Why is podcasting HOT?
by Demetria Zinga, M.S.

Podcasting suddenly came on the scene in 2005 and has been rapidly changing the world of communication and media as we know it. Sort of like an underground mass mania, podcasting has a viral affect and spreads from computer to ipod to mp3 device…and who knows what’s next?

I predict that within the next two years, podcasting will become more of a business communications vehicle.

• Managers of large corporations are starting to look into podcasting as a form of communications as a way of reaching target audiences for their product or services.
• Educators will begin to use podcasting as a distance learning tool. Professional speakers will begin to podcast to give potential clients a taste of the great time they’ll get to hear if they choose to book the speaker for a speaking engagement.
• Churches and ministries will begin to do what’s called “church podcasting” or “godcasting” in order to spread the messages of their faith. Last, but not least, small businesses will use podcasting to mass market their products and services to an audience that would otherwise have never heard of them.

There are podcasts on every subject imaginable— business applications and development, computer concepts, family and life management, education, religion and spirituality, health and nutrition, society and culture…you name it, and there’s probably a podcast somewhere out there on that subject.

So why is podcasting HOT?

The next time you enter a college campus, take a look at the students who are walking to class. The majority of them are wearing ipods and listening to music…and probably podcasts also. The next time you’re on a subway, train, or airport, look around to see how many people are listening to mp3 players.

Mp3 players with podcast download capabilites are on the rise…and if you just happen to have your very own podcast out there on the web, you may be one of those fortunate enough to be listened to by a large audience around the world!

Imagine the power of one podcast on our global network! Don’t you think it’s time you created your own podcast?
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Demetria Zinga, M.S. is an internet marketing strategist, podcast consultant, and web success coach whose goal is to help the woman entrepreneur and work at home mom with web consulting needs. Visit http://www.wahmuniversity.com to find out more!

The Godcasting Phenomenon
by Demetria Zinga, M.S.

Godcasting (or church podcasting) is an incredible phenomena that of course springs from its parent, podcasting. Many churches and ministers are using podcasting as a form of communication to the world and to their congregations. They are spreading the message of their faith across the world with very low start up costs and very high anticipation of end results.

Take, for example, the RevTim podcast, which is part of the Godcast Network. This podcast started with 100 hits a day and now has nearly 2,000 hits a day since its first launch.

Podcasting has only become very popular in 2005, and with one year of podcasting growth behind us, we can already see the exponential boom in this new “industry”, as people are really beginning to catch on to the pros of broadcasting their messages via this medium.

One church in Concord, North Carolina podcasts their sermons every week. Kevin Seger of Pitts Baptist Church says “If we can utilize tools and technology to get the gospel out, the better we are.” Many churches are taking their sermons, classes, workshops, and music, saving them as mp3 files, and distributing them via podcast.

According to the Pew Internet American Life Project’s study last year, 128 million users have been using the internet for faith-related matters. Additionally, in April 2005, searches for the word “godcasts” grew 355%. How incredible is that!

The growth in these numbers are showing us that godcasting, or church podcasting for religious purposes, is becoming quite the trend among many religious communities.

Sources Cited:
Shaluta, C. (2005). Podcasting and the Church. The Potential of Podcasting to Spread the Word of God. Retrieved February 28, 2006, from www.ipassages.com.

How To Produce and Record Your Own Internet Radio Show
by Demetria Zinga, M.S.

Everyone knows internet Radio is big these days…just do a Google search on “internet radio”, and you’ll see what I mean.
So let’s say you have an interest in producing your own internet radio program…
How do you go about doing this?

1.) Your first step is always to determine the purpose of your show. What are your interests, hobbies, skills, and passions in life that will drive you into a real commitment to offer valuable information to your listeners? Please, whatever you do, don’t start an internet radio program on a topic that you aren’t interested in. Not only will you bore your listeners, but it wouldn’t be long before you got pretty bored yourself. No matter how unpopular the subject may be, if it interests you and you have a real passion for it, go with it! I guarantee there is someone else out there who is looking for a radio program on the topic you’ve chosen. Who is your target audience?

2.) You should also determine the format of your show. How many segments will you have in your program? Will there be sponsors and ads?

3.) Along with determining the format of your show you should develop an outline for production. As a producer, you are in control of how your program flows from one clip to the next. Arrange your program in such a way that makes sense to the listeners.

4.) Next gather all your media for the radio show. This could be audio clips, narration, promotional ads, interviews…whatever you desire to include in your program.

5.) Arrange your audio clips within your sound editing software program in the order as you wish for them to appear in your program.

6.) Add any special effects between audio clips such as “fade-ins/fade-outs”.

7.) Once you’ve mastered the whole show to perfection, you’ll want to export the final product as an mp3 file, which is one of the most compressed sound file formats you can use on the web.

8.) Now using your FTP client, simply upload your show to the web

9.) Check the URL to which your file is uploaded to make sure the sound file is audible and is playing back on the web.

10.) As you become more adapted to these first 9 steps, you will later begin to see how that “streaming” your show is important…and you may also want to learn more about the power of podcasting…

But for now…spread the word about your radio show to family, friends, and the whole world…and give yourself a round of applause!
You’ve produced your own internet radio show!

How To Start Your Own Podcast For Free!
by Demetria Zinga, M.S.

Clearly if you’ve been thinking about podcasting these days, you’ll notice right away that there are a TON of solutions out there on the web to help you begin podcasting. There are lots of companies which offer great solutions for podcasters…so be encouraged—there are many ways to go about doing this, and it’s really all up to you.

Here’s an easy, and free way of podcasting:

1. Set up an account with blogger.com. It’s a really simple step by step process. You’ll see once you get there.

2. Now set up an account with audioblogger.com. It will be connected to your blogger.com account. You will be using AudioBlogger to phone in and leave your recorded posts at your Blogger account. Therefore, you now have what’s called an “audioblog”! And for those of you who are familiar with blogging, this is a really quick and dynamic way of communicating on the web. Add to blogging “audio” and you now have “audioblogging”.

3. The next element in your audioblogging would be converting this to a language understood by podcast “readers” and aggregators. This would be the language “XML”, which, of course, we won’t get into in this tutorial. All you need to do now in order to convert your audio blog posts into a podcast is to open an account with Feedburner.com

4. In Feedburner you’ll be asked to burn a feed…you will enter the website address of your Blogger account, and Feedburner will automatically burn a feed for your blog. Your feed is what podcast displayers, aggregators, and such will use to download your podcast.

5. So now that you have a feed for your podcast, you can announce your Podcast feed to friends, family, and the entire world! Simply give them the feed URL address which Feedburner created for you, and keep on audioblogging!

Our contact info:

Demetria Zinga

P.O. Box 864809

Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

demetria*at*faith-media.com

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