If you look up the term, Podcasting, in Wikipedia, this is the detailed definition you’ll find.

A podcast is a series of digital media files, usually digital audio or video, that is made available for download via Web syndication. The syndication aspect of the delivery is what differentiates podcasts from other files accessible by direct download or streaming: it means that special software applications, generically known as podcatchers (such as Apple’s iTunes or Nullsoft’s Winamp), can automatically identify and retrieve new files associated with the podcast when they are made available, and that these files can be stored locally on the user’s computer or other device for offline use. This is done by the podcatcher accessing a centrally-maintained Web feed, which lists files associated with a certain podcast.

Like the term broadcast, podcast can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which the content is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. A podcaster is the person who creates the content.

Podcasting gives you many benefits and if you use it as one of your communication and marketing tools, this is what you can receive.

1 – Provides value-added offer opportunities – With podcasting, you can provide value-added offers in audio format which will retain their utmost interest and can create frequent visitations to your landing page for your weekly podcasts.

2 – Establishes highly effective communication – This is a very important benefit. It is a fact that podcasting prospect will become highly familiar with your landing page and you will earn the credibility as an expert author in your field of expertise.

3 – Builds the foundation of a life time relationship – With a podcast, you put a voice to your company and landing page. This done frequently will build a know, like and trust relationship between you and your listener.

4 – Wider distribution – Podcasting gives you the opportunity to distribute your targeted marketing message to many avenues. Listening to you via iPod, Automation from RSS feed subscription, MP3 player, mobile phone are just a short listing of the many ways to distribute your marketing message to your targeted audience.

I look forward to seeing your success online!

I invite you to visit http://www.52OnlineBusinessTips.com where you can receive 52 weeks (one per week) of personal mentoring via audio postcards. You can also subscribe to my free course with over an hour long of training by visiting http://www.ExtremeWealthStrategies.com.

From Philip J. Mutrie – CEO and Founder of Extreme Wealth Potentials.

During the summer of 2008 I started using internet radio to reach an even wider audience. I did my first few shows without telling anyone, and when I saw the possibilities I began to share this information with as many people as possible.

One of the very best reasons to include internet radio as part of your online marketing plan is because of the search engine optimization opportunities. Your keywords will rank very high when you do a radio segment, enabling even more people to find you on the internet.

The format for internet radio is very different than it is for teleseminars. You are able to open up a window as a chat room, and listeners are able to ask you questions or give you their website information. It took me awhile to get to this.

These listeners are not from your own list usually. Instead they are people who are on the internet searching for information on your topic and are able to find you because of the information you provided when you set up and described your show. Internet radio is extremely popular, so it is very likely that more people will find you than you ever imagined.

I like to make an outline of what I will be speaking about, and I am also careful to speak slowly and clearly and spell each word when I give a domain name for them to visit. I also invite them to join my list so that they can be part of my list in the future.

Internet radio is yet another channel through which you can get your information out to those who will be interested. The shows you do can easily be turned into podcasts, allowing you to extend your reach even further.

Many people would prefer to listen rather than to read information, so this gives you the opportunity to repurpose your articles, blog posts, and other written material and content into an auditory format. Consider starting your own internet show right away.

Connie Ragen Green teaches you how to write articles and eBooks to build an online business, as well as how to use the technology needed. Visit Online Writing Success to find out more.

After years of trail and error, here’s what we learned about producing a show that people want to subscribe to.

Make Your Podcast Thematic
If you want to host a successful podcast or Internet radio show, your show must be thematic. In our case, the Recognized Expert Marketing Show focuses on marketing. Our listeners know that they can count on hearing a program that’s going to teach them how to market themselves better.

We are not trying to target people who are interested in fiction or cooking or travel. The show is about marketing and the people who listen to the show are there to learn about marketing. Don’t try to be all things to all people. It doesn’t work.

Invite A Quality Guest
There are pros and cons to having a guest on your show. For example, a well known guest will attract listeners. They will add credibility to your show and give you someone to banter with.

The best reason for having a quality guest on your show is the information and experiences they provide that you can’t offer. A popular and quality guest can be a godsend for any podcast.

The downside to having a guest on your show is the unknown. Unless you’ve heard them on another show, you really don’t know what to expect when the microphone goes live.

In order to ease my concerns I contact every guest on the telephone before I schedule them on my podcast. You can get a pretty good idea as to how a guest is going to act from a simple telephone call, but not always.

So, should you have guests on your podcast? The answer is, “It depends.” You’re the most qualified person to make that decision.

With the basics out of the way, let’s look at what the format of a thematic show with guest looks like.

Provide A Musical Introduction
Music is a great way to get your audience in the mood for your show. It’s also a way to create continuity for your show. The trick with music is to keep it short and make sure it represents the mood you want to create for your podcast.

Introduce Yourself and the Show
Don’t leave new listeners wondering. Tell them straight away who you are and what the show is about.

Drive Listeners To Your Website
I didn’t do this for the first 100 shows and it proved to be an expensive mistake. When we started the Recognized Expert Marketing Show, it was only available on our website. Today it is syndicated on over 80 websites including iTunes.

The good news is 90% of our listeners don’t listen to the Recognized Expert Marketing Show on our website. The bad news is 90% of our listeners don’t listen to the Recognized Expert Marketing Show on our website. Here’s why that’s bad news.

Since our listeners are not listening to my podcast on our website, we can’t encourage them to sign-up on our list, click on our ads or purchase our products. That’s a problem you want to avoid from the start.

Give your listeners a reason to come to your website and offer them a bonus for going. We offer ebooks, reports, articles and other great marketing tips that are only available on our website. This is the single most important thing you must do on your podcast.

Introduce Your Topic
Project your excitement about the show and tell your listeners what they can expect from your show. Make a big promise and keep it.

Introduce Your Guest
Once your listeners have been persuaded to listen to your show, introduce your guest. You want to make a big deal over your guest for the benefit of your audience and your guest. You really can’t go too far.

Get to the Content Quickly
The fastest way to build a loyal following is to provide great content right out of the gate. Follow through on the promise you made at the beginning of the show and have them reaching for a pencil and paper.

Take A Break
I schedule a break halfway through my show. This gives me an opportunity to reintroduce my guest and remind my listeners to go to my website.

Recap The Show
Give your listeners a synopsis of what they learned and remind them why they listen to your show. Encourage them to tell their friends about your show and visit your website for more information. Do these things and you will quickly have your own successful podcast.

Bob Sommers is an Internet marketing expert and host of the Recognized Expert Marketing show on Maui. Learn how to podcast from the host of this very successful show.

In addition, podcast directories often allow the visitors to comment on the listed, and provide a list of the favourite podcasts on the site, making it easy for users to find the best available. These podcast directories can be used to browse through, introducing users to many different ones that otherwise would not have found.

Once a podcast has been found that interests the user, it is necessary to download it free. The vast majority of podcasts will be free, but there will be a few that may cost a small amount of money. The process to subscribe to and download them is the same in either case. First, a podcast client needs to be found and installed. There are many free podcast clients available, all providing a slightly different user interface and range of options. They come with many different names, such as Podscape, or Nimiq, and searching for ‘free podcast client’ or something like it will turn up many possibilities.

When the podcast client has been installed, inputting the feed address will allow the podcast to be downloaded. The client software will check the address given for a small, machine readable file called an RSS file. This file will contain information about the podcasts, perhaps some text about the individual episodes, as well as the location of the episode file. Once the client software has been located the file referred to in the RSS feed, it will be downloaded and stored on the users computer until the want to view it.

Sometimes, of course, access to a personal computer is not available, but it is still necessary to check a certain podcast. Fortunately, many of these directories offer built in podcast readers in the site. Not only do they often show each recent episode that is available, they may also offer a way to view or listen to those episodes from within the site.

By using the viewer contained within the site, it is no longer necessary to even download the podcast episodes. However, the ability to move and share the episodes after downloading is one of the wonderful things about podcasting. The files can be placed on almost and media player, ranging from iPods to the new Playstation Portable. This flexibility is one of the reasons they have succeeded, despite other technologies like streaming music and video. The desire of consumers to have control over technology cannot be over estimated.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on podcasts visit: Free Podcasts

CNET, being an online technology site, naturally found a niche distributing a tech news related podcast. CNET’s recent podcasts covered such topics as viruses that attack cell phones, problems with Google’s software, China’s web restrictions and the “Great Firewall of China”, and the FTC’s attack on spyware.

These news items were distributed in a sound file called an mp3 file that is downloadable to a listener’s computer for listening whenever they wish. While these files were available straight from CNET’s site, the majority of them are shared through the use of an RSS file.

An RSS file is a small piece of XML coding that is downloadable by programs designed to read it. These programs are called podcast clients, and the user can input the address of the RSS files that hold the information on the feed. The feed will contain links to the media files of the podcast, and will download the new updates automatically.

More sites than CNET are finding that podcast news is an exploitable technology. The British Broadcasting Corporation podcasts some of its programs, as well as the US radio network NPR. The NPR, because its work is created by a variety of different groups, treats podcasts differently from show to show. The NPR show “This American Life” distributes a podcast of the show through a site called audible.com, which allows feed listeners to subscribe to the feed for a small fee and download the show.

The NPR Hourly News show, on the other hand, shares a short 5 minute broadcast that summarizes the news for free. Since the NPR is taking a radio show and converting it into a file that is downloadable by the user, little is lost in the translation. The sound is designed to convey the entire story, and so podcast subscribers are able to treat the podcast as nothing more than TIVO for the radio. ABC’s podcast of the news show Nightline, on the other hand, is simply the sound track from the television show.
This has been one of the criticisms of the Nightline podcast, because by merely stripping the sound from what is designed as a television show, much information is not given to the users. Listeners have problems telling who is who because they miss the visual cues that were supposed to be there, there is no truly easy way to convert the shows.

For this reason, some news shows have been moving from audio podcasts to video ones. They can take the video information directly from the show that is broadcast, lower the visual resolution to shrink the file, and distribute it online as a podcast.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on podcasts visit: Free Podcasts

Once that was done, it was quickly possible to create podcasts for the portable gaming arena. Podcasters began creating video files, changing them to a format readable by the portable gaming consoles, and distributing them by podcast feed. These podcast feeds are subscribed to by people interested in the feed, who download the episodes as they come out.

After the video files are transferred to the portable gaming consoles, they can be viewed whenever the end user wishes, just like the other movies and professionally done videos available for the consoles. The PlayStation Portable has thus been changed from simply being a portable gaming platform to a piece of full featured media hardware capable of playing games, storing information, and playing videos and movies, moving toward a more complex future.

Finding Free Podcast Videos

Anyone can easily find free podcast videos online. There are numerous podcast directories online that can help you find feeds to subscribe to, or you may find a feed that’s available from a site you enjoy. After looking through the directories and finding a feed you want to download, subscribe to it using one of the many free podcast clients available.

The podcast client will automatically download a small file called an RSS file, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. The RSS file tells your podcast client when there is a new file, in this case a video, to download. Depending on your client, the program will notify you or maybe even download it automatically. Once the file is on your computer, you’ll be free to listen to it any time it is convenient.

Soon you’ll be on your way to downloading some of the free podcast videos available online. Feeds are available that publish on almost every topic, from independent news shows to experimental videos, to scientific information. Some colleges and universities even podcast their most popular lectures so that students will have a chance to watch and review from the comfort of their computer chair.

The best part is that these free podcast videos, are of course, free. All of these feeds are easy to find, and the publishers, for the most part, do it simply because they enjoy it, and are glad to give it away.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on podcasts visit: Free Podcasts

These programs run on the user’s 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. It’s as if 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.

Comedy Podcasts

Many podcasts are available to subscribe to and watch in a variety of genres, and one of these is the comedy podcast. Every small scale wannabe writer has a chance to become a comedian through podcasting, since the low entry cost allows people to start podcasting with minimum effort and money. To find some of these comedy podcasters, check a podcast directory. A podcast directory is a listing of many, sometimes several thousands, of podcasts submitted and divided into categories. A podcast directory will probably have a large number of comedy podcasts available to subscribe to.

These comedy podcasts are usually created by a small team of people who do the work in their free time, as a hobby, not as a source of income. Because it is a hobby, they’re more willing to give the work away for free, for nothing more than recognition, probably in the hopes they can parlay that recognition into a more mainstream job. Some more corporate groups also put together comedy podcasts, however. The satirical comedy web site ‘TheOnion’ puts out a regular comedy podcast, featuring readings from their fake news site.

Placing a comedy podcast on the Internet has several advantages for the creators. They get to showcase their work, easily distributing their art to many people. This following is likely to be unusually passionate, following the artist with more enthusiasm than the artist’s average audience. The comedian has a chance to be more open with the audience, engaging in a sort of dialogue with them.

The comedian broadcasts the files, which enter the computer of the user, already a more personal level than simply hearing the jokester on the radio or on television. Comedy podcast subscribers will often then write back to the podcaster, or leave comments on the blog which often accompanies a podcast site. This can give them a degree of input and connection with the writers of the comedy podcast that is far removed from other styles of comedy distribution.

The writers and producers of a comedy podcast thus benefit from several advantages of the podcast form. It is cheap and easy to set up, and uses a distribution mechanism that is also easy to use. The way the podcast form is designed, as well, creates greater connection between the producer and the subscribers. The comedy writer has a greater ability to interact with the subscribers and to find out what they appreciate or do not.

Because podcasting is so simple to get involved in, requiring only a small investment to get started, many amateur comedy writers have begun starting their own shows and distributing the feed. It is likely, because of the unique connection podcasting offers between writer and listener, that we will see at least some of these amateur comedians make the leap to the professional stage.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on podcasts visit: Free Podcasts

First of all you will need a domain name. This will give your subscribers the location of where they can obtain your media files. If you can, choose a name which is easy to remember and describes the type of podcast you are publishing. Use a domain register such as eNom or GoDaddy to register your domain name.

The next thing you will need is a web host. There are many companies you can use, for example, Host Gator or StartLogic. As you will be storing a large amount of media files it is best to think about getting a big disk space when you are looking for a web host. For instance, a 2-minute mp3 file may be 2 MB in size. Quite a few web hosting companies offer several GB in disk space at an extremely low monthly cost. Apart from the disk space, you should also consider the amount of bandwidth the company is providing. This is the quantity of data that can be moved to and from your host each month. As your data files will be large, even a few subscribers can easily use up all of your bandwidth in a short space of time. Somewhere between ten and one hundred GB of bandwidth may be sufficient, but keep an eye on this and make sure you increase your bandwidth as your subscribers swell in number.

Upon selection of your web hosting company you will be provided with name servers which you will apply to your domain name later on. To finish setting up your site, you will need to input the name servers into the site where your domain name is registered and then your site will be visible on the Internet.

When your site is set up you should search the Internet and download dircaster.php. Arrange this program to show the particulars of your domain and then upload to your site accordingly.

The next step is to record the media file, which is known as an episode, that you are going to podcast. Audacity, from audacity.sourceforge-dot-net is handy software to use and it is a free and open source to record and edit sounds. You can then record your episode from a CD, the computer’s sound card, a microphone or even a VOIP conversation and then edit the file by mixing tracks and cutting or adding segments. You also need to be adding tags and descriptions on your episode too.

Upload this media file in the same directory as the dircaster.php. The dircaster will then generate a RSS feed informing your subscribers all about the new file that is available for them to download.

Setting up a podcast is not difficult and the good news is that it does not cost much either. The required software is free and downloadable from the Internet. If you feel you have something to share with others of like minds, then podcasting is a super way to supply your information to the Internet.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

It is actually ironical that even today most of the people working on computers use only a fraction of the applications that are available. For example, an average businessman or executive would probably be using Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint and may use the Internet for some information searches.

Another interesting aspect of the whole situation is that teenagers catch on to newer technology and can make use of it much faster than the older generation. Take webcasting fro example! I had not heard the term before I saw a program about Internet crime. To my utter disgust, I found that a teenage girl was using the concept of live webcasting to show the various girls doing the rounds. And this was being done among here own friends without their knowledge and all to earn some cash.

Sad though it might be technology has its bad and good side. The good side is that live webcasting can actually save corporates a lot of cost because now they can conduct meetings across the world using live webcasting. Documents can be shared and shown on screen and the people can converse as if they were all sitting round a table. If you actually dim the lights in the room you may actually fee that you are sitting in a meeting room.

The other benefit of live webcasting is that it can be used to chat up with friends and family across the world. It does not have to be as mundane as typing away furiously on the instant messenger and neither does it have to be only a voice chat. You can sit in front of the computer and chat with your friends and family as if they were actually there. The only thing you may not be able to do is to give them a hug. But I will not be surprised if some new technology can handle this aspect also.

If you want to know more about live webcasting and how you can use your webcam you should log onto the Internet and conduct some information search. You are sure to find a plethora of information and all that you are looking for.

To find more tips about the internet andpodcasting visit http://camera-comparison-site.com

When the iPod came out, and users discovered what a wonderful thing it was for holding music, some people had the idea of loading things that weren’t necessarily songs. Some of the people that got their hands on the iPod took the route of reverse engineering the iPod and loading on different firmware, or operating system, but others had the idea of sharing small sound files that could be played on the iPod.

The technology for distributing the files already existed, with RSS feeds. RSS feeds were a means of generating machine readable files that could share information between a server and a user. Many blogs already used them to keep readers up to date with the latest posts, but some hopeful podcasters had the idea of enclosing links to sound files within the RSS feed and downloading the file to the computer.

With the change in RSS feeds, ipod podcast took off, and podcasting became a popular way to share files. Users saw podcasting as a way to become radio hosts, or dj’s, and a variety of podcasts began popping up. Software was written to automatically check the RSS feeds, extract the links to the podcast episodes, and download the files. These programs became known as podcast clients.

By this time, podcasting had moved beyond the ipod, and they were not simply making an ipod podcast anymore. Some people had figured out how to use even the PlayStation Portable gaming console as a podcast player.

It was more difficult than downloading podcasts to the ipod, since the PSP used a different format for it’s files, but PSP podcasts began popping up. In addition, podcasting made inroads into the wider audience of people without iPods, who simply saw podcasting as an extremely convenient way to receive news, music, and entertainment over the internet.

Today, while the iPod podcast type still exists, fewer people subscribe to podcasts as a way of gaining portable media files they can listen to anywhere. Although that is still an attractive part of podcasting, it seems to be eclipsed by the ease with which podcasting has become a content delivery system. Now, podcasting has become tied up with the rising number of audio and video blogs, where blogging is done not by post, but through media files uploaded to the blog.

These blogs, and podcasting in general, take advantage of the shrinking cost of broadband internet connections, and the rising number of people with high speed access to offer a picture of the internet rich with multimedia files.

Steve is the CEO & Editor in Chief of Article Land. He is offering a free ebook on his site entitled Article Marketing Avalanche, a great read, a great book, go get it now.