People create podcasts because they want to be heard. Businesses, in particular, podcast as part of their marketing, PR, or investor relations programs. Yet a surprising number of best acim podcast website are hard to find, hard to listen to, or hard to identify once you’ve put them on your MP3 player. Here at the Podcast Asylum, we call the two most common barriers podcasters erect between themselves and listeners Podcastus Inhopsitus (the unfriendly podcast) and Podcastus Incognitus (the unidentified podcast). Let’s take them one at a time. This is the podcast that’s difficult to find, difficult to listen to, difficult to subscribe to, and difficult to comment on-or any combination of the above. Common causes of this condition include:
I recently discovered a podcast-a very good one, too-which suffered from almost all these problems. I would never have found out about it if another podcaster hadn’t mentioned it when interviewing the guilty show’s host. The podcast is only available through iTunes, is published in Apple’s proprietary AAC format, has no show blog, no click-to-play option, and no comment line. The podcaster only occasionally invites listeners to contribute opinions, without giving clear directions about how to do so.
Search engines can’t find anything in the iTunes Music Store, which is where its podcast listings reside. That means your podcast won’t turn up in response to a search on the subject that you’re talking about in that episode. If you already have a blog, you can include your podcast show notes and click-to-play link there, instead of creating a new blog, though having a separate show blog makes it easier for listeners to find the episodes they want.
Having a domain name for the show blog which is the same as your show name also makes it easier for people to find you if they hear someone else mention your show. Besides, blogs are inexpensive and easy to set up. Having a show blog also makes it easy for listeners to comment, and for you to know which episode their comments refer to. Your blog will let you know every time a comment comes in.
Sure, iTunes is the 800-lb gorilla when it comes to podcatchers and podcast directories, and if your show gets featured in iTunes, people will subscribe. But not everyone uses iTunes to download podcasts. And since you (or your webmaster) have to create a feed for iTunes to use, you might as well put a link to it on your website.
