Attract More Visitors

Fee: Finding Value

Recently C.C. Chapman recorded a Managing the Gray podcast called "Finding Value". In this podcast C.C. predicted that paying for information/services ("fee") would begin emerging as the new internet marketing model, rather than getting everything for free.

Spoiled to expect Free

C.C. argued that we've all been spoiled into thinking and expecting that everything we see and consume on the internet is...and should be...free.

His premise is that at the end of the day we all need to put food on the table (and it takes actual money to do that).

Vs. "FREE: The Future of a Radical Price"

In his book ‘FREE: The Future of a Radical Price’ Chris Anderson (the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine) made a case that we can give away some of our expertise (information, services, etc.) for free and because of that people may eventually buy something from us, like a freemium (pro/premium paid) version of our product.
- Note: For links to "free" versions of Chris Anderson's eBook see my blog post on: "Free vs. Value - To Abridge or Unabridge - That is the Question" (scroll to bottom for links).

But what C.C.'s saying is that this is fine, but at a certain point people just need to start getting paid for what they produce and their intellectual property.

He said that everyone falls into the routine of giving friends and others free advice and consulting...which at the end of the day perhaps could (and should) be charged for.

Can't we just barter...

I'd also make the same case about bartering: That bartering's great and a "win-win" for all involved, but it doesn't pay your electric bill (unless you're fortunate enough to be trading solar energy back to your electric company).

Bottom Line

As a content creator on our IncreaseOnlineProfits.com website I'd support C.C. in his wish to have creative content be compensated.  But the reality is we'll have to wait and see if his wish becomes a trend, and if that trend becomes a reality, and if that reality becomes the norm.

And the dirty little secret is that we all give away far more than we get.  C.C. mentioned that he freely gives away his podcast info, which he charges his clients for,  because he knows that his podcast listeners are really engaged and actually put his ideas into practice.

I think many of us feel (and act) this way: We're passionate about helping those who value our thoughts, advice, and information enough to put them into action.  But as C.C. said, at the end of the day there are bills to pay and mouths to feed.

It'll be interesting to see how this evolves (or not) in the coming year. What do you think?

Caveat

Please note that I've paraphrased C.C. Chapman's comments and tried to catch the spirit of his argument in portraying it above. My apologies to C.C. in advance if this portrayal isn't perfect/literal. For C.C.'s actual words/thoughts, please check out his Managing the Gray podcast called "Finding Value".

Comments

Agree or disagree with this - just let me know...

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0

Recently I heard a Marketing Edge podcast by Albert Maruggi called "It is a Gift to be a Relevant Marketer".

An excellent podcast as always, it made me think that "relevance" is only one great aspect marketers should strive for.

If we could get our relevant messages across with elegance then our communications would be clearer, stronger and more effective.

Relevance

"Relevance" is what pertains to what we need or want.

Elegance

"Elegance" is simplicity with some style.

Simplicity

Simple messages are:

• Shorter
• Clearer
• Less complex
• Straight to the point

Stylish

Style can be added to messages by using:

• Nice photos/graphics to emphasize your point
• Some formatting (bullets, italics, bolding, fonts, colors, etc.)
• Easy to scan/skim text

The Long and Winding Road...not!

In the past my blog posts tended to be long and obtuse...on purpose (yikes!).

• My strategy was to show something and then show how it was done.
• Sadly my posts often became long and involved.
• The main points were lost in a jumble of words.

Striving for Relegance

Now I'm going to strive for "Relegance", relevant elegance in my posts.

And why do I say strive? Because I realize that this is a process.

Relegance doesn't just happen, it has to be consciously thought of and put into action.

So I challenge myself...and you...to act now and be relegant!

I'd welcome your thoughts and advice on this.

Be well and happy and prosperous!

~~~

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annia316/ / CC BY 2.0

Photo title: "Suddenly things seem crystal clear to me..."

This is the follow-up post to my last post about "17-Minute Podcast Which Could Change Your Life Forever". In this post we'll look at: How/why podcasts are amazing, possibly life-changing, mediums.

In my next post we'll explore my frustrations with Twitter not having an archive which could preserve tweets about great podcasts (or other items which might be helpful to others).

And if you think these 2 points are mutually-exclusive, according to Princeton's WordNetWeb, the first meaning of "medium" is "a means or instrumentality for storing or communicating information"...and we're talking about both storing (archiving) and communicating (podcasts & Twitter) here.

How/why podcasts are amazing possibly life-changing mediums

• Hearing illuminating life-changing information, most of which is...free!
• Listening to podcasts while exercising: Walking, cycling, working out at the gym, etc.
  • For me, this makes working out fun and interesting because I'm always learning and finding out about new things and trends in social media, internet marketing, searching the web, etc.
• Advancing in your business or career or profession or studies because you're learning new things all the time.
• Being respected by your peers because you're so knowledgeable about subjects, current events, etc.
• Becoming a subject matter expert because you're so knowledgeable about it.
• Becoming a great conversationalist because you're well-versed in a diverse variety of topics.
• Keeping your mind active by learning new things.

• Possibly preventing Alzheimers Disease, exercising your mind, keeping your mind and thinking processes agile, and improving your memory.  And if you have a hard time remembering what you hear while you're working out at the gym you can try using Evernote.

The Problem(s) with Podcasts

The information (your information if you're creating the podcast recording) is locked in an audio (mp3) file.  There's gold in podcasts and you need to find a way to release the treasure contained within so others can find and experience it.

• To unlock the file you need to either:
  • Add "show notes"(notes describing what's in the podcast which would be posted on the podcast's blog),
  • Transcribe the podcast (yourself, using a transcription service, using an automated transcription program like Windows Speech Recognition (#8) or Dragon Naturally Speaking, or an online program like EveryZing's search, now discontinued).

Why would you want to unlock your audio/video podcasts by summarizing them or converting them to text?

• Answer:
  
  1. For people who don't have time to listen to the whole podcast and just want to skim/scan what was talked about,
  2. So Google's bot (robot) can index the content and key phrases which were talked about in the podcast, and/or
  3. To improve the SEO (search engine optimization) for your podcast blog.

For more/related info on Podcasts see my blog post on: 11 Quick Questions for Evaluating Podcasts.

For examples of "show notes" see:

Marketing Over Coffee

Six Pixels of Separation

Next blog post: "The Trouble with Twitter" and why I archived the Twitter tweets in my last blog post: 17-Minute Podcast Which Could Change Your Life Forever about C.C. Chapman's Managing the Gray phenomenally helpful and inspiring podcast "You Are The Only One Standing in YOUR Way".

Microphone image above courtesy of :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deanhp/ / CC BY 2.0

Do you have just 17-short-minutes to listen to a podcast which could change your life forever? Then go to here, listen to the podcast, and immediately improve your life: You Are The Only One Standing in YOUR Way (Chasing Your Dreams).

Improve Your Life Immediately

You're probably thinking: How could my life improve immediately? 

• Answer: Sometimes the right attitude and mind-set are all you need to positively affect your life. 
  • But if you want to take more time and follow all of the solutions offered in the podcast then you can do that too... and reap even more benefits.  Just do it! (as Nike says).

The Wisdom of Life and Business Success - in just 17 minutes!

In this podcast social media guru, C.C. Chapman, succinctly gives his life wisdom and business success secrets.  As I mentioned in my comment to his podcast blog:

...summarizing much of Life’s wisdom into this...podcast which every human being should hear.

Not to mention being like the brief audiobook version of Guy Kawasaki’s bible of business/marketing success tips in: “Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition” as well.

I commented on C.C.'s Managing the Gray blog because in his podcast he lamented that people are more likely to tweet/post on social networks rather than on blogs these days. Of course that’s true, since I had just tweeted some quotes from his podcast on Twitter as well.

But since Twitter tweets aren't archived and can disappear from search results after a short period of time I'm showing a series of tweets highlighting the important potentially life-changing information in C.C. Chapman's podcast below (as well as some info I didn't tweet on).

Highlights of "You Are The Only One Standing in YOUR Way" podcast

  - Note: Twitter tweets have time & date at end:

Best short podcast for improving your life by @cc_chapman: You Are The Only One Standing in YOUR Way. http://su.pr/2YrsH9 #iopnews. 5:44 PM Sep 1st from Su.pr

Chasing your dreams & how to reach your total potential: Great podcast by @cc_chapman: http://su.pr/2YrsH9 #iopnews. 5:47 PM Sep 1st from Su.pr

No-one's holding you back...but you. (00:44 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO.

If something's in your way, it's probably you! (e.g., like "gate jumping" in the country). (02:00 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO.

How to Speak at a Conference (04:20 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 5:52 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

 How to write/publish a book...Write it! (07:39 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 5:55 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

*Make* it a great day...*not* "have a great day" (06:30 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 5:57 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

You can do anything - Barriers are gone - Rules are gone...Do it! --> Podcast by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 6:00 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

Focus on the goal & work tail off to get there - don't focus on the negatives (09:40/podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 6:04 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

Don't give up on your goals...talk to your friends. (09:50/podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO.

Chasing dreams is what Life's all about. (10:40/podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO.

Go back and review your goals. (10:50 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO

Focus on your goals, share them. Put them out there & be held accountable (10:50 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 6:06 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

When need help, don't be afraid to ask. Friends will help you. (13:15 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 6:08 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

Test your social media/networking contacts and ask them for help (13:15 of podcast) by @cc_chapman: http://bit.ly/BSAgO #iopnews. 6:09 PM Sep 1st from bit.ly

Why are the points above shown as tweets, instead of bullets?

Answer: See my next blog post on: "How Podcasts can Save (Every Person in) the World."

Bottom Line

"*Make* a great day!" - This is what CC would say...and it's what my business partner, Rick Henkin, and I try to do every day at IncreaseOnlineProfits.com. Also, if you're doing what's fun (and what you have a passion for), then it's not work!

Comments?

 Comments for Karl? - Please leave one below...

Comments for C.C. Chapman re: his podcast? - I know that CC would be very happy if you'd leave a comment on his Managing the Gray blog.

Problem: Too many Great Ideas, not enough Memory

I love working out at the gym because it's a great opportunity to listen to internet marketing podcasts and learn about the lastest marketing strategies and trends.  The only problem is that when you hear great ideas (especially ideas that you're thinking of tweeting/blogging about later) it's tough to remember them.  Since it's hard to remember several ideas (or website links) throughout your entire workout and until you get to your home/office, it would be great to be able to write them down.  But who wants to carry a clipboard or notebook around the gym?

Solution: Your Mobile Phone/iPhone and the multi-platform Evernote program.

Evernote is  an excellent web-based as well as phone-based program you can use to jot down your notes in a hurry.  All you have to do is register on Evernote's website and then download the Evernote software and install it onto your laptop/desktop (PC or Mac) and web-enabled phone. Since the Evernote site has directions, videos & tutorials & screenshots, I'm just going to show you how to use Evernote at the gym during your workout.

How to Improve Your Memory During Your Workout at the Gym

1. Download and Synchronize podcasts onto your mobile phone/iPhone.
   Note: I use Juice and Windows Media Player for this.
   You may use iTunes.
2. Listen to the podcasts while doing your workout.
3. When you hear a great idea start Evernote on your mobile phone/iPhone.
4. Jot down a note in Evernote.
5. Example: "MOC: Google Website Analyzer" (see Evernote image).
6. Rinse and repeat (do this for every great idea you hear that you want to remember).
7. Extra credit to boost your site traffic: When you get back to your home/office write a tweet or blog post based on the great idea.

• Twitter Example:
  • Google Website Optimizer tweet with thanks to Marketing Over Coffee podcast and @cspenn (Christopher Penn) for the great idea.

• Blog Post Example:
  • For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast by Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #441: April 20, 2009 re: Domino's Pizza.
  • Generated idea for Attract More Visitors blog post re: Domino's and How to Deal With Social Media Emergency Responses.
  • Clearly when you write these notes on Elliptical Trainers or the Treadmill they don't always look that great (do not do this...see the Caveat/Warning below).
  • But the point is: All they have to do is be good enough to remind you of the idea you need so you can take action on them, e.g, writing a tweet or posting a blog post.

YouTube Video: "How to Improve Your Memory During Your Workout at the Gym"

How does this help me Attract More Visitors to my Site?

You might be thinking, this is all great, but how does it help me get traffic to my website? Basically, by helping you remember all of the great ideas you heard in internet marketing and social media podcasts so you can blog and tweet about them on Twitter.  That's it, no magic or mirrors involved, just enabling you to write more blog posts and Twitter tweets which others may see or find via Google searches and then follow to your website (from your blog or your Twitter bio/profile).

Comments

Have a better way to remember great ideas during your workout? - just let me know...

And "extra credit" points for ways which improve your site traffic as well.

Caveats and Fine Print Warnings!

Please consult your Doctor before engaging in any exercise program.  Also, please be sure to *pause* during your exercise routine *before* writing notes in Evernote in your mobile phone/iPhone!  After all, you don't want to end up falling or having an accident at the gym.

And no matter what happens, please do not hold Evernote, me (Karl Kasca), Attract More Visitors blog, IncreaseOnlineProfits.com, or Social Mastermind Corp. responsible as we've already cautioned you above.

Are you Clean with that? - Part II

In Part I of "Why Internet Marketing is Like a Disney Cruise - Are you Clean with that?" I mentioned the hand sanitizers used on Disney Cruises in all of their places to eat. Since we went on our cruise a number of supermarkets have also placed moist hand wipes at their front entrances. Now every time you go to the store you have an opportunity to think about your internet marketing techniques / methods / practices and think "Are you clean with that?".

8 Tests for Clean Marketing

1. Can you sleep at night? - "Sleep like a baby"? (soundly, peacefully).
2. Or are you kept up at night worrying?
3. Would you be OK with your marketing methods if your Mother read about them in an exposé on the front page of the New York Times?
4. Do you get a little queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you think about your marketing techniques?
5. Do your Friends ask you questions like, "What happened to you, you always used to be so (insert any nice wholesome word/concept here)?
6. Could words like bill of goods, cheat, con, deceit, deception, delusion, dishonest, double-dealing, evasion, exaggeration (huge), falsehood, fraud, hype, illusion, lie, misleading, misrepresentation, overstatement (gross), pretense, scam, scheme, shell game, snake oil, snow job, subterfuge, etc. be associated with your internet marketing techniques?
7. Would you use the same marketing methods on your friends or family. (The ones you like, that is).
8. If someone used the same marketing method on you, would you feel tricked or played for a sucker. Again, the "Golden Rule".

Solutions: "Faith, Trust, And Pixie Dust"

1. Clarity and transparency - it's as simple (and clean) as that.
2. If you can explain your internet marketing methods to a child or to the hero of a child (e.g., Mickey Mouse, Tinker Bell, Sleeping Beauty, Lilo [not Stitch!]) and they're ok with them, then you're probably OK.
3. Being open and honest with your visitors and customers will give them a reason to believe in you, and your methods, and your site - a reason to have faith in you and trust you, your business, and your website/blog/podcast.
4. Building trust through the words you use and living up to them with follow-through.
5. Building trust by using trust badges/symbols, etc. where a visitor would want them to be.  E.g., Better Business Bureau, Association logos, Visa/MasterCard badges (when purchasing), etc.
6. Building trust through real Testimonials/Reviews.  People can spot bogus testimonials. Remember what your Mom said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
7. Using persuasion instead of delusion or confusion. Be conscious of when you begin using internet marketing hype instead of a persuasive argument.
8. Pixie dust: It's ok to have add a little magic - some zing. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) seems like magic, but it works. So a little "white hat" SEO (the good SEO) is fine. Especially since these techniques are no more than what Google recommends so it can serve-up more targeted search results to its customers (searchers). You're just helping Google's customers find what they're truly looking for better.

Bottom Line: Add content and value - true value - and market them as straightforwardly as possible.

Morality Screed versus "What Just Makes Sense" and the Law

You might be thinking that this is just a heavy-handed moral screed, but really it's a plea to consider how your marketing efforts are viewed by those who encounter them, your potential customers.  Then turn it around and think (deep down), "Do I want to be marketed to that way?" and that should be your answer.

But if that's not enough, "It's the Law" as outlined by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road:

"The Federal Trade Commission Act allows the FTC to act in the interest of all consumers to prevent deceptive and unfair acts or practices. In interpreting Section 5 of the Act, the Commission has determined that a representation, omission or practice is deceptive if it is likely to:

• mislead consumers and
• affect consumers' behavior or decisions about the product or service."

Also there's a special section on "Testimonials and Endorsements".
See FTC Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Hope this helps!

Take care & hope you're internet marketing is a great success,

Karl

Comments?

Got one?   Think I'm off-track...or not - just let me know below.

But if you like this for whatever reason, then "Tell A Friend" below.

A blog post by Sarah Perez about a recent Forrester report on Baby Boomersreminded me that only about 21% of the population are Creators - people who create content on the web like blogs, videos, podcasts, etc.  While Boomers are clearly improving in their use of Social Media, only 15-16% of them are creating content.

How to Reach/Attract Your People

By the way, if you haven't figured out how to reach "your people" with Social Media yet you need to play with the Technographics Profile Toolon Groundswell's site. This will allow you to choose from several demographic elements (age, country, gender) so you can see how your people like to be connected with (and how you can attract them).

Adults & Letting Go

Clearly Adults need some help with creating content. One major factor which might be holding adults back from pouring their individual wisdom, insights, etc. into the public domain (or the hyper-accelerated version of it, the Web) for all to see might be an unwillingess to Let Go.

Lessons from the Past

My Grandfather wrote a draft of a book on speed reading but never published it. My Mother felt like she had "The Great American Novel" in her, but never wrote it (unless you collectively count the wonderful letters she wrote during her lifetime).

Web Publishing = New Opportunities

Given the newer methods of Publishing on the web, most notably blogs, we can all publish our content in one form or another. Just remember that a number of blog posts can end-up being a real dead-tree book or eBook.

Make It So

So to the end of helping a number of people realize their dreams or potential I'd like to offer you a way to "make it so" (in the immortal words of fictional Star Trek character, Jean-Luc Picard).

First Release Yourself From All Constraints

First, let's start by releasing ourselves from any rules or constraints to worry about. Certainly then any one of us could just let it go and let out the words and ideas which are trapped within us. Writings generated in this way would most likely be incredibly free-form like the thoughts we have all of the time. To put a literary term to it, we'd be writing "stream of consciousness" content.

Stream of Consciousness

Stream of consciousness is great if you're great at it,like podcasters C.C. Chapman (Managing the Gray) or Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Separation), but it would probably drive us crazy if it was used excessively for writing blogs or website content. Note that you don't see that many stream of consciousness novels around these days, although there were some isolated great ones, mainly because the authors were great, e.g., James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Some Structure Necessary

That said, some structure is necessary and certainly some grammar and puctuation helps.* But don't obsess about finding the "perfect word", or sentence, or blog post, or content for your website.  Just get it down, clean it up some, polish it a bit...and you're done.  Now let it go. 
* Should that be "help" singular or "helps" plural? - I could spend the time to go look up the rule for agreement, but I won't just to make the point.

Publishing = Opportunities

It's more important to have it up on the web than sitting in your head, on a sheet of paper, or on your screen - unpublished, than out there in public being read, commented on, and indexed by Google and the other search engines.

Value vs. Rubbish & Perfectionists vs. Slackers

That said, I'm not suggesting that you should just write (or say)...worthless rubbish. Have something good, something valuable to say...and say it. So this isn't a call for "Slackers Unite!", but more of: Slackers should take it up a notch and perfectionists should take it down a notch. Ok, for real perfectionists, take it down a half-notch (or you never would, and you know who you are!).

Is it done yet? - The 87-13 Rule

My Wife, Milen, is infinitely practical about things like this. Since I was an information researcher for many years, there's always a point in every project when you have a draw a line in the sand and ask yourself, "Is it done yet?", since research in-and-of-itself could go on forever (especially with the web and new information being produced all the time). Her advice was much like the Pareto principle (the 80-20 rule), only she would ask, "Is the research at least 87% done? And if the answer was, "Yes", then she'd say, "Fine, then your client will probably be fine with the results."

Form Over Substance

The reasoning is that the questions have been answered, but there can always be some additional information which could be obtained, or documented, or the format could be polished, or a chart could be inserted, etc.  But these things are more "form over substance" versus the conclusions which were already made (and substantiated).

What's Necessary vs. Gingerbread

And more importantly, these are things which are in your head and weren't

Let Go & Make It So

In any case, I hope this gives you a rationale for Letting Go.

Now "make it so".

Comments?

Have a comment or question? Know a better way to let go so your web publishing can flow? If so, let me know.

Footnotes: I originally heard about the blog post by Sarah Perez about a recent Forrester report on Baby Boomers on the For Immediate Release (FIR) Podcast: The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #425: February 23, 2009. The part of the podcast mentioned above can be heard at EveryZing.

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.