This is the introductory episode to our podcast series. We recognise that many people like to listen to audio on the move as it gives them so many more options to learn and consume content which may be helpful to them or help them learn.
In this introductory episode we explain what you will learn from our series of podcasts..
Our podcast series will provide many helpful tips to help you grow your business online and each episode can be accessed by
- direct download
- subscribing to iTunes
- subscribing to our site feed(non iTunes)
Hit the player below to listen now
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Click here to download mp3
Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
Click here for the show archive
iTunes will be live shortly as we are awaiting approval from iTunes as explained in our post on how to make a podcast with WordPress.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Filed under Podcasts 
Creating a podcast with WordPress is pretty straightforward and this post will explain
- why you should consider creating a podcast with WordPress and
- submitting it to Apple’s iTunes store
- and what you will need to do this for free.
Why create a podcast?
At Web design Dublin we are committed believers in the benefits of content marketing but content can take many forms or representations.
While the written word and text is what powers the search engines (for now at least) and should be a foundational stone of your website in demonstrating your authority and building trust with your visitors and converting them into fans of your business, it is pretty clear that video and audio are preferred by a substantial number of people.
While video is great and incredibly popular it is not recommended that you try to watch videos while driving to work or exercising-however podcasts can be enjoyed by drivers, commuters, walkers and in many situations where your potential market cannot read text or watch videos.
With audio podcasts people can download your content in the form of a podcast from the Apple iTunes store or directly from your website and listen to what you have to say on their phone or ipod.
This form of content marketing is an alternative form of representation of your useful, helpful information to help visitors to solve their problems and ultimately attract lifelong clients or customers for your business.
Why submit to iTunes
Submit your podcast to iTunes because that’s where people hang out in huge numbers and because you can get a nice backlink from a top site on the internet.
What you need to create a podcast
To create your podcast you will need these freebies:
- the free software download from Audacity.org
- a free WordPress plugin called “Audio Player” and
- a Feedburner account. Feedburner is owned by Google so if you have a Google account, for example Gmail, opening a Feedburner account is simplicity itself.
This is all you need to create your own podcast with WordPress and once you have done so you can also get some great search engine optimisation benefits by submitting your podcast to various podcast directories.
Getting good quality backlinks from a diverse range of sources with different c class ip addresses from around the globe will provide a lot of impetus to your off page seo so there are pretty compelling reasons for making a podcast.
Elsewhere on Web Design Dublin you can discover how to create a podcast with a Blogger blog.
However creating one with WordPress is probably easier so in our next post or two we will show you in step by step fashion how to create your first podcast with WordPress.
This will allow you to reach a new audience, extend the reach of your message and take your content marketing to a new level.
Filed under How to Create a Podcast
Creating a podcast or videocast is a great way to let your visitors or subscribers to listen to or watch all of your videos or voice recordings in one place.
Obviously you will need to create your audio or video files first before creating a podcast. A podcast is simply an RSS feed with all of your sound or video files attached to each post as an attachment.
You will need to store your files somewhere online first (I recommend Amazon S3) but once you have done that you need to take only a few steps.
Firstly you need to set up a free site with Blogger.com which is owned by Google. Once you set up your free blog you will be publishing each audio or video file as a separate post and the title of your post will be attached to the audio or video file.
One important setting that you will need to change when setting up your Blogger site can be found in the Settings tab. You will need to find the formatting tab and scroll down to change the “Show Link Fields” button from “no” to “yes”.
This change of setting can only be done in the older Blogger interface so make sure to switch to it in your Blogger blog if you wish to create a podcast.
Each post will have some show notes indicating what that episode is about and the title of the episode will be linked to the mp3 or 4 file for that particular episode. You must also add the mp3 file in the “Add enclosure link” underneath the post title.
Once you have made a few posts all linking to different episodes of your podcast head over to Feedburner.com and burn a new feed with the Atom feed from your Blogger blog as the source feed.
When you are burning your new feed at Feedburner make sure to tick the box “I am a podcaster” option.
Once you have burned your new Feedburner feed you can then go to the Optimize feed tab, choose Smartcast, fill out your details and this will allow you to submit your feed to iTunes in the correct, acceptable format for iTunes.
You can then submit your podcast to various podcast directories on the web, distribute your podcast to Twitter and other social media sites to generate new visitors and hopefully subscribers.
The submission of your podcast or videocast to various podcast directories around the internet will give you new visitors and back links from a variety of sources, sources which your competition is unlikely to be using which will boost your website’s ranking in the eyes of the search engines.
How to Create a Podcast-Video 1
How to Make a Podcast-Video 2
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Filed under How to Make Videos, Video Marketing
Rss feeds should be an important part of your website promotion.
RSS stands for “really simple syndication” or “rich site summary” and is a way of syndicating or distributing the content from your site to generate extra traffic and backlinks.
Every WordPress site has a number of RSS feeds and the feed is generally indicated by the orange symbol you see all over the internet.
WordPress sites have rss feeds built in by default and while most people may be aware of the orange symbol as a webmaster it is useful to know that each category on your site also has a feed.
The potential to distribute your feeds all over the internet is a good one to increase your traffic and backlinks and you do this by submitting your feed to various RSS feed directories.
Top RSS feed directories
The top rss feed directories include
- Feedagg.com
- Feedage.com
- Feedcat.com
- Plazoo.com
- url fan.com
- readablog.com
- feeds4all.com
- millionrss.com
- blogdigger.com
- feedsee.com
- feedgy.com
- solarwarp.com
- icerocket.com
- feedcat.com
For the visitor to your site it is an easy way to subscribe to your site with the feed being sent to their email or Google Reader account to allow interested visitors to see the new content you publish.
Generally the feed will only contain the titles of your latest posts and a short description or summary of the topic of the post.
Feedburner
Feedburner.com is another rss feed related site which Google paid big huge money for; you can take your existing site feed and create (“burn”) a new feed at Feedburner and you can then distribute this feed for even more backlinks and traffic.
Podcasts
Podcasts, be they audio or video, are also a form of rss feed with each post having a sound or video file attached. Creating a podcast is another good way to repurpose your site’s content and you can then submit your podcast to various podcast directories all across the internet for even more quality backlinks.
iTunes
iTunes is the most famous site where you can submit your podcast for free and, who knows, you may generate new fans/subscribers through the distribution of your feeds.
Podcasts have the added advantage of course of being accessible on mobile phones and ipods so that if you create a really good series of mp3s explaiing how to carry out some task people who are time poor and on the move can consume your content as they commute to work, exercise and so on.
Not getting the full benefit of the rss feeds on your site together with the rss feeds that are genereate automaticlally on social media sites and web 2.0 sites is a big mistake. You will find that your Twitter, Facebook and other web 2.0 sites all have feeds, not just of your content but also your profiles on these sites.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Filed under Search Engine Optimisaton Ireland
