Attract More Visitors

11 Quick Questions for Podcasts

This is Part III of a series of posts on evaluating/improving websites, blogs, and now podcasts.

First, you should know that I'm a great fan of podcasts and listen to as many as I can, as often as I can. I've learned so much from you that I'm really in your debt. Now I'd like to "give back" in the form of some constructive feedback to help improve your podcast.

One thing to keep in mind when reading this post: If "audio is 70 percent of video" then audio is 100 percent of an audio podcast.  And of course I'm not referring to the content of the podcast which is a completely different subject.

So when I pose the questions below, just know that I want your podcast to be the best that it can be so you can attract more listeners and be more successful.

Since Podcasters often have blogs for their show notes, you should take a look at the 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website -- Part II and then consider these questions:

1. Is the ultimate* volume of your podcast recordings high enough?
   * Where "ultimate" is podcast player software (e.g., iTunes or Windows Media Player) set to maximum volume and the device (iPhone, mobile phone, MP3 player, PDA) set to maximum volume.
2. Ask yourself: "Who are my Customers and Why do they Buy?" as my co-instructor at UCLA Extension, Beverly Macy, is fond of saying. Applied to podcasting: Think of it this way, where might your typical listeners (consumers) listen to (consume) your podcast)?
3. Is it somewhere like the gym, where there's lots of noise pollution from TV's, loud mobile-talkers, loud talkers, clanging weights, and whooshing flywheels? Or is it on a walk, where there's the sound of cars/traffic, street sweepers, garbage trucks, etc.?
4. What device/software will they listen with? (some devices/softwares have maximum volumes that aren't loud enough to compensate for the factors mentioned above).
5. Is your lead-in bumper music or big-voice announcer promo much louder than your voice so the listener needs to turn the volume up to hear you? Or is it smoothly equalized? After all, you'd hate to be compared to traditional media advertisements with loud ads and soft programming, right?). Similarly, does the podsafe music at the end of your podcast have a big bump in volume?
6. Are your guest interview calls and/or call-in questions (on or off-line) equalized so that one is barely audible and the other is much louder?
7. Do you have show notes with links so listeners who can't write while listening (e.g., driving) can still access your valuable content?
8. Do you have transcripts of your podcasts?
   
   Tip: One no-cost way to do this is to use another microphone (e.g., a headset mic) and route it to another computer with built-in (free) voice/speech recognition (e.g., Windows XP or Vista) software so your words will be automatically typed into Microsoft Word (or OneNote) as you speak. Of course, currently this only works well if there's one person speaking. See these resources for more on this:
   Audio transcriptions and annotations with OneNote
   How to transcribe any audio on your PC
   - And you can just use MS-WORD instead of OneNote.
   - Assuming you'd like a free solution, rather than buying Dragon Naturally Speaking, of course.
9. If you do a video podcast do you offer an MP3 version as well for those who are just listening to your podcasts versus watching them? This is the value-added podcast equivalent of giving a CD (with MP3 files) in addition to a DVD, if you sell DVDs).
10. If your listeners subscribe to your RSS feed and download/synchronize your Audio podcasts to their devices, do you try to avoid inserting a long (large file size) Videocast which might blow-out their storage/memory when they auto-sync their feeds to their devices (Yikes!)?
11. Do you have some sort of consistent naming convention for your file names so your podcast will make sense when viewed in music player or File Explorer? E.g., an acronym/abbreviation for the name of your podcast, podcast number, the date, and a brief title.
    The reason for having the podcast number and a title is that depending on how someone's viewing the filename (music player or File Explorer) they should be able to easily differentiate which they've listened to versus which are new (since they may not remember which # they listened to last/before).

And I know it's easier said than done for some of these things like equalization. But just try to think of these points from your customer's perspective and what will draw more people to your podcast so you can grow the number of your listeners and retain more of them.

For some ideas/programs to help with equalization see Segment #3 of  the show notes (or listen to) the eMarketing Talk Show --> "Podcasting 101: Understanding the Basics & Getting Started".

~~~

Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating podcasts? If so, please leave a comment...

~~~

Prior post (Part II): 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website -- Part II.

In Part I we started looking at ways of evaluating and changing your website (or blog) to improve it. Today I'm giving you 10 Quick Questions to help with this process:

10 Quick Questions for Evaluating/Improving your Website

1. Does your website look nice and inviting? (Does it make your visitors "feel" nice, like the landscape on the right?)




2. Is it a site that you'd feel like staying at if you just happened to land on it? (Where you feel like you could lie down in the meadow, enjoy the blue sky, and watch the  clouds - in other words: hang out for awhile, check out the info/resources, and engage at the site.)




3. Can visitors find your "Buy" button? (so they can take the desired action easily, e.g., Buy, Join, Subscribe, Register, etc.).




4. Can prospective buyers (visitors) find what they need easily (information, prices, reviews/testimonials, etc.)?




5. Is it easy and intuitive to navigate around your site? (Or is it a virtual maze or an impossibly dense mishmash of text or links pretending to be organized)?




6. Is it easy to use/access your site? (Are there so many fonts and colors that the content is difficult to see, especially for visually impaired individuals)?




7. Does your site rank highly in search engine results (particularly Google's)?




8. Is your site's search engine result (Title and Description) enticing enough that you'd click on it (versus all of the others)?




9. If you click on your site's search engine result, are you taken to the site you'd expect from the Title and Description?




10. Now loop back to #1 (above) and quickly run through this list again with "fresh" eyes (based on how your site might be found by potential visitors searching the internet).

Bottom Line

IMPORTANT: Please note that "potential visitors" aren't visitors until they visit and "potential buyers" aren't buyers until they buy.

Your task is to re-design your site to create the environment that entices searchers to visit and visitors to buy. This may involve using some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as well as some E-Marketing techniques and strategy (list building, E-Newsletters, Social Media/Networking, etc.) to promote your site and attract people to it.

If you'd like more ways to evaluate and improve your website (or blog) you might enjoy our free 77 Great Tips of Internet Marketing (at top-right of web page) for a more complete checklist.

~~~

Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating websites? If so, please leave a comment...

~~~

Next post (Part III): 11 Quick Questions for Podcasts
Prior post (Part I): How's Your Website Doing? -- Part I - Opportunities for Change Looking Forward

With a New Year and a sense of there being a new outlook in the world, it's a good time to think how your website/blog/podcast is doing. While the Presidential Inaugural parade was today in Washington DC, we can also look at the recent Rose Parade on New Year's day in Pasadena for some guidance on website design and strategy.

Design, Planning, Functionality, and Theme

Looking at the before and after pictures of NAMM's* "Musical Extravaganza" float which was designed to coincide with the Rose Parade's "Hats Off to Entertainment" theme you can see that a lot of work and planning goes into creating a pleasing yet functional float. And it must have been pleasing because it won the President's Trophy.
* National Association of Music Merchants

Big Bird float - BEFORE

Big Bird float - AFTER

Before and After

This wasn't just random - the float was entirely conceptualized and planned out before it was built (structurally) and the flowers were glued on. You can see the scaffolding used to build the structure in the Before photo (on the left) and the final flower-decorated float in the After photo (on the right).

Blind Evolution versus a single Objective

But many websites have grown-up (evolved?) from initial ideas/concepts into something which might be quite different from what they originally began as.  These websites (yours?) weren't tightly themed, planned, and constructed with a sole purpose for a particular effect or goal (e.g., winning the President's Trophy).

"Now" is the Time to Step-Back and Evaluate your Site

No matter how your website got to where it is, now is a great time to step-back and evaluate it (or re-evaluate it). One way not to do this is to let your body go all limp, squint your eyes, and stare at your website for x minutes (like a "magic picture").

Ways to Evaluate (and Improve) your Site

Ok, so if that isn't the way to evaluate your site, then what is? One way would be to find a handful of brutally-honest friends and ask them what they think. A variation on this would be to find a handful of strangers and ask them what they think. The difference being that you'd have to reward the strangers in some way (free ____, pay them, etc.). Or you could simply evaluate it yourself by answering some questions or using a checklist.

See my next post for "10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website", or see free 77 Tip Checklist (77 Great Tips of Internet Marketing) (at top-right of web page) for a more complete checklist.

~~~

Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating websites? If so, please leave a comment...

~~~

Next Post: Part II: 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website
Next Next Post: Part III: Quick Questions for Podcasts