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Podcasting tips for coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and professional organizers

Ranked #28,635 in Computers & Electronics, #535,532 overall

I'm a digital girl living in a digital world and I just couldn't resist the lure of podcasting. After close to a year of researching, I finally launched my podcast in October 2005.

Because of my podcast, I've seen my ezine list increase by 15% and I have eliminated complimentary coaching sessions. I now teach coaches and consultants how to use podcasting as a way to pull clients to them. Think of it as podcoaching - the marriage between coaching and podcasting.

I interviewed coaches in late 2005 to test their understanding of podcasting. Just under 73% of the coaches I surveyed planned to launch a podcast in 2006. The #1 podcasting issue they wanted to learn more about is how to turn listeners into clients (72%), followed by how to promote my podcast so I can gain alot of subscribers (64%) and how to produce a podcast without knowing the techie stuff (63%).

Podcasting - The Easy Peasy Way

Screw RSS feeds and say goodbye to all the techno mumbo jumbo.

Here's an easy bake way to remember how to podcast.

1. Record - Grab a recording software such as Audacity or Wavepad (Windows) or GarageBand (Mac), get a decent microphone and record some audio. Save it as an MP3 file.

2. Upload - Throw your MP3 file on a server. You can probably get away with FTP'ing your MP3 file to the same server as your website files, but don't do this for too long as your webhost company will eventually want to wring your neck for eating up precious bandwidth. Go with blipmedia.org, godaddy.com or libsyn.com to host your podcast files.

3. Publish - Sign up for a free blog at blogger.com. Create a new post on your blog and insert the URL (or link) to your MP3 file on your blog.

You're now officially a podcaster :)

NOTE - There is one step that you have to do once and never again. To make your podcast more than just audio on a website, you need to create an RSS feed. The bad news is this sounds really techie. The good news is that there's a service that does the grunt work for you.

Here's what you do - Go to feedburner.com and create a new account. Now, grab your blog's site feed URL (login to blogger.com, then go to Settings > Site Feed) and paste it into feedburner.com. You'll get a new feed that starts with http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourpodcastname. Take this URL and plug it into the directories I list above.

Remember, you do NOT do this step everytime you update your podcast. No! You do this once and never again.

Now go on and join the podcasting revolution.

Cubicle Divas Podcast

Stay tuned to my own podcast for tips and tricks

This one's mine. I provide tips to women on how to start a business on a shoestring budget. No matter if you're a gal or a guy, take a gander over to my podcast to listen to what I do.

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Podcasting & Web 2.0 Events You Must Attend

Here are events I'm speaking at, participating in or just simply attending.

5/15 - Mesh Conference: Finally, Toronto has its own Web 2.0 conference. I met one of the organizers, Mark Evans at another conference and he told me about this one. Taking place May 15 & 16, 2006.
6/21 - Corporate Podcasting Summit: Learn how to integrate the podcast into a full suite of marketing activity that reaches the consumer at every touch-point. Held in San Francisco June 21 & 22.
6/23 - Podcasters Across Borders: Another event I'm speaking at taking place in Kingston, Ontario from June 23-24, 2006. Organized by the Canadian Podcast Buffet dudes, Mark & Bob.
7/14 - Women's Podcasting Expo: The organizers of the International Podcasting Expo (IPE) now bring you the Women's Podcasting Expo (WPE), taking place online on July 14th & 15th. I took part in IPE as both as speaker and exhibitor, so it's only natural that I'll take part in the WPE in the same capacity.
9/29 - Podcast & Portable Media Expo: The only industry event that brings together influential podcasters, media, content creators and device makers to cover the complete range of business, marketing and legal issues for portable audio & video. I'll be speaking at this event.

Podcast Resources You Must Review

Podonomics Blog: Clever tips and tricks that others are using to podcast their way to success.
Podcaster Central Magazine: I'm one of the featured columnists in this magazine dubbed as a lifestyle magazine for those who are (or wanna be) podcasting addicts.
How to Use a Podcast to Gain New Coaching Clients: In this article that I wrote, you'll learn the benefits of podcoaching and how it can help you lower your enrollment costs and gain new coaching clients.
Podcasting Interview with Ed Horrell: Memphis, Tennessee radio host Ed Horrell interviewed me about podcasting after reading my article above on Podcoaching. Listen in as I give tips on how to build your own podcast without being a tech genius.
Podcast Listing Mistakes Every Podcast Producer Makes (And How to Avoid Them): I wrote this article out of frustration when I tried to find guests to interview for a resource I plan to put out. Read my tips on how to enhance your podcast listing.
2 Ingredients Your Podcast Is Missing and Why Using Them Will Increase Subscribers: I collected a bunch of feedback from a variety of podcast producers and came up with 2 ingredients your podcast must include to make it successful. See if you agree.

Podcast News You Must Know About

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Podcast Resources You Must Buy

Podcast Secrets Revealed: Jeff Mills' awesome ebook on how to create and manage a podcast. If you know nothing about podcasting, this is the only ebook that you need.
Multiple Streams of Coaching Income: This book has nothing to do with podcasting, however, I'm going to encourage the author to add another chapter on podcasting in a future update. To really understand how podcoaching can help you pull clients to you, you need to get Andrea Lee's book. In it, she shifts the paradigm by introducing multiple streams of income you can develop to make a six-figure coaching income. If you're still relying on 1-to-1 coaching to build an income, get Andrea's book first.
Podcasting Adventures: Tim 'Gonzo' Gordon's Podcasting Adventures Online is designed to give you a layman's view of starting a podcast. Gonzo is pretty cool too. He interviewed me a few weeks back and I know his resource is full of great information.

by lbarnes

lbarnes

Leesa Barnes is a digital girl living in a digital world. Her first love was a Commodore 64 where she played King's Quest I for hours and hours back i... more »

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