Since starting my first show on an AM radio station in 2008, I’ve been very focused on building community. Podcasting was fairly new back then, but connecting with people and making them feel cared for certainly was not.

As bloggers, we throw the word community around quite a bit, don’t we? For a while, if you wanted a solid business, all you had to do was build community. But what does the word community really mean?

A few months ago I was hanging with a few guys who helped define community as intimate friendship, shared context, and joint mission. Wow, is that even possible to build around a podcast? I think it is, and so do my friends who are joining me for the BlogWorld panel.

One of the most important things I’ve done to build community is to step away from the microphone and meet people in person. As a listener, it’s easy to place a podcaster into celebrity status and think you can’t have a relationship with them. That’s obviously a barrier to community and something that will impede the growth of your show.

So, why not come to out to BlogWorld to get out from behind your microphone and learn what you can do to build more community around your show? I’m leading a session in the afternoon on June 7th about building community. It’s the best thing you can do for your own show if you want to see fast growth.

Jeffrey joins Cliff Ravenscraft, who produces The Podcast Report each week for BlogWorld, and will be providing readers with useful content on a regular basis.

Right now, Jeffrey’s inviting all BlogWorld attendees to shoot a quick video that he’ll use for a future episode of BlogWorld Video. Just say “My name is ________ and I am going to BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York June 5-7!”. Then send it to Jeff at jeff@blogworldexpo.com!

Want to meet Jeffrey and Cliff in person? They’ll both be at BlogWorld New York, so be sure to stop by our podcasting track to say hello!

This Week’s Topic: Starting a Podcast

Every week, BlogWorld’s fantastic podcast track leader, Cliff Ravenscraft, presents The Podcast Report right here on the BlogWorld blog. He covers tons of different podcasting topics, but today I wanted to do something a little different and give everyone a comprehensive list of links where you can find information about starting a podcast, even if you’ve never done this before. Lots of bloggers can benefit from having a podcast, but it can be daunting to get started. These brilliant bloggers (most of them podcasters themselves) have some great advice to help you join the podcasting ranks.

(I recommend you start with this podcasting beginner’s guide right here on the BlogWorld blog from Daniel Clark!)

Brilliant Blogger of the Week:

Learn How to Podcast by Cliff Ravenscraft

Cliff is a no-brainer as our brilliant blogger of the week. He might be a podcaster first and foremost, but he’s a force to be reckoned with in all forms of content creation, from podcasting to video creation to blogging. On his “learn how to podcast” page, you’ll find an AMAZING seven-part video series, wrapped up with an 8th Q&A video. This series teaches you absolutely everything you need to know about gettings started as a podcaster, even if you have no experience. His videos cover equipment, setting up and RSS feed, and more. You seriously can’t find a better all-in-one guide to getting started than Cliff’s resource, and his entire Podcast Answer Man site is something you’ll want to check out to learn more about podcasting. You can also follow Cliff on Twitter at @GSPN.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

• 5 Steps to Starting Your Own Podcasting Show by Nathan Hangen (@nhangen)
• 7 Tips for Launching a Successful Podcast by Brian Casel (@CasJam)
• 10 Reasons to Start a Podcast by Rebecca Livermore (@rlivermore)
• Everything I Know About Podcasting by Dave Thackeray (@thepodcastguy)
• Five Things to Consider Before Starting a Podcast by Matt Ryan (@mattryan)
• How to Create Community Around Your Podcast by Jason Van Orden (@jasonvo)
• How to Get Your Podcast Listed in iTunes by Ileane Smith (@Ileane)
• How To Start A Podcast: An In-Depth Guide From Planning to Launch Day by David Risley (@davidrisley)
• How to Start a Podcast Quickly, Easily and without Spending a Fortune by Steinar Knutsen (@steinarknutsen)
• Mumpreneurs Online Podcast: Podcast Like a Pro with Dan Lyons by Fiona Lewis (@FionaLewisTweet)
• Podcasting 101: Apple’s Way of Managing Podcasts by Geoffrey Goetz (@ggeoffre)
• Podcasting 101 – Simple Steps to Launching a Podcast by Jeff Rutherford (@jeffrutherford)
• Podcasting Equipment Guide by Dan Benjamin (@danbenjamin)
• Starting A Podcast: The Best Recording Equipment & Platforms You Should Use by James Bruce (@w0lfiesmith)
• Starting a Podcast? Start Here by Scott Monty (@scottmonty)
• Tips for Podcasting by Carmen Shields (@superpc)
• Turning a Podcast into a Business (with Gordon Firemark) by Daniel J. Lewis (@theramennoodle)
• Yes You Do Have the Skills to Podcast by David Jackson (@davejackson)

Ewan Spence has also written some wonderful podcasting tips right here on the BlogWorld blog!

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about starting a podcast? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link.

Next Week’s Topic: Storytelling

I’d love to include a link to your post next week – and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

I’m trying to figure out if a podcast is the right thing for them.

In many circumstances, people are looking to explore the podcasting space, to find out how it all works, to see how they get on with it, and have a bit of fun. There’s nothing wrong with that – one of my popular podcasts started as a few shows on my personal blog and it eventually became too big for me to not notice the traffic and “spin it out” to its own site.

But for a long time that show was just a hobby, with it’s own little corner of my website. And while I have long running shows that are nothing more than a weekly podcast posted on a basic blog, that’s a great place to start and learn the ropes. But if anyone is looking to start up a podcast with a serious goal in mind to be noticed and get coverage, I always come back to the same piece of advice.

A podcast will rarely stand alone.

And if you think about it, you would never start a new site and not have an RSS feed. You wouldn’t ignore Facebook, or Google Plus. You’d make sure to have a Twitter account. I’d argue that providing a podcast, be it audio or video, is one of those tools. It’s rare that a podcast will be the only tool you use (just as it is rare a Twitter account would be the only tool you use), but it can be an important one.

It provides a voice to your site, and a regular spot to engage directly with your readers. It allows a different type of discussion to be taken, it provides continuity and regularity if done well, and keeps your readers interested in your content. The podcast is a surgical tool, but it’s one that is easy to wield. And in my opinion there are very few circumstances where a podcast would not help improve a site.

This time, I was the listener, and looking forward to the Christmas show from Radio International. It’s one of a number of sites based around the Eurovision Song Contest, and hosts a weekly podcast and radio broadcast in the Netherlands, and a few days before the festive broadcast I learned that JP, the host, wouldn’t be able to run the Christmas show – one that everyone was looking forward to.

So I volunteered.

Was it the same show that JP would have put out? I suspect not – a three hour show, with music, chat, and news has its own vibrancy derived from the host in the chair. Besides, I was sitting in the Belgian studio with JP’s music collection, but up in Edinburgh with a slightly more esoteric Scottish flavoured collection.

But with some help from many of the listeners I reached out to, a playlist was put together, guests were told of the new arrangements, and I sat down with a few spare hours and made sure that Radio International had their weekly show.

The community contributed to the show in the best way possible, and for me that was one of the best shows I have done. It also shows that everyone’s online shows are about more than a one to many broadcast – they are about personal connections, interactions, and friendships that flow in both directions.

That’s what makes new media so unique, special, and personal. And that’s what makes it an amazing space to continue to explore as we head into the new year.

Which is why my first job on landing at an airport has been to find a local SIM card for my smartphone.

Yes there are some cute options for roaming data, but let’s take Armenia as example. Using my Orange UK SIM card while in the capital city of Yerevan I could roam at £5.50 per megabyte. In the local currency that’s just shy of 4000 dram a megabyte. Or I could walk into the high street store, show my passport, and walk out with a local SIM that would charge just 5 dram a megabyte.

One of these options is going to be for “a real emergency” while another will allow me to stay connected, to reply to Twitter messages, to keep up to data on Facebook, post to my blog, moderate comments…

…and let me upload my podcasts.

Yes, there’s every chance that I can find some wi-fi or use a hotel lobby, but that’s never guaranteed, and in any case it’s still cheaper to go with a local mobile number and the data charge than it is to pay for twenty four hours of hotel wi-fi. The rise of international SIM services can help, but these are still mostly geared to voice, and not data. Those that are can rarely compete with local prices.

If all goes to plan, I’ll be bouncing round Europe for the next three months, and in my bag will be a little collection of SIM cards, each with enough credit for a weekend of “unlimited” browsing on my mobile phone (which doubles as a hotspot). It’s all well and good being able to get stories, but it’s even more important to know you can get them onto the web without relying on anyone else or breaking the bank. Because if you have a great post about a tree falling in the woods that you can’t get online, then did the tree even fall?

What are show notes?

Show notes give site visitors a reason to push play. Yes, titles are important. But even more important is the block of text that describes what the episode is about. If your podcast about movies features an interview with an actor in a certain episode, your show notes will convey how great it was to potential listeners. If your podcast about social media has an episode that reveals the results of an in-depth study of Facebook, your show notes will convince your site visitors to listen by offering a synopsis of the data—a tease.

Those are examples of what happens when someone gets to your site, though. Show notes are far more powerful than that. Your show notes help get people to your site to begin with. Google doesn’t listen to your show. Bing has no idea what you said on the episode you’re posting. The search engines need to be fed, and your show notes are what they love to dine on.

What isthe best way to do show notes? Here are some general guidelines that I recommend.

First, text. Start with two to five good, keyword-rich paragraphs. Recap all the main topics that you covered in the episode. Mention any guests and give your readers a short bio on them. Write for the readers, not for the search engines. Google is smart. You don’t need to get tricky. Be compelling. Remember, after your awesome show notes feed the search engines, they still need to convince your visitor to push play.

Second, links. Include links to sources or sites of interest where appropriate. Be smart though, and don’t overload. The search engines like to see relevant links and visitors don’t want to be overwhelmed by a list with dozens of links.

Lastly, give your visitors a reason to listen to your show. I’m not a fan of transcriptions in most circumstances. If you write so much text in your show notes that listening becomes pointless, well, then you‚ Are you’re just a blogger, aren’t you?

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You’re a podcaster. By definition, that means you record a show (statistically, it’s probably audio) and post it to your website. That’s the bottom-line definition. How can you expand on that?

Publish your audio to iTunes. Publish it to the Zune directory. Grow your audience by putting your show where people gather to find new shows. Google “podcast directory” and go down the list, submitting your RSS feed to as many as you like. They may not have millions of users each, but why ignore them altogether?

You work with audio. Do you incorporate music? In a scientific study that I just made up for this article, 87.45% of podcast listners prefer audio podcasts with opening and closing music because it makes the shows sound more professional. The less you sound like you can’t be bothered to care about your production values, the more people will respect your show. More respect means a greater chance that your audience will share your show with their friends, post your content to social media sites and do much of your marketing for you.

Speaking of social media sites, are you on Twitter? You probably should be. You don’t need to spend a ton of time on it. Just tweet once or twice a day. More importantly, set up a system for automatically tweeting new episodes of your show(s). WordPress plugins make that dead simple. How about Facebook? Did you know you can use a tool to pipe your episodes to Facebook? Your audience can listen to your show right within Facebook. They can listen, Like and share your show with all of their connections. Now that’s what I call expanding your reach.

You work with audio. You upload your episodes to your website and your feed goes out to iTunes and all the rest. What about YouTube? Ever thought about that? I have, and I’m going to start posting shows to YouTube in November. But you work with audio? So do I. What kind of video could you submit to YouTube? How about a video that YouTube was invented for? No, YouTube was not invented so that people could illegally upload pieces of their favorite TV shows and movies 10 minutes at a time. Turn on your webcam. Record yourself doing your show. Now you’ve got audio and video.

If your first instinct is to scroll down to the comments and say “who would want to sit and watch you sitting and talking”, don’t waste your time. I don’t buy it.

I’ve talked before about doing your shows live. You work with audio, have you considered Mixlr.com? What about taking the video suggestion I just made and expanding on it by broadcasting to UStream? Do you think you could incorporate Google+ Hangouts somehow?

Well?

Podcasting can be so much more than simply sitting down at your computer, talking into a microphone for 20 minutes then uploading an mp3. Have any of these ideas sparked anything in you? Would you consider expanding your reach in any of these ways? I’d love to hear your take on them.

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Yes, the LA Blog World Expo is over, but that doesn’t mean you can start planning #bweny for 2012 just yet. To get the most from your conference, it’s time to do some follow-up, and make sure that the connections you made at the Convention Centre continue to work for you. Here are three easy steps to keeping the Blog World Expo moments alive for the rest of the year, and beyond.

First up, decide who you are going to reconnect with. I know the temptation is to go through all the collected business cards and say “Hi I met you at Blog World”, but I’ve always sent emails that either finish a discussion with an action point, or have some content that needs auctioned.

By all means send the personal ones out (especially if you can’t find them on Twitter or Facebook!), but there is nothing wrong in not following up with someone if there is no fit with you away from the exhibition hall floor – the exception being if you couldn’t give them details and you need to give them your details.

Go through the cards, file the ones that need to be filed, and action the rest.

Keep those first emails short and snappy – everyone is recovering from the Conference, so a quick one line reminder as to who you are, and what you’d like to do next. Be it a guest blog post, explore some licensing opportunities, or asking for a price list, make a clear action point.

Chances are, with all these follow-ups going around, you’ll have some yourself to answer. In which case answer them with the same focus, but place a deadline on it. For example, “thanks for getting back to me to ask for the pricing, here’s the PDF and I’ll be back in touch at the end of next week“.

You worked hard to get to BlogWorld (and the team putting on the conference worked even harder), but don’t stop now. Just a little bit more work and you can make sure you get the best results out of your time in LA.

It’s all about planning ahead, and deciding what option you’re going to do.

The easiest choice is to go dark. Depending on your style of podcast, you can prep the audience on why you are going away, when you are back, and ask them not to be too disappointed. Sometimes this is the only choice, but it goes against many of the main rules of thumb for successful podcasting, the biggest being “keep it regular”.

It’s possible, again depending on your format, to pre-record an extra show or two and have them in the can and ready to go, either by hitting publish from a mobile browser while you are away, or setting a publish date in the blogging software running the podcast to make the post and podcast live at the regular time. This is a strategy advised by many for those with text based blogs, and the same is true for podcasters.

Of course many podcasts are based around news and current events, and that makes a pre-record a bit trickier. You could always resort to a “Best Of” clip show if the cover is for a single show, otherwise you need to think of another way. If you have a group discussion podcast, it’s usually a simple matter to cover one missing pundit, but what if you’re running solo (at least to your listeners)?

Well, you’re back to Casey Kasem, it’s time to draft in a substitute. If you’ve been interacting with the community around your podcast and the area, you’ll know the people that are switched on enough to do a show. Some of them may well be other podcasters (and you’ll know this because you are listening to the competition, aren’t you?). A quick email asking if they would like to be involved and do one show, and not only are you working with your community to benefit them, you’ve an option to reach out to new listeners (the followers of your stand-in host).

That’s a win all round.

In the big game that is social media, podcasting, and the internet, there are very few problems that cannot be turned to your advantage. Going on holiday is one of them.