We live in a wonderful age of the Internet's infancy where, if you look in the right places, many things can still be found for free. Web 2.0 is the new requirement of modern websites now adopting to use video, audio and social media to interact with customers rather than having them just read the pages as in years gone by. Visitors to a webpage now expect to take part either by listening to audio or watching videos.
Podcasting is a popular way for companies or websites to interact with customers or listeners. Often very similar to radio, customers download the sound file and by adding it to an iPod or mp3 player they can listen to it when walking, exercising or sitting around the house between TV shows!
To use Podcasting on your website you need to be able to record the sound file, possibly interacting with more than one presenter. You need to be able to take calls from customers, you need to then offer the podcast with an RSS feed so Podcasting directories like iTunes can syndicate it to subscribers and have the embed code on your webpage. If you wish to broadcast live you need to set up a live stream. Even though I know how to do all of this it sounds complicated! Unfortunately I do not have the web programming knowledge to hard code all of these things, so like many other Internet users I hunted for a short cut.
The answer to your problems is talkshoe.com. Talkshoe is a free Podcasting recording website that also allows you to broadcast live as it records. Once you finish recording the sound file shows up immediately in the list of shows or recordings in your archive and customers can either download or stream through their computer. If you need to change something or edit the show you can download the file, clip it with a program like Audacity and re-upload to replace the show. This keeps your archives tidy. There are feeds available to assist you in submitting your podcast to itunes and other directories along with that all important syndication feed and over time people who find your downloads and enjoy them will want to listen live and maybe even call in.
You have options to mute callers when they first connect to avoid some spam callers who try and spoil shows. You can also ban any caller that either swears or acts inappropriately. This keeps you in control of proceedings from the talkshoe dashboard whilst you broadcast.
In order to call Talkshoe and log into your call you must telephone in. When you sign up you get a pin number and personal pin. As soon as you key both of these into talkshoe you are instantly ready to broadcast to up to 250 people at once! Using Skype, depending on where you are in the world there is a small charge for calling Talkshoe. However, the very useful talkshoesupport.com gives you free step by step advice on setting up a program called XLite, which is free to use when calling talkshoe so you can broadcast for free. This way you do not need to worry if you sit for hours rather than minutes interacting with listeners.
When you are entering your podcast details you can create a 300 x 300 logo for your podcast which is automatically re-sized and submitted to iTunes, which looks really smart if you get it right. A simple Photoshop logo works best.
Your talkshoe dashboard tells you how many people are in your chat room for your show, how many listeners you have and downloads are logged and tracked to see who does not listen live but downloads or streams your shows later on. Your scheduled shows appear in the lists of upcoming shows so new users can notice you and tune in.
Using this type of Podcast solution is free and can make an amazing difference to your website hits. Podcasting helps you retain customers and listeners and is going to be very valuable as the Internet develops. Hopefully it is free for many years to come too.
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