How To Host Your Own Free Podcast In 3 Easy Steps

If you are trying to promote a business website you may already have tried using the standard repertoire of marketing techniques: PPC, SEO, article marketing, traffic exchanges, banner ads and so on. If the results have not been as good as you hoped you may still be wondering how you can promote your website more effectively and start seeking out some other marketing techniques.

Occasionally, video marketing via YouTube is mentioned, but it is not often that someone suggests that you start your own podcast.

The perception seems to be that it is difficult to do, yet today it has never been easier to set up your own podcast and create a series of 5-15 minute audio recordings that you can post on Itunes and also on your website.

Once you have a podcast on Itunes people will be able to find your programmes, listen to them and if they like them, they will subscribe to your podcast. They will be able to download your podcasts from iTunes each time you produce a new recording.

Simply put, making a podcast and posting it on iTunes is a good way to get the word out about your business while providing a free service to people in your target market.

The beauty of it is that it is easy to do! Here's how to set up your own podcast in a few easy steps:

1. Create Your Podcast
Use the sound recording software on your computer to create your podcast content. Windows users can use Sound Recorder, Mac users can use Garageband for example.

All you need to do is to talk for a few minutes about an aspect of your business, product or service, and the problems people face that your business helps to solve. If you already write articles to promote your website, then you could simply adapt your articles and create each podcast around an article - just hit the record button and read the article out loud. Add an few introductory and closing comments and mention your website address each time.

That's it!

2. Hosting Services For Podcasters
Open an account with a podcast host and you will be able to store your podcasts on it. This makes more sense than hosting your podcasts on your website as audio files require quite a lot of storage space and as your audience grows you will need a lot of bandwidth; podcast hosting sites are specifically designed to handle those issues for you.

You can start off with a free or low cost account and then upgrade as the need arises. Popular podcast hosting services include Libsyn, Podbean, HipCast, GoDaddy, OurMedia, Odeo Studio.

Personally, I use Podbean.com and started off with a free account which is easy to set up and use.

3. Upload To iTunes
After you have recorded a couple of shows and have opened an account with a podcasting host your next step will be to post your show on iTunes. This is also easy to do.

Open iTunes and click on iTunes Store. When the store opens you will see a bar at the top of the browser with "Podcasts" in the middle of the bar. Click on "Podcasts" and on the new page you will see a "Podcasts - PODCAST QUICK LINKS" menu column on the right hand side. Click on "Submit a Podcast" and you'll be taken to a new page with a field called "Podcast Feed URL".

The podcast feed will be in the admin area of your podcasting host site. If you use Podbean you will find it under "My Profile". Just copy and paste the feed into the "Podcast Feed URL" on iTunes, then click "Continue" to initiate the submission process.

Provided there are no unforeseen hitches iTunes will soon start showing your podcast and you can now consider yourself to be "in business"!

It is that easy.