Podcast Promotion

[hopeunited]

Hi All

Our church creates audio podcasts of our weekly messages which are then uploaded to a FREE podcast hosting site:

http://hopeunited.mypodcast.com/index.html

These are then automatically fed into iTunes

All seems fine and well but what I am finding is that only the computer literate people who use things like iTunes are downloading them.

In essence, only people who know about our church are downloading them.

So are there any decent places or methods for further podcast promotion?

Typing "submit my podcast" into Google seems to bring a minefield of junk as well as ligitamite entries.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Regards

[jonack]

The best way is to look at the keywords you are using in iTunes for your .xml file. Make sure that you are using appropriate keywords in the description for the specific file and also for your general podcast .xml file. The unfortunate truth is that so many churches are doing the exact same thing, and this muddies the waters. The other way is to make sure that your website is formatted appropriately and that the metadata that is in your website is set to what google.com indexes and likes...

[hopeunited]

Originally Posted by jonack

The best way is to look at the keywords you are using in iTunes for your .xml file. Make sure that you are using appropriate keywords in the description for the specific file and also for your general podcast .xml file. The unfortunate truth is that so many churches are doing the exact same thing, and this muddies the waters. The other way is to make sure that your website is formatted appropriately and that the metadata that is in your website is set to what google.com indexes and likes...

Hi There

Many thanks for your reply.

I take it I put these keywords in the XML BEFORE it hits iTunes?

And should I make separate meta data for each listing with static keywords for the main listing page?

Info appreciated.

Regards

[sempei13]

You might want to add it to the various podcast directories (Podcast Pickle and Podcast Alley were two in the old days).

Also, advertise it the way you would anything else. Put links on your website, etc.

I'm editing this chapter tomorrow, but here's the chapter from "Podcasting Church on Branding and Promotion."

Paul

[RyanScott]

Just a stab in the dark here but I assume your target audience is your local community. While it may be good for someone 500 miles away to stumble upon your podcast, having your sermons heard by locals would potentially do a lot more for the local church than having loyal foreign subscribers.

One idea is to put an ad on Facebook for your podcast episodes. You can tailor Facebook ads to extremely defined demographics, such as 10 miles from your city. Then, the ads only show up to those who may potentially show up in person in your services.

My advice is to create a Facebook page for your podcast recording. You can put a link into the Facebook timeline after each episode is released. Then, purchase a $50 ad campaign on Facebook to members of your local city or community. Send the ad to your Facebook page instead of directly to your podcast. This way, if someone "likes" your Facebook page, they will always get updates of new episodes available right on their Facebook wall.

If you want a tutorial on how to do this you can check my blog entry on it. Google "Facebook Build Ads Church39" and it will take you to a video tutorial on setting up the Facebook ads.

I would post the link but I'm currently not able to. (new user)