Blog Syndication – Vlogs, Podcasts And Rss Feeds

VLOGS

Vlogs (video blogs) can prove to be more expressive than text blogs — but they do have some limitations. First of all, the content can’t be indexed by web search engines. Secondly, you can only see a small part of it at once. It’s perfectly possible to skim a blog post — but it’s impossible to do the same with a vlog.

Furthermore, vlogs are more exposed to problems such as accent, stage fright and so on. People usually feel neutral towards a piece of text, but are quick to judge others by their physical appearance or voice tone. Advice many people give is to use a vlog only where you absolutely need visual and vocal expression. If you are an artist selling your own records, for instance, a vlog may be more valuable than a blog. However, in most cases, a text-only blog works better for marketing purposes.

Podcasting

Podcasting is one of the newer aspects developed in the Web 2.0 world — and unique in its own way, because it is strongly linked with hardware development. In fact, the early days of podcasting involved Apple’s iPod so extensively that the technique got its name from it.

A podcast is essentially a collection of audio files, available for download and aggregation — usually automatically — somewhat similar to radio shows. They are indeed broadcast, but the only difference is that they are not “live” and “interactive”. (Though some live podcasts have appeared, and we will cover them shortly.)

Podcasts act essentially like “sound blogs.” A podcaster records his own thoughts, polishes the recording and, when everything is ready, makes a podcast episode available for download. Downloading is usually handled by media players like iTunes, and many users have these episodes automatically uploaded to their MP3 players.

In terms of expressivity, podcasts are somewhere between text blogs and vlogs. They don’t provide the same personal feeling a vlog does, but humans have a reasonable ability of associating persons with voices. Thus, although hardly the perfect choice for artists (especially in the case of those for whom physical aspects, like gesture or setting are important — actors for example), podcasts are the perfect supplement for a blog.

In fact, one strategy that has often been applied is podcasting actual blog posts. This is a way of overcoming one of the inherent limitations of blogs — the necessity of being in front of a computer to read them. By podcasting blog posts, bloggers ensure that people can listen to their ideas when they are not in front of the computer, but not doing anything requiring a lot of attention either.

Another important advantage podcasting has is the fact that it’s very cheap. Creating a good vlog is not an easy job — you need a decent camera, some care with the lights, a closely rehearsed text (unless you want people to see that you are reading) — in other words, some effort.

Podcasting is that much easier, because users have no way of seeing what you do.

STEP 1: Get the gear

Although podcasts are cheaper than vlogs, you still need some equipment in order to record yourself. You will obviously need a computer with a soundcard. In addition to this, you will need:

1.A microphone. Many laptops come with one incorporated, but the sound quality is very poor. The best choices are headsets with microphones and USB microphones. A decent microphone can be bought for about $25.
2.Sound recording software. Most podcasters use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), a free, Open Source program available for many platforms. Some Mac fans use GarageBand, but it’s not free.
3.An encoder, if your recording software doesn’t provide one. You need it in order to convert your recording to a compressed format like MP3. The LAME MP3 Encoder (http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html ) is the most widely used, but many programs, like iTunes, can automatically convert your sounds to MP3.

STEP 2: Write what you need to write

No matter how spontaneous you are, try to understand that a podcast is still not a live radio show. Any podcast with ah’s, umm’s and ugh’s will sound unprofessional. However, bear in mind that you are not at school. Try to read with a natural tone.

The script should not be very formal and it should sound just like natural speech, so it isn’t very obvious that you are actually reading. If you need help with it, you may want to ask a writer to help you.

STEP 3: Postprocessing

Postprocessing is a must of every successful recording. Fortunately, most recording software allows you to perform postprocessing tasks easily through automated wizards.

Common postprocessing tasks include removing background sounds and adding slight reverb effects when the sound feels too “dry.” One thing to remember though: you are recording a podcast, trying to inform your clients and promote your product. You are not playing psychedelic rock.
If, after adding an effect, you need to listen twice to understand what you are saying, the effect is bad. If you have trouble understanding your own voice, imagine what your listeners must be going through.

STEP 4: Publish it

This is probably the trickier part. A podcast is actually made out of two distinct parts: the audio content itself, and a special file called an RSS file. The RSS file contains information about what your audio file is, where it can be downloaded from, how it should be played and so on.

What you need to do in this step is to upload the podcast you record to a publicly accessible location. This can be your own web server. You must then create the RSS file — something which may be a little bit tricky if you are not technically inclined.

The good news is, RSS feeds can be generated automatically, using tools like Escapepodder (http://www.ghofulpo.com/), MyRSS Creator (http://www.myrsscreator.com/) or ePodcast Creator (http://www.industrialaudiosoftware.com/products/ipodcastcreator.html)

The files generated by these programs are usually enough, but if you encounter problems, you may want to ask someone who knows his way around RSS for help.

Once the RSS file has been created, you can simply start distributing it. Your website is a good place to start — but there are several podcasting directories where you should submit your podcast. iTunes allows you to automatically submit your podcast to Apple Shop, but you shouldn’t stop there. Yahoo! Podcasts (http://podcasts.yahoo.com/) and Podcast.net (http://www.podcast.net/) make good starting points.

Using a talkcast is much like using a podcast or a vlog. You can use it to promote your own product in a talkcast about its field (e.g. if you are selling garden plants, you may hold a weekly show about gardening). Talkcasts have the advantage over podcasts of interactivity. People are involved through the chat board, and you can get instant feedback without interrupting a broadcast.

Everyone can still listen to your talkcast, because it gets uploaded immediately after it is finished, and can be repeated – while retaining the advantages of podcasts (the format is the same and people can still listen to your talkcast on their MP3 player).
Therefore, it is much easier to develop a loyal audience — and since many new accounts are created every day, there is a constant flow of new people you can direct to your website. Still, the fact that you can get new people to your community is only a side effect — the important thing is that you can improve your relationship with your fans, with those who listen to your talkcast every time. Their insights can prove extremely valuable.

RSS: syndication at its best

The previous paragraphs described a podcast having two parts: the audio file and the RSS file. It should be obvious what the audio file is — this part describes what RSS means.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standard format, used to publish frequently updated content. That is, people use RSS feeds (or files) to share their headlines or summaries of their latest blog posts through syndication. It should be noted that RSS is not the only standard (in fact, there are several RSS standards — the latest one being RSS 2.0).

However, many professionals consider that the newer ones, like Atom, are just one extra hassle which confuses users even further. We will only cover RSS here because it’s very common and easy to use — but you may want to check on the other standards to see if any of them fits your needs better.

An RSS file uses a markup language called XML to describe the data it contains. Generally, RSS feeds contain small pieces of data and links to larger pages. For instance, a local newspaper may use RSS to distrib-ute lists of the latest headlines. A click on the headline in the RSS file will lead to the full article.

The most popular solution is using a feed along with a blog. Every time you write a new post, the blog is updated. With this at the user’s disposal, there’s an important chance all your readers will come back once they are subscribed. They no longer need to remember your blog’s address and check it every once in a while to see if you have written anything new.

Another popular usage of blogs is re-aggregation. Remember what we said about the consistency of the RSS format and how it can be used? Re-aggregation refers exactly to that: combining several feeds to form one which is distributed.
For example, you can re-aggregate news from the field of your product. If you are selling computer software, for instance, you can use five or six RSS feeds from large websites (freshmeat.net, softpedia.com etc.). You can take only the text of the news, and add these news items to your RSS feed, which already includes a few words about your product.

This way, your clients will be thankful — not only are you providing them with news from a field they are interested in, but they can also keep in touch with your product.

One other useful thing you can do is allow others to place banner ads in your feed. Small, unobtrusive banners placed at the bottom of every feed can generate some income for you, without disturbing your client. The procedure works the other way around as well: you can place your banner in the feeds others distribute — as long as everyone agrees.

All in all, RSS feeds can prove to be very useful. The only basic disadvantage they have is the fact that they are not a form of active communication — only one of the parties is actively involved (i.e. you are sending the message, but others can only read it). However, even if it doesn’t make your relationships with your customers more personal, RSS is still very useful for informing them.

By: daviesp856

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

More information on this and other Internet Marketing techniques can be found at www.web20gettraffic.com

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