Once you’ve followed all the steps in my previous blog and are ready either to record the podcast, or you’re ready to launch, here are some ways to make sure you are a success. I think the first thing you need to remember is the more you build it up, the better the results of your first show will be. As with anything, for example blogs, websites, and podcasts, you don’t get readers, visitors, and listeners over night. Don’t be discouraged in the beginning by small numbers. Remember, we are giving them something we hope they will want to come back for more of. When you do that people go from just listening to subscribing, word of mouth begins, and the growing community will make you start to feel like it’s not just you and a tin can broadcasting. Please tell me you’re not using a tin can to record?
By the way, quite by accident I found a link to where iTunes offers up information on how to get your podcast into their store. I’m a little overwhelmed by the information myself, but here’s the link if you would like to go it on your own: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#submitting
Remember all of those questions I asked just one blog ago about who you are, who you want to reach, blah, blah, blah? We’re now going to pull out those answers and use them to advertise ourselves. This information is going to be added in many places so make sure it is entertaining and informative. If you don’t think you can do this without an example, in the next blog or two, I’ll be publishing all the details about the first of my podcasts I’m preparing to launch. That should give you a good idea.
If you haven’t named your podcast in all of the Q&A, do that now. Make it snappy and easy to remember. My family has an ACS Relay for Life team every year and I just want to kick them for naming it PQRWS. I understand they were trying to honor all of the family names we involve in our team, but when it comes to cheering or even checking our stats, it’s awfully hard to remember. I’m not even sure I got it right here.
With that name start a website and a blog. You don’t have to be hosting your own podcast files here, but you want to make sure you own the URL for your podcast’s name and definately you will want the blog to be easily found here. If you know nothing about websites or setting up a blog outside of something like Blogger.com, many web hosting sites have very simple templates and add-ons making it easy to set up with absolutely no knowledge. Yahoo! for example has a design for every type of industry plus is connected with WordPress so you can get it all done in one stop. Even if you don’t host your mp3 files, you want to link to them from your website. If you start a YouTube channel, you can even embed the player on your page.
After securing your domain and blog, go to each of the social networking sites and set up accounts. Do as many as you think you can keep up with, the most important being FaceBook and Twitter. These will generate the buzz and make sure you aren’t broadcasting to crickets your first episode. By the way, if you are broadcasting to no one the first day, don’t be discouraged. The beauty of podcasts are that people can go back and listen to them at any time. If you stick to topical information, they may not be interested in a past broadcast. But, if you include something every show like an interview or tutorial, those are re-visitable at any time, and they’ll just skip the parts they don’t need. When I found Talkin’ Toons with Rob Paulsen, I went back and downloaded every single episode and there were quite a few before I found that show.
When you’ve got the outlets for self promotion, pick your launch date and set it in stone. People love count-downs. Just ask Dick Clark. If you are doing your own HTML, there are already written scripts for countdown clocks that you can add right away to your website. Between announcements on your social networks and creating interesting blogs that attract followers, you should have a pretty good start.
Finally, create a press release. I will probably dedicate a blog to this in the near future but if you’re anxious to jump ahead, eHow has some tips to get you started. You can also Google “press release template.” I just love to Google. Wait, that sounds naughty.
When you have your press release written submit it to local papers. Yes, the podcast world is global, but hometowns love human interest stories. I am hoping to get back the listeners I lost when I left the radio station by having a story published in the two papers in town. Also, let’s say you moved away after high school and you’re living it up in the big city. Don’t just submit where you live. Send a press release to the papers where you come from. Finally, search the Internet (I avoided saying Google again did you catch that?) for websites and bloggers that write about the topics you cover in your podcast. Not only will you hopefully gain a listener, but you can also cash in on their audience if they write about you.
Remember to adjust the beginning of your press release to reflect each of those markets you’re sending to. Hometown opener might be, “Local takes over the Internet with Coffee Talk.” Past hometown may be, “Son of locals Bob and Irma Thistown goes global with a new podcast.” Finally, the niche writers you’re submitting too don’t want you to be the subject but rather the show so perhaps something like, “New podcast takes us behind the scenes in the exciting world of dental floss.” Look at that, I still ended up tutoring on the subject of press releases.
When the show actually launches, podcasting directories are a great way to get listeners. For doing so you will need a short and catchy synopsis. You will also need this for a myriad of other things, so keep it handy. Here is the first draft of the one for Pop Corny:
Pop Corny: Cat and Regina are trivia geeks that make up 2 sides of the same brain. Listen as these two views, married mom grounded in politics and devout singleton tilted by pop culture, share the happenings of the week as if they are the Laverne & Shirley of the 21st century.
We have our production meeting for show number 1 tomorrow, so that may change a bit but it should give you a general idea. As far as where to submit, I would suggest Googling the keywords “podcast directory submit” and submit to all that don’t charge. You need to know where your mp3′s are being hosted before submitting to directories. They ask for the URL on registration.
Finally, developing promos to submit to other podcasters is another great bit of marketing but I will flesh that out into yet another blog. For now, good luck getting started. I’m off to prepare for my first show and hopefully, thanks to this blog, have one or two listeners when it comes?
