Leesa Barnes: How To Plan A Killer Podcast

Leesa Barnes,  Cubicledivas.com
Podonomics

Leesa Barnes drove all the way from Toronto to Boston to attend Podcamp, basically driving all night! She was one of the few women presenting too and later during a brief podcast interview I did with her, we discussed that issue.  Her session, "Plan a Killer Podcast" was fantastic!  I was impressed that at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon after driving all night, she could be so on!  It has also made me realize that I need to do a lot more planning before jumping down the rabbit hole of podcasting.

Here's a few of my notes:

Why bother planning?  You need to know who is listening!  If you don't plan, you won't be able to measure your success or improve. You won't know who your audience is or how to reach them. You won't be able to be consistent.

What type of planning do you do for your podcasts?

* Guida Stein, "It's a Purl, Man" shared that he uses an online wiki (private) with shows listed.   He has a template and starts filling in the shows.  It's online and easy to use. He plans about six shows in advance.

* Another person does an analyzes keyword searches on nichebot and then googles the keywords to see the numbers.  Then plans shows based on those topics.

* Another person looks at their blog or Web stats and sees what key words people were searching on that lead visitors to their site.

* Another person uses Podzinger to integrate clips related to topics he is planning a show on.

Leesa shared some statistics from the Canadian Podcast Listener Survey that did.

* Podcast listeners are older than we think.  That it is just young people is a myth.  The largest group was the 35-44 age group.

* 69% want original content

Her survey matches all the results from many other surveys done elsewhere on the podcast audience.

What are the components of planning?

Triad of planning

Planning your promotional strategy - How to guide people to dialogue with you in your podcast
Image - what people will see when they come to your podcast
Content - Even if your sounds like crap, if you content is good - you'll be successful

Promotion

Some suggestions from the podcasters in the room:
-Promos with other podcasters
-Online community - learn the community, be a part of the community, mention the podcast if it is value added community.
-Use other podcasters
-Who can have me on their podcast as a guest
-Search engine optimization skills
-Write a piece for another podcaster that makes sense for your content - a value added piece
-Be a "comment whore"

Need to be listed in the main directories:

itunes
podcasteralley.com
podcast.net
podnova.com
odeo.com
podcasts.yahoo.com

(Note:  She'd like a developer to create script where you could submit to all these directories in one click version going to each one seperately because it is very time consuming.)

She recommended Jason Van Orden's book, "Promoting Your Podcast" (I bought a copy and it is well worth the $16)

Image

What people see when they stumble across your podcast.  Make it attractive enough for the listener to fall in love with your podcasts.

What things attract you to subscribe?

* Person's personality
* Podcast cover
* Description
* Show name
* Art that shows up alongside your podcast
* Page where you podcast sits  - design -- not a simple flash player (wordpress has a plugin called podpress)

Content

* passion and purpose
* who do you want to listen to your podcast
* competition
* consistency
* be you, everyone else is taken - original
* personality of the host
* audio quality

She ends with ...If you plan your podcast, your podcast will reflect your plan.

Comments

[Hendry Lee]

Wow.. thanks for the summary Beth. That is useful. Keep up the good work.

[Leesa]

What an awesome summary and I love your picture of my scribbles. I'm glad you learned something as I was quite out of breath running from the wrong room on the fourth floor to the right one in the basement. If anything, it was great exercise, huh?

[Barbara Bradbury]

Thanks for putting up these extremely helpful notes, Beth.

[Jody Colvard]

Hi Beth,

I created the Women in Podcasting Directory about a year ago based on the article in Wired Magazine that Women Podcasters were Warming the Bench. In this past year, the increase in women podcasters has grown leaps and bounds and when I have LIVE podcasting events, it's mostly all women.

You can find the top women podcasters in all areas of interest at this podcast directory: http://www.womeninpodcasting.com.

Launching in March 2007 is the Women in Podcasting Festival where you can listen, view and vote on your favorite women podcasts.

All My Best!

Jody

PS Take a look at the women’s podcast community (I just launched this), a great place for women to connect with other women podcasters.