Thanks to GuyCM for leaving a reivew on iTunes! To get your iTunes reviews e-mailed directly to you go to: creativestudio.academy/mypodcastreviews

Dave Jackson is from the School of Podcasting. teaches Microsoft Office. He loves to do classroom training, but also does online training. He is the bridge to get others from where they are to where they want to be.

The first thing is “Who is your audience?” and “What do they want to know?”

• Really get to know who that person is

“Why am I getting into podcasting?”

• Are you looking to get your message out?
• Just for fun?
• You need to know the why.

It’s not “build it and they will come.” When you start, your audience is small. It will be your “why” that will get you through.

After you figure out who your audience is, go find where they are.

• Google relevant searches. For Dave’s Logical Weight Loss podcast, he searched “top fitness apps” and found several forums. That’s where he found his audience. He took some time to interact with them and answer questions.

How do you prepare for your podcast?

• Get a system in place to capture your ideas, like Evernote or your voice recorder.
• It’s a 4-to-1 rule with podcasting (1 minute podcast takes 4 minutes).
• Try not to do the typical interview with a person.
• Be realistic about how many downloads you’ll get.
• Have a takeaway for your listener – summary of what was covered.

What are some steps for each individual episode

• Dave uses Feedly.com to capture RSS feeds for different blogs.
• Use Google Alerts to e-mail you results or deliver via RSS.
• Use social media like Facebook and Twitter to keep current.
• Create a folder on your computer to collect files and ideas for upcoming episodes.

What are some tips for effectively promote?

• Make content that is WOW!
• Figure our where your audience is
• The key is to make friends with them
• Have your profile figured out – don’t leave it blank or default!
• Business cards – some with basic contact information, some with specific info about the podcast
• When you start out, you have to go out and tell people.
• Take advantage of having a small audience.
• Have some sample clips on your About page. Then have your iTunes, etc. links.

What kind of time commitment could someone expect for promotion?

• Buffer – batch tweets ahead of time.
• Always in promotion mode.
• Maybe a good hour a day, broken up throughout the day.
• Again, develop the relationships with your audience – they will eventually become your evangelists.
• It sometimes takes awhile for people to follow though.

Money expectations?

• If you are too strapped for money, don’t get into podcasting.
• There aren’t too many hobbies you can do for free. On the otherhand, you don’t have to spend $2,000.
• There are many advantanges of this:
• You’ll be seen as an expert.
• You’ll get to know your customer better.

Go in with realistic expectations. Get started and begin reaping the rewards.

What to expect at School of Podcasting (creativestudio.academy/sop):

• Everything you need in one place to start podcasting.
• Equipment and software recommendations.
• How to promote your podcast.
• Access to Dave.
• Community on Facebook

Dave also has a great show for DIY webmasters: Weekly Web Tools