In an age wherein a variety of marketing tools are available for experts, one tool is often underutilized—podcast. Podcasts are effective tools for marketing because they help brands to reach a niche targeted audience. According to research, podcasts help to hypertarget audiences and give a good return on investment. Podcasts also create value for listeners because they are often informative and educational.

According to Forbes, iTunes is a rank one website. Hence, any founder who is featured on a podcast with a description contributes to SEO ratings of the brand. Hence, podcasts can be an effective tool in boosting up page rankings. Listeners are increasing for podcast channels and 115 million people are expected to listen to podcasts per week.

1. Thou shall not do it for the money
2. Thou shall be a consumer
3. Thou shall reflect well on your brand
4. Thou shall be useful
5. Thou shall not be a salesperson
6. Thou shall get personal
7. Thou shall create a consistent format
8. Thou shall release episodes regularly
9. Thou shall be professional
10. Thou shall be sociable

The role of podcasts in the information ecosystem has gone largely unexamined. While alt-right figures have been increasingly chased off Facebook and Twitter, podcasting is shaping up as the next arena where the fight over questionable or dangerous content will play out. However, the problem of how to moderate audio content is proving thorny.

As podcasting grows in stature and revenue, its disinformation problem can’t be ignored.

Podcasting is a great way to reach and engage with your audience. Here's the lowdown on podcasting and the shows digital marketers should pay attention to.

Podcasting is the new normal in digital marketing.

Experts are calling podcasting modern-day blogging.

Doubling in attendance from the previous year, Podfest March 2020 marked the 6th edition of the annual international event produced by Chris Krimitsos.

It also skated by the pre-pandemic shutdown as one of the last live events of 2020.

As you might recall, 2020 closed out with yet another flashy podcast acquisition. Right before the New Year, Amazon announced that it was buying Wondery for its Amazon Music service, where it will presumably be made to pump out original content rendered exclusively at some point to lure new users to the platform.

Illustrating how podcasting have captured the interest of people all over the globe in recent years, research company Grand View Research suggested that the global podcasting market size valued at USD 9.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.5% from 2020 to 2027. During the pandemic, listeners worldwide are observed to be spending more time at home due to work-from-home and social distancing policies – changing the entire dynamics of the market for podcasts, which used to have a pre-pandemic target audience of people listening to broadcasts during their commute. The industry is now expected to grow with engaged listeners who are stuck indoors while working from home.

Podcasting Will Boost Your Network Like You Never Thought Possible

As you grow your audience, you’ll find that podcasting can become an incredible resource for expanding your network. I have had the opportunity to invite guests onto my own show, as well as appear as a guest speaker on several business-oriented podcasts.

These have given me the opportunity to meet and interact with several incredible entrepreneurs working in a wide range of business categories.

Having a podcast gives me a valid reason to reach out to other entrepreneurs who I admire. These are people I might not have been able to meet otherwise, and they have given me valuable insights that I have been able to apply to my own business endeavors.

TV meant to be responsive to the moment seemed distant. But podcasts, with the intimate production values, felt more immediate and relevant than ever before.

In a year otherwise defined by loss, one area of our lives has remained untouched; abundant, even. Movie theaters closed and blockbusters were delayed. Music and theater venues shuttered. But TV marched on. The number of original scripted shows dipped slightly, but international series and older shows arriving on the streaming platforms more than filled the void of shows canceled or delayed.

And yet, as the pandemic months piled up, TVs seeming imperviousness to the halt of all other cultural activities started seeming less like a virtue and more like a vice, like denial, like a dispatch from a faker world.

Podcasts exploded in 2020. People created nearly 900,000 new podcasts last year, according to Chartable, and hungry listeners couldn't get enough. Listenership in the U.S. grew 90%, and it grew even faster in other countries tracked by the podcast measurement company.

One thing that stood out in Chartables data is how dominant Spotify has become, thanks to its strategic podcasting acquisitions. And despite the ongoing consolidation in the industry, it may have built an insurmountable lead in most areas of podcasting from the creative, advertising, and listening sides of the equation.

Every year at this time, Edison Research and Triton Digital publish the results of a study called The Infinite Dial that tracks the use of digital audio and related media in the United States. It’s a study that dates back over 20 years—it got its name from the digital radio that was introduced at that time—and is well-respected for the rigor and consistency of its methodology. This year’s study shows how the pandemic has changed digital audio consumption habits. It also shows a few surprises in the streaming music sweepstakes.

The 2021 Infinite Dial results show that the use of online audio—including digital radio, AM/FM internet streams, podcasts, and music services—has plateaued at 68% of Americans ages 12 and up. But there are clear winners and losers, and they don’t merely reflect pandemic-related factors such as people staying at home.

One big winner is podcasting. Growth in podcast listenership shows no signs of tapering off, as monthly listenership continues its linear growth path to 41% penetration, up from 37% in 2020. Growth is particularly high in the 12-34 age bracket, more than half of whom now listen to podcasts regularly (while the 35-54 bracket levels off around 40%). Podcast listenership is also getting more racially diverse, with nonwhite listeners now at 43%, up from 37% last year.

Apple to switch its 'Subscribe' button to 'Follow' on Podcasts

Cuban shared his unique insights about the current and future state of  not just podcasting, but the entire media industry. We discussed both legacy media companies and independent creators.

Here are the main takeaways and my thoughts from our conversation:

1. Streaming is the future, and legacy companies need to get on  board in order to survive
2. These days, audio is just as competitive as video because the  barrier to entry is lower and there's no pressure to look nice
3. As new technology emerges, media will continue to evolve — and creators must keep up

Any summation of the past year begins and ends with COVID, even if we’re just talking about podcasts. Given everything that’s happened, how can it not?

We had just a little over two months of expected life in 2020 before counties across the United States started implementing initial lockdown measures, drastically altering the shape of everyday activity. Movement was scaled down, businesses were shuttered, and a great cloud of uncertainty descended upon the populace as this massive and utterly terrifying thing unfolded all around us.

These five questions can help you decide whether a show of your own is the way to go.

1. Where does this fit in my strategy?
2. Can I add value with a show?
3. Do I have a content marketing strategy to plan this show?
4. Do I have the resources to devote to this show?
5. Can I bring in quality guests?

Podcast coverage has a peculiar history. Whether fueled by wishful thinking or impatience, the media’s takes on the format often come in fits and starts. Many outlets have declared podcasts the next big thing over the years, and there’s been a lot of discourse surrounding podcastings perceived booms, busts, and even blips. Commonly pegged to the seemingly never-ending stream of new shows, discussions of the golden age” or peak of podcasts are regularly had. Articles compare the podcast boom to the Wild West and the American gold rush. It is all very amusing. And, when compiled, all of this breathless coverage reveals just how difficult it is to capture something with a community ethos through an industry lens. Here we celebrate podcasting’s sweet 16 with a look back at some of the more excited articles — including our own — from the early days.

Article by Guest Blog Contributor Karen Schweitzer.

Are you an instructor or trainer looking for new ways to entertain and engage your students online? The Internet is loaded with free tools, blogs, and informational sites that are designed to aid and improve your courses. Here is a list of 20 free eLearning and training resources worth checking out:

Tools

• CourseLab - CourseLab offers a free eLearning authoring tool that can be used to effectively create web-based training. Some of the features users will find with this system include layout, editing, rich-media support, rapid development, testing, and interactivity.
• MyiCourse - Instructors can use this site to create free online courses or universities for educational material. MyiCourse gives users the ability to create public or private courses on just about anything.
• Utilium - Utilium is a free beta site that provides instructors with the tools they need for organizing and sharing learning materials. This site makes it easy to inspire and engage students through videos, articles, podcasts, and other rich sources.
• Prezi - Prezi is a unique presentation tool that uses zooming technology instead of slides. With Prezi your ideas flow freely on a stage that can be zoomed in on and out of for further explanation.
• Yugma - This free online conferencing tool makes it easy to host web conferences and online meetings. With Yugma Free, users can share their desktop with up to 20 attendees.
• Open Huddle - Open Huddle is a beta site for presenting or instructing people online. This site provides you with files, video, audio, chat, and drawing boards for interacting and collaborating with your students.
• Campfire - Campfire can be used for online group chat and education. This site allows users to instantly create password-protected chat rooms for collaborating and working out important questions. Campfire comes at a cost, but users can try it free for 30 days.
• Slideshare - Slideshare provides a way to upload and share presentations. Once the presentations are uploaded, they can be shared privately or publicly and work well for webinars.
• SourceForge - This site provides a free authoring application that can be used to assist instructors in creating free eLearning seminars. SourceForge employs the eXeLearning tool which provides the ability to publish web content without knowing HTML or XML markup.
• ClassMarker - ClassMarker features a free way for instructors or presenters to test students online. Simply sign up for a free account for access to an array a quiz creating materials. The quizzes can even be linked directly to websites or emails.

Blogs

• eLearningLearning - eLearningLearning is an online community blog dedicated to organizing and collecting material about eLearning. Within this blog, users can find information about eLearning technology and media, events, and ideas.
• eLearning Technology - eLearning Technology is a blog that provides information and resources on the latest in the business of learning. Just a few of the concepts discussed in this blog include trends, software, rapid eLearning tools, and open source eLearning.
• eLearningSpace - The eLearningSpace blog offers information, knowledge, and networks that are specifically designed for eLearning instructors.
• Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development - This blog provides information that explores technology for eLearning. Within this blog, instructors can find resources, ideas, technology, and more.
• Thoughts from Training Time - This blog deals with the issues and ideas that can be found in corporate and government training.

Informational Sites

• eLearningPost - The eLearningPost site provides blogs and articles that instructors and trainers can use for information. Within this site, users can explore views, news, and stories that surround eLearning, corporate training, instructional design, and much more.
• eLearning Magazine - eLearning Magazine offers a free place for instructors and trainers to find a wealth of information through articles, reviews, case studies, and more. This public information center is also an excellent place to find forums and exchange ideas with others.
• Web-Based Training Information Center - This free info center provides information and resources on web-based training trends, surveys, and more.
• Learning Circuits - Learning Circuits is a free informational site from the ASTD. The goal of this site is to provide a large database of eLearning and training knowledge as well as efficient training technology.
• BusinessBalls.com - BusinessBalls.com provides free materials, exercises, tools, ideas, and templates that instructors and other eLearning professionals may find helpful.

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:

This post is from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is with the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes for OnlineCollege.org, an accredited online college resource.

When someone studies to become a teacher, they learn a number of different teaching strategies that help them effectively impart knowledge to students. Corporate trainers with advanced degrees in adult education are also often exposed to similar strategies as a part of their academic preparation. In contrast, many internal employees who take on training duties at their companies aren't familiar with effective teaching strategies. Many of them are selected to train new and current employees because they are good at their jobs and not necessarily because they're skilled educators. Unfortunately, this can mean that their training efforts don't quite achieve the desired results.

The online versus traditional classroom debate has been going on for some time now. You can't get through one blog on eLearning or modern education without finding a discussion of the pros and cons of the digital classroom and online degree programs. The debate has been going for some time now and has seen many different facets and opinions. While online schools were shunned from the start, today they have grown and flourished into highly regarded institutions for higher learning. Today, rather than simply disregarding online learning as a lesser option to brick-and-mortar schools, people are beginning to see the two entities as options for different learning styles and lifestyles. There are many people who can benefit and really grow from their experience in the online classroom. Online learning facilitates many of the same skills traditional learning does, but has a few added elements. As our society becomes more and more married to the online and digital world, a comfort and ease in these areas becomes very important in the professional world.  The following three skills, essential in the corporate world today, are established and perfected in the online classroom.

Andrew Goodman's 21 Ways to Maximize ROI on Google AdWords, first released in March 2002, is still the definitive how-to on optimizing your pay-per-click campaign.

iPod Halo effect Brightnens Mac sales according to an article in the Australian IT News

What if you could use your Mac Powerbook to check your email and get on the internet wirelessly. Yea sure, you can drive around looking for wireless hotspots, or pay to use the wireless service at Starbucks. But what if it did not matter where you were.

Use Your Mac Powerbook to Connect to the Internet using your Motorola Razr V3xx Bluetooth Phone and a 3G High Speed Internet Connection .
(Browse the Internet and check your email)

Leo Laporte is a Radio and TV Personality.
He hosted Tech TV for many years and now is host and producer of the TWiT Netcasts at http://twit.tv

It is very cool to use your iPhone from anywhere and post to your blog. All you need to do is record your audio, take a photo or movie, turn on the map location switch and send your email to your blog.

Record and email voice memos using your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Use it to email reminders to yourself or email messages to anyone.

Say it & Mail it is the quickest and easiest way to email a voice memo from your iPhone or iPod Touch to yourself or to others.

This new version lets you 'Shake it & Mail it'. You can optionally shake your iPhone or iPod touch to start and stop recording. Then just one tap to email a voice memo.

I was motivated by a news report showing an ABC correspondent having trouble getting through by phone to report a flock of oil-soaked pelicans. The news report made me realize that the iPhone is a great tool for reporting the location of birds needing help. It's built-in GPS capabilities make it a natural for reporting the location of birds needing help.

When PCL commands are included in the print job sent from the host to MacWise, the host can control printer features such as bold text, lines per inch, margins and much more. When this option is enabled in Printer Setup under the FIle Menu, the standard Mac Print dialog box is bypassed and the print job is sent directly to the Mac default printer...

How to have the fish pond you've always dreamed of and make sure your fish are livin' the good life - GUARANTEED!

Computer Help and fast Technical support from trained technicians computer tech support fast computer technical support computer help with errors computer technical solutions

Recommendation Letter Toolkit That Is The One-And-Only Master Information Source For Writing All Types Of Letters Of Recommendation. If You Need To Write Any Kind of Recommendation Letter, or Letter Of Reference, Whether It's For Business, Work, College Admission, or Home, This Kit Is Your One-Stop Information Source.

Infidelity! Cheating husbands? Cheating spouse? Extramarital Affairs - adultery and divorce. Signs of a cheating spouse. Surviving marital infidelity, extramarital affairs. Adultery sign.

101 Marriage Proposal Stories

Puppy potty training in 7 days! Learn how to potty train your puppy in as little as 7 days.

Detailed step by step guide to fast and effective dog house training.

Using my 15 years of experience as a health and nutrition coach and hours of research, I discovered the secrets to exercising and eating for pregnancy.

A NYS Licensed Real Estate Broker shows you How to Buy Foreclosures!

New Zealand immigration, investment and relocation information for living in, working in, or moving to new zealand.

**Attention: You are paying too much for your groceries! Using these techniques will get you the exact same name brand products you always buy, but for half price (some even 100% free) without clipping coupons.

Podcasting is quickly becoming a buzz word among the techie crowd. So what is podcasting, anyway? Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. Many people liken podcasting to radio on demand. However, in reality, podcasting gives far more options in terms of content and programming than radio does. In addition, with Podcasting, listeners can determine the time and the place, meaning they decide what programming they want to receive and when they want to listen to it.
Complete Article - What is Podcasting

Although podcasting is new, it is well on its way to becoming a mainstream communication medium. Podcasting, simply put, is audio files that are delivered via RSS. Many people believe that podcasting is solely for the distribution of music files, but really, nothing could be further from the truth. This emerging method of audio file distribution has opened an array of marketing and communication opportunities to businesses. Currently, most who are familiar with podcasting are technically savvy, but it is clear that podcasting will be more than a passing fad as many businesses are adopting podcasting and employing it in unusual yet powerful ways. Podcasting can be used for talk shows, tutorials, music demos, educational training, stories, comedy clips, debates or even foreign language tutorials.


While RSS has had the capacity to include audio files for a few years, only recently have entrepreneurs made the conceptual leap, taking advantage of the new power held within this communication medium. In reality, podcasters cover the gamut; some are professional broadcasters, while others are obvious amateurs.

It has been said that in October of 2004 a Google search returned less than 6,000 results for the term "podcasting". Today, a similar search yields more than 857,000 results. Like the blogging phenomenon, podcasting has come out of nowhere and attracted an enthusiastic following.

Complete Article

Podcasting is increasing in popularity and, realizing that many are interested in providing audio content in a podcast, we have assembled a collection of tools that make creation, promotion and listening to podcasts a little easier.


1.) Podcasting Tools - RSS feeds automatically bring updated information straight to your desktop. You can monitor or promote news, job listings, personals, and classifieds using RSS. The following tools assist webmasters in using RSS to maximize their time:

Tools for Listening to Podcasts
Listen to Podcasts -Listen to Podcasts - Many RSS readers now include podcast support. The reader allows the user to view the contents of the cast before making a decision about listening. Podcasts that are deemed important can be flagged or set to auto-download. The following are some tools for listening to podcasts:

Complete Article Tools for Podcasting

We are taught to recycle paper, cans, bottles and plastic but rarely to marketers discuss the value of repackaging and repurposing content. Publishers and marketers alike have embraced content syndication and RSS but few have considered the value beyond the actual syndication. Consider an alternative communication channel that reaches a new or different audience.
Repurposing and repackaging content or information so that it can be consumed through a variety of mediums is not a new concept.
Complete Article - Text to Podcast