Search Results for "podcasts"
Happy Birthday to Me or The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur is Two!
Posted by: | CommentsTwo years and 313 blog posts later, I’m proud to say The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur is still alive and kicking. I’ve done the math, and that works out to an average of three blog posts a week. I didn’t know I had it in me.
Seriously! I am a writer, but I’ve never sustained a writing project that was quite this long. I wondered if I’d run out of ideas. However, everyone I knew who was a blogger (and I confess that two years ago it wasn’t that many) told me running out of ideas wasn’t going to be a problem.
Over the past two years I’ve learned a lot about myself, my business and who my customers are. A good part of that learning is a direct result of writing three times per week. Some of these lessons are fairly profound and some are less so. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned.
Stickiness
First, I learned I can stick to something. You’d think that after four & a half years as an entrepreneur I’d already know that. After all, you can’t stay in business that long without finishing what you start.
However, if you’re been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that I am ADD. I really have a tendency to flit from project to project as my attention wavers. Knowing I can stick to something for two whole years was a really important lesson to learn. Particularly for something like blogging which really doesn’t have an end date. There is no point where I can say “I’m done here”.
What’s my business all about
When I made the move to be a full time entrepreneur in the spring of 2005, Read More→
Some Free and Cheap Tools For Creating a Podcast or Teleseminar Recording
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the great things about going to an event like Podcamp London is coming away with links to amazing tools that I had never heard of before.
The first tool mentioned is one I’ve already been using. For editing out long pauses, sneezes and coughs and any other touch-ups to my audio, I’ve been using the free audio editing program Audacity. This software program looks complicated but with a little fooling around you can figure out the basics. I only use about two percent of the features available, but it’s gotten me through so far.
The coolest tool I learned about this past weekend is one I can’t wait to try. Levelator is a free tool for improving the sound of a podcast/teleseminar. Have you ever recorded (or listened to) a podcast where one of the speakers’ volume is significantly softer than the others? This can easily happen when the speakers are calling in on a phone line.
While it is possible to manually increase the volume of the softer speaker using sound editing software like Audacity, it can be very time consuming and the quality isn’t always as good as you would like. Levelator solves this problem. Simply drag and drop the file onto Levelator and it automatically does the work for you.
It doesn’t work for music, obviously, but for interviews it’s a great fix. I haven’t used it personally, but since I’m recording a new teleseminar tomorrow, I’ll likely be putting it to the test soon.
Adding Music to Your Podcast
Professional sounding recordings often have a music clip that acts as an audio logo for your podcast. But you can’t legally just browse through your music collection and add it to your podcast. You’d be breaking copyright legislation unless you can permission and pay a royalty.
So where do you find music you can legally use? Here are some links where you can get podcast safe music for free or for a small fee.
www.jamendo.com (world music)
www.magnatunes.com (there is a fee for music, but half goes directly to the artist)
www.archive.org (they have some free, public domain and creative commons licensed music)
www.freemusicarchive.org (more creative commons music)
www.musopen.com (classical music)
If you’ve been holding off on producing teleseminars or podcasts because you didn’t have the tools, check out some of these links and give them a try. You may find it’s easier than you think to create a professional sounding recording.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Podcasting For Business – 5 Unconventional Tips
Posted by: | CommentsPodcasts are a great way to help promote your business by showcasing your expertise, spreading the word about your company, products, and services, building community with your target market, and more. Here are 5 unconventional tips to help you along your way.
1) Sponsor a podcast whose audience fits your target demographic. You don’t need to start one yourself, just look for an appropriate one that already exists. A classic example of this is Dixie sponsoring the Mommycast. Dixie didn’t create a podcast themselves; instead they found one whose audience fit their target demographic and partnered with it.
2) Podcast on an unrelated topic to your business, but which has enormous appeal to your audience. An example of this is Whirlpool’s American Family on family issues. Hey, wouldn’t a podcast on dishwashers be boring?
3) Forget about the size of your listening audience! This isn’t radio. A small number of very passionate listeners are much more important than a large number of somewhat interested listeners. Since podcasting can target niche audiences (since it’s inexpensive unlike radio or TV), audiences tend to be passionate about the topic.
4) Take your podcast to your audience! Don’t expect your target audience to magically find it. For example the Financial Aid Podcast heavily promotes via MySpace, as the demographics of both are extremely similar, and RightLookRadio advertises in industry publications.
5) Don’t call it a podcast – the name confuses and/or scares many people. You could call it radio — people understand and are comfortable with radio. For example GrapeRadio is quite popular, and many of their fans neither know nor care that they are listening to a podcast.
And for over 100 more tips on successful blogging and podcasting, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging at www.SecretsofSuccessfulBlogging.com
By Ted Demopoulos, author of “Blogging for Business” and “What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting”
Article Source: Ezinearticles.com
Affiliates
Posted by: | CommentsHi, this is Andrea Stenberg. Thank you for your interest in partnering with me as an Affiliate of the Baby Boomer Entrepreneur’s Getting Started with Social Media Marketing: How to Use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to build your brand, increase traffic and make more money.
Here’s how my affiliate program can benefit you:
You are paid $40.00 CAD for every person you refer who signs up for my training program. If ten people you refer register, you can earn $400. If you refer 25 people, that’s $1000 for you.
It’s easy! All you have to do is send traffic using your unique affiliate link to my sign-up page, or anywhere on The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur blog.
Once they register for the course, you are credited for the commission.
I’ll be running this course again, as well has adding other courses in 2009. So even if they don’t buy now, you’ll have opportunities to earn commissions later.
It’s ready to start. Use the banners, text links, blog articles, and other tools inside the affiliate area in your promotions. Just paste them into your site or newsletter and you can make money as a Baby Boomer Entrepreneur Affiliate.
If you do teleseminars, podcasts or audio downloads on your site, consider having me as a guest to do a promotional call. Giving your listeners a taste of my course can help motivate them to sign up. Just send me a quick email and we’ll set up a time.
I look forward to working with you. Just fill in the form here to get started!
To your success!
Andrea J. Stenberg
Become an Affiliate Now!
My Favourite Podcasts
Posted by: | CommentsI was at a networking meeting this week and we began talking about our favourite podcasts. For the uninitiated, a podcast is an audio recording distributed over the internet. It’s like radio except you can download episodes, listen at your convenience, pause and re-listen at will.
For business people, business podcasts can be an invaluable learning tool. Instead of having to travel to attend a course, you can download a podcast on almost any topic and be learning at home.
You can listen in your office while you work or you can upload them to your MP3 player and multi-task – listen while you workout, commute or do housework.
If you’ve never listened to a podcast, here are some of my favourites:
1. The Podcast Sisters – this weekly podcast features discussions by Krishna De, Anna Farmery and Heather Gorringe. These three women discuss Web 2.0, social media and other technology for “non-geek” businesses.
2. Street Smarts Marketing – Marketing expert Kathleen Gage interviews a variety of industry experts on topics to help you run your business better. You have to register to get access to get the downloads but it truly is worth giving up your email address.
3. Wonderful Web Women – Janet Beckers interviews successful women on the internet to learn their secrets.
4. Marketing Over Coffee is a new podcast for me … recommended by an internet marketing colleague. Hosts John Wall and Christopher Penn record it every business Wednesday at 5:30am Eastern at a coffee shop in Natick, MA, just outside of Boston.
5. Andrea’s More Effective Marketing Podcast. Yes, this is a shameless plug for my own podcast. I interview people who have knowledge to offer on subjects that I want to learn about. I learn tons from these people and hope you will too.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Do you listen to any podcasts that help you run your business? Please share the links by leaving a comment below.
