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One of the essential tenets of blogging is bringing value to your readers. Sure, you're witty and intelligent--it shows in your writing--but sometimes you want (and need) to take it up a notch. How can you add value and interest to your posts? Use podcasts, photos, and videos to enhance what you already have. In this three-part series, I'll cover how each of these can help you build the content of your blog and offer even more value to your readers. This week I'll tackle podcasting, then photos, then video.
Dan Kenitz at Click Fire wrote a series called So You Still Haven’t Made a Podcast? to explain the benefits of using podcasts to build content. Her offers a few reasons why podcasting offers value to your readers:
- Producing a “radio show” that essentially creates content that suits your blog but can be carried with MP3 players and listened to when people are at work, in the car, or working out
- Hosting and interviewing guests
- Giving your audience a chance to match the physical voice with the writing voice
- Adding a new way for your audience to experience your blog (with music backgrounds, sound effects, etc.)
- Publishing content that only works if the listener can hear it (like music)
- Making your blog more personal because readers can hear your voice
- Exposing your blog to new users by publishing your podcast in new places
He goes on to point out, though, that
It’s one thing to want to podcast, but it’s another to podcast for the right reasons. If you like your blog but feel your voice could use an additional medium, podcasting might be the exact thing for you. If you’re just thinking about podcasting because most people podcast, you might want to ask yourself if it can really add a lot to the overall content of your site.
A piece of advice I've picked up but never used (where do the hours of my day go?) is to podcast, but to also transcribe the podcast on your site. The benefit is that you have the podcast your readers can download, but the transcription also provides SEO for your blog and content for those who aren't interested in downloading the podcast.
In the article What Exactly is Podcasting? Sharon Housely gives advice on how to promote your podcast once it's complete:
In order to increase exposure of your podcast, it should be submitted to the various Podcast search engines and directories. This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web page to a search engine, you will need to submit the link of the actual feed located on your website to the Podcast directories. There is a large list of Podcast directories at http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm.
Tutorials for Podcasting
- Using Your Mac: Apple GarageBand Podcast Tutorial
- How to Create Your Own Podcast - A Step-by-Step Tutorial on Podcasting via About.com
- Step-by-Step How to Podcast Tutorial via Marketing Loop
- So You Still Haven’t Made a Podcast? via Click Fire
Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions for beginning and intermediate bloggers at Blogging Basics 101.
