Tea Tips - The production of a weekly video podcast Part 2

08/06/2008 00:51

In the first days of podcasting you had to have a server to store your podcast on. Usually that was the same server where you had your website, and if you ever got a lot of downloads/views at one time, the server (and your website) would go down until you paid for more bandwidth. Fortunately, there are now dozens of services that will host your media for free! This means that extensive views and downloads of your podcast will no longer bring down your website, and in most cases the podcast will stay up.

Some services will insert ADs into your podcast, while others will give you the option of adding in advertisements or not. Personally I use Blip.TV, which is a video sharing website, similar to YouTube. There are a number of differences, firstly, they offer multiple versions of your video to your viewers and in much higher quality than YouTube. Secondly, they let you customize your player so you can match the color scheme to your website and general branding. Once you create an account on a video hosting service, you'll usually be given an RSS feed which is a URL that you can submit to podcast directories like iTunes, Miro, Mevio, Podcast Alley, and many others. An RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) is just a link that automatically sends the latest episode to anyone who has subscribed to your podcast.

We also set up an entire website specifically for Tea Tips through a great site publishing service called Webnode. You can also create a site with a blogging service, like Blogger.com, and put your videos up there if you want something simple. One thing we've found that viewers like, is to have the ability to interact with the show, through feedback, comments or email questions. Our viewers have emailed us dozens of questions and comments about the show, and fortunately Dr. Tea has the time to answer all of them, building a great community in the meantime.

One thing that becomes difficult in a podcast is finding ways to keep the momentum going. In our first month we had about 8000 views of the show, so to keep that up and grow our viewership we are constantly looking at developing new features for our website, such as the new Shop that we've just added. But new features aren't enough, and because you probably won't have a marketing budget at first, you need to get involved in the social communities, blogs and websites that deal with your subject matter to spread the word. It's definitely a lot of work, but it's the best way to grow an audience. Get a Facebook, Myspace, Twitter account, and even if you only have a few friends, stay involved and expand your personal network and web presence, that's your marketing budget!

- Posted by Jedrzej Jonasz

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