derived part of their value to your marketing if you don’t use the content in text form as a book, special report, or premium content.

If you want fast, professional transcription services for your family friendly podcast or video, use the “Contact” form above. My wife Renee quickly turns around transcription for publication!

If you have a passion for a topic and want to reach your current audience and build a new audience, perhaps this is an outlet you should consider.

Unfortunately the costs aren’t mentioned so it may be beyond your budget.

But you might be excited enough by the prospects to at least “dip your toe” in the water by beginning your own podcast to “practice”. The price of podcasting continues to drop.

This is something similar except it’s an xTag microphone that transmits to your PC or Apple computer:

Superb audio performance with wireless convenience brought to the individual workspace.  Connecting to a Windows® or an Apple® personal computer via the USB interface, the xTag Wireless Microphone is ideal for podcasting, VoIP, SKYPE, web conferencing, distance education, speech recognition, and many other audio applications.  The xTag Wireless Microphone does not require any device drivers or other software, so it installs immediately.  It charges via the USB port.  Forget the tether of a wire and enjoy the secure and crystal clear sound with your personal computer applications!

Image courtesy Revolabs. 

Now though the cost of recording your podcast has dropped to a few hundred dollars because the new breed of digital voice recorders. $2000 to $400 or less is a huge drop in just a few years!

But if you’ve been putting off podcasting because you didn’t want to get another laptop, now’s the time to check into digital voice recorders to see if they’ll help you get podcasting.

I’m in the process of checking these out myself. So I’ll let you know what I find.

Here are two of the ones I’m considering these days.

But I’m also very much into developing online training and not just podcasting. So that’s why I’m into this podcast experimental phase.

The limiting factor is whether you can get on Oprah.

But even without Oprah,  if you’ve got a hot audio file you could still create a nice stream of online income if you have something people want to know about

Author Mignon Fogarty, host of the Grammar Girl podcast, took just a few days to crank out an audio file of her upcoming Holt book and rushed it onto Audible.com right before an appearance on Oprah. The hour-long $4.95 audio went to No. 1 on iTunes, and she cashed in on the Oprah publicity even though the book wasn’t on the street — in fact it’s not even written yet.

If you don’t mind spending a few bucks so you can record directly to your computer, a friend of mine suggested the free software Audacity and this Logitech Premium USB Headset 350 ( 980374-0403 )…at the time of this posting @ $36 and very easy to use. It produces crystal clear sound! (I’ve got one myself!)

You can use this combo of products for creating your own podcasts too.

So how do we generate word of mouth advertising?

The Fastest Growing Companies actually do something about it. Here’s what they’re doing.

If you’re trying to make money online… do you do any of these activities?

From WOM Research

Social media is elbowing its way into corporate America, and it’s doing so more quickly than anticipated, according to a recent study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The school’s Center for Marketing Research surveyed last year’s Inc. 500 to see how the nation’s fastest–growing private companies were leveraging social media. A full 66% of surveyed companies say that social media is either “very important” or “somewhat important” to their business/marketing strategy.

Other results:

* 42% say they are familiar with social networking, 38% with message/bulletin boards, 36% with blogging, 31% with online video, 30% with podcasting, and 16% with wikis.

* 33% say their company uses message/bulletin boards, 27% social networking, 24% online video, 19% blogging, 17% wikis, and 11% podcasting.

---

Copyright © 2012 Work At Home Business Opportunities Weblog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@business-opportunities.biz so we can take legal action immediately.]]> http://work-at-home.business-opportunities.biz/2007/02/16/fastest-growing-companies-value-social-media/feed/ 1