A Checklist Of Things That Make Your Podcasts Worth The Download

Article by Mark Favin

So you’ve created your very own podcasts, what you believe is a masterpiece that would revolutionize this young industry.

The problem is, no one seems to be downloading it. It’s just right there in the directory, collecting digital dust.

What’s wrong? Why are people not realizing the value of what you have prepared? Why haven’t you burned the directory’s bandwidth with the downloads which you may have expected?

Chances are, your podcast is missing one of the essential requisites to guarantee its success. What are these requisites? Why are they so important for the marketability of your podcasts? Read on, dear friend, as this is our topic for this article.

* Value. How valuable is the content of your podcasts. If you’ll just be sharing your personal opinion on certain matters, then such would be a hard sell. Everyone has their own opinion, you see, and you must convince your prospects that yours is special. Otherwise, they’ll just view your podcast as a vehicle to feed your ego, one which they wouldn’t want to ride on. If you have a sense of humor, let it shine in your podcasts. If you have an indomitable wit, let it take center stage. These would spice up your presentation. Better yet, instead of delivering an opinion, try to share something informative… something that your would-be listeners would actually want to know. This way, you won’t have to seek you out. THEY will be try their best to find YOU.

* Presentation. How is your podcast formatted? Is it just your voice recorded in mp3 format? C’mon! Even a grade school student could do that. You have to add a touch of class for your podcasts. You have to make them sound professional. Background music would be great. A strong, appropriate intro music would be better. You don’t have to buy usage licenses for these. You could download music loops for free, since you don’t really need entire tracks (otherwise, it would take focus away from your voice). Download some music loops from http://www.musicloops.com.

* Accessibility. Episodic podcasts may work for you or against you. They can actually increase your number of listeners if you’d provide helpful links on where to find past episodes. Or they can alienate new listeners who just downloaded your podcast for the very first time. Make sure that each podcast, even if it is a part of a series, remains accessible to new listeners.

* Deliverability. Where are your podcasts hosted? How much traffic is generated by that website? It would be best to upload your podcasts on highly visited directories such as http://www.ipodder.com and http://www.podcastalley.com to achieve higher visibility for your podcast links.

* Size of your podcast file. Podcasts should be limited to 10 minutes. There is no formal rule about this, but such is the time that would make sure that your mp3 file would be small enough for universal download. People with slower connections would just