Podcasting 101, Or How To Set Up Your Own Podcast
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios

Delivering information in the virtual world is a perennially evolving process. Whereas a decade ago, people were limited to emails and MIRC, other mediums slowly took on a more significant role in the field. Instant messengers, streaming audio and video, VoIP, and video chat have made communication more efficient and enticing. Today, podcasting is being hailed as the newest king of content delivery, and for good reasons. We will be discussing this subject in this introductory article.

Podcasting 101: What Is Podcasting?

Podcasting is an amalgam of two established words, "iPod" and "broadcasting." Ipod is the product that has saved the Apple corporation from bankruptcy. To date, there are over 17 million owners of iPod products. This portable device allows people to download and play mp3 audio files, wherever they may be, whenever they may want to listen to the same.

Ipod users have always preferred to download music, because, well, it's the most popular content for their gadgets. But this would be too restrictive for the potentials of the portable device. Hence, other kinds of content were invented to suit a variety of needs.

Enter podcasts. Nowadays, publishers can create their own audio "shows" in downloadable mp3 format. These shows are not limited to musical presentations. They can be audio tutorials, commentaries, interviews, promotional materials and the likes. The nature of these podcasts is quite infinite, limited only by the publisher's imagination.

Podcasting 101: How Do You Create Your Own Podcast?

Podcasts are basically words captured in mp3 format, so all you need is a microphone for your PC and a recording device that could preferably capture your speech in mp3 format. If not, there are loads of mp3 converters available on the Internet, and most of them can be downloaded for free.

If you want to streamline the process, use the free online tools that can be found at www.odeo.com/inbox . ODEO is a startup service that caters to the podcasting community. Once you have a microphone set up, the tools of the said website would be enough to help you create professional sounding podcasts.

Podcasting 101: Could You Earn From Your Podcasts?

Yes, you could. This can be done in any of the following ways:

* By inserting advertisements in your podcasts. Try www.fruitcast.com , which would allow you to include ads on your audio files, and which will pay you for every download of your podcast.

* By charging fees for subscription to your podcasts. Before a user can download an audio episode you have prepared, they must first pay a membership fee.

* By using your podcasts to promote your affiliate links. Affiliate marketing is an earning opportunity that is different from podcasting, and which cannot be discussed in full in this Podcasting 101 article. Nonetheless, podcasts can be used as efficient tools for your affiliate marketing campaigns.

BIG Mike is a well known author, developer and Adsense expert as well as the owner of Niche Maniacs - a unique Adsense Marketing System designed to build long-term passive income streams from Adsense, YPN, Chitika and other PPC services.