Podcasting: Is This the Hottest New Trend for Driving Traffic?

Some people say Podcasting is the Hottest Online Word of The Day.  If you are all about building a steady flow of traffic, and adding prospects to your funnel – you must take a look at this excellent marketing tool.

If you are a frequent Internet surfer, then Podcasting should not be new word for you because it is the hottest thing goin.  Though the word Podcasting resembles the word broadcasting in pronunciation but its meaning is very much different from the concept of broadcasting.  Putting it simply, Podcast is a method of automatically downloading audio files from Internet to your IPod, computer or any other portable media device like MP3 player. The audio file is published using the RSS feeds. The enclosure field of RSS feed includes the details of audio file making it totally different from the ordinary RSS feed. You can imagine it as a talking feed.

Podcasting- Growing Very Fast
Popularity of Podcasting is growing in leaps and bounds. Forrester Research says that the number of Podcasting listeners is going to cross twelve million by the end of this decade. Doesn’t it look like an impressive figure?

List of topics for Podcasting is also endless. You can have a Pod cast on a wide range of subjects from business, hobbies and rents to obsession and fantasies. Duration of a Podcast show may vary from ten minutes to thirty minutes normally. However, there are some shows that are much longer than thirty minutes. Costly music licensing and red tape has been a hurdle in coming up of much music Podcasts. Some musicians have found an escape route and using their own recordings on their Podcast.

You do not require any kind of special instrument to listen to the Pod casts. If any software is capable of playing the sound file, you may use it to listen to the Podcasts. However, if you want to listen to Podcasts while you are on the move, then you have to buy a portable media player such as an iPod, compatible mobile phone or a MP3 player.

What is RSS?
If you are new to computer terminology, then the word RSS might creating confusions in your mind. But you should not bother about it even if you do not know any thing about the computer programming. RSS is nothing but simply a kind of XML computer code that lets the listener subscribe Podcast shows and keeps them aware of latest developments.

There are several web sites on the Internet where you can find list of Podcasts. Some of these are podblaze.com, podcastalley.com and podcastbunker.com. You may find other directories also while searching on MSN, Yahoo, Google and other popular search engines.

Podcasting: Traffic Generation Tool Of The Future

For those internet and network marketers who want to build traffic to your site but really don’t want to write, I have a great suggestion – podcasting.  You can create high quality content that visitors will flock to, simply by speaking.

Podcasting is the latest technology that makes audio files available online for downloading from the Internet to your computer, iPod or any other device capable of playing media files.   A Podcaster will use RSS feeds for facilitating easy availability and detection of required audio files.  It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.  Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing much more information on the topic of podcasting – because this is quickly becoming an excellent way to attract tons of visitors to your opportunity.

According to Dave Wiener, who made Podcasting possible along with Adam Curry, RSS feed used for Podcasting differ from other RSS feed for text  because you use your ears for listening to the new content on your media player instead of using your eyes to read it on the screen of your computer.

Let’s talk about a few differences between Podcasting and Broadcasting:

The word Podcasting originated as a confluence of two words- iPod and broadcasting.   With latest technology, you do not need to have an IPod to listen to a Podcast.  Most computers now come with the ability to download and listen to podcasts right from your computer.  You can listen to Podcasts on any media player with the ability to play MP3 files, and is good for listening to Podcast feeds.

The difference between radio broadcast and Podcast is that in case of radio, the signal is pushed out while in Pod casting the end user pulls the signal by downloading the audio show on his/her computer or other device.

Podcasting is Easy to Start
If you think that making Podcasts is very difficult process than you are completely wrong.  Podcasting is a very easy process.  Let’s take a look at a few basic details so you will see how simple it really is.

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