Podcasting Directories and Other Ways
To Promote Your Podcast
By Tim 'Gonzo' Gordon
www.digitalaudioworld.com
Now that you've taken the plunge and are doing a podcast, how do you get
people to listen to it?
1. On Your Website
First things first. Make sure you have a special dedicated page on your
website listing the details on your podcast, including the RSS feed
link, links to the MP3's of your latest episode and descriptions of the
content.
Next, put some brief information on the front page of your site. Mention
the podcast, the RSS feed link and a link to the 'podcast home page' on
your site.
See how this is done on my website where you learn to
create audio in your own home recording studio along with the in's and
out's of podcasting.
2. Via Email
Send an announcement out to your email list if you have one. You might
also selectively go through your own email address book and let them
know of your podcast.
If you have a good relationship with other folks who have email lists,
ask them if they'll promote your podcast. Just provide them with the
necessary links and promotional copy.
3. Online in Podcast Directories
There are lots of podcast directories to promote your podcast. One way
to find out where they are is to do a search for 'podcast directory.'
Most of the sites make it easy to add your podcast to the listing.
They'll ask for basic information, such as title, category, links, etc.
One great side benefit of listing with as many podcast directories as
possible is that the search engines will continually spider those sites
and your site and podcast will benefit. For instance, I named my podcast
the 'Tim 'Gonzo' Gordon Show' for a few specific reasons. I wanted to be
able to do pretty much anything, content-wise, on the show as it
evolves, so having a personal name doesn't fence you in to any
particular topic (although I have general guidelines for what I want to
cover).
It also makes it easier to remember and find online. Within 24 hours of
posting my show on 6 or 7 podcast directories I did a search for my name
on Google and came up with the top five listings, plus a few others in
the top 15 or 20. Now each of those listings has a link to my site, so
that obviously helps my linking ratio (or whatever the search engines
consider important to finding my site). This probably means that my site
will eventually show up higher when people search using my keywords.
Having said all that, I checked the traffic stats on my site, and
noticed a significant bump in traffic shortly after I launched the
podcast and submitted the information to all those sites...as much as a
50 or 60% jump. Whether this increase in traffic holds we'll find out!
Podcast Directories:
(All links open into a new window.) |
