Interview About Podcasting

I had a journalist from a local Australian paper contact me with some questions about my podcast and podcasting in general. I’ve just attended to the questions and thought some of you my be interested in my responses especially if you are considering starting up your own podcast.

1. What inspired your first idea to start podcasting?

There were multiple motivations for me to start podcasting. One, the more vain reason, was to become some form of radio star. I’d been told in the past I had a good voice for radio so I thought a podcast would be a great way to test this theory.

I’m a big fan of blogging and web technology, and podcasting is a natural companion to blogging. My goal with my blog is to make it the best resource for Internet entrepreneurs. Building a resource that offers content that can be read (articles) and listened to (podcast audio) allows me to reach a wider audience.

Podcasting is also a great way to meet new people and with the power of VOIP software programs such as Skype I’ve been able to conduct podcast interviews with people from around the world. It’s really amazing what I can achieve with just my home computer, Internet access and a few fantastic software applications.

2. Did you have any previous experience in any kind of broadcasting?

No, none at all. It probably shows too in the early podcasts I did but you can really see the progression as I’ve become better at recording audio, mixing up sound files and producing my own podcasts. As I said I do it all at home with my computer and considering most of the software I use is free or nearly free it’s pretty darn amazing the quality that can be produced by someone like me, with no background in music or radio. I now have intro music, I can insert sound effects and overlay one track on top of another. The options are limitless and no formal training is required (though a desire to learn is definitely a prerequisite!).

3. What have you learnt about building an audience for your podcast? How do you get noticed? Do you worry about competing for an audience with all the other podcasts?

My progression was blog first, then podcast, so I already had some form of established audience when I first launched my podcast. Of course as with most things online there are a million different activities you can do, clubs you can join, places you can leave a link, which all help to get your podcast noticed. However I subscribe to the 80/20 lifestyle so look for the small handful of promotion techniques that get the best results rather than waste time submitting to every little podcast directory in existence.

Ideally though I believe in the power of word of mouth so I spend most of my time trying to create the best content that I can knowing that if someone is really impressed they will tell their friends. That’s the best way to grow anything online.

As a general rule though – get your podcast into Apple’s iTunes directory as soon as possible. It’s definitely the single most effective way to get a lot of global exposure for a podcast.

4. How has your program changed since the first episode?

Mainly it’s become more polished. As I mentioned I’m now capable of chopping and playing with music files so I recently added a theme track that I purchased for a couple of dollars. I’ve also learnt the best compression settings to use to maintain quality and keep file size down.

I’m trying to focus more on interviews at the moment, mainly because they are a lot easier then doing a solo episode. Talking to yourself for 30 minutes is quite hard. Asking questions and interacting with another person is easier and usually ends up being more interesting as well.

5. What are your experiences in explaining the concept of podcasting to friends and associates?

Not as difficult as you would think. When it comes down to it there are two types of people – the people that know the web quite well so when I say words like ‘blog’ and ‘podcast’ they aren’t completely lost, and the others that know how to check email and surf the web but that’s about it.

For the first group I tell them I’m running a podcast and direct them to my blog to download some MP3s. They might require an explanation of RSS so they fully grasp the whole podcast process but generally they are okay with it. The second group I simply call podcasting ‘online radio’ which is nice clean label that they can comprehend. I explain that I interview people and do a talk show that can be downloaded and listened to on an MP3 player or computer. Concepts like RSS can often be too confusing to explain to this group without manually showing them how it works. Of course as podcasting and RSS matures more and more people will become familiar with the technology.

6. What difference has having the iTunes Music Store launch in Australia had on your podcast subscriptions?

As far as I can tell not much. I had my podcast into iTunes global almost as soon as Apple started to support podcasts. I experienced a reasonable increase in subscribers from that point, maybe doubling my audience. Some of my friends experienced some amazing results from iTunes inclusion (the global version that is, not the Aussie version) – as much as 10 times as many new subscribers in a few days really maxing out their bandwidth.

The Australian launch of the iTunes music store is definitely a good thing, however Australian podcasters are well aware that the potential global audience for their show is where the real growth potential is. Unless you are strictly focusing on the local Australian market you should be promoting your podcast to a worldwide audience.