Thursday 19 August 2010

Podcasting and its benefits


I know most of us have heard and are familiar with the concept of PODCASTING. However, I felt like posting a small write-up on Podcasting here at my blog. This post might help the beginners to get acquainted with the concept and value-addition given by Podcasting. And for those who are familiar with it but have never tried hands on it, might get a spark in mind to start using it as an extensive marketing tool.

Let’s first know what a Podcast is. The word Podcast is a blend of two distinct words – pod (playable on demand) and broadcast. A Podcast can be called as an audio file which can be downloaded by you and listened to it whenever you want and wherever you are. Just how you subscribe to various online articles and news feeds, you can also subscribe podcasts and download them to your desktop (having internet connection) or mp3 player. To do so you just require client application software known as Podcatcher. Podcasts can be anything ranging from a music file to any recorded discussions, lecture notes to class room trainings; you can get any topic of your interest in the form of podcast.

Now that we know what a podcast is, let us explore few benefits which you can have by podcasting. In the world of marketing, podcasting has caught attention of many organisations and individual entrepreneurs and below mentioned are few benefits:

· Make your customers or target audience know you better – with podcasting, you can present yourself or your organisation in a much improved way. Those who listen to your podcasts are the ones who are really interested in you and thus more prospective customers for you and increase in traffic to your online interface.

· Communicate effectively – using podcasts you can communicate with target audience in a more effective way by giving out valuable information, which in turn makes your target audience trust you more and come back to you often.

· Your customers get required information when they are on move – as podcasts can be downloaded in mp3 players and also there are options available for the smartphone users. Hence even when your customers are on their move, they can listen to you and get updates.

· Gives you opportunity for more earnings – if your podcasts are famous and liked by many then you can even be approached by the advertisers. Thus you have more options for earning now.

· Respond to your customers’ feedbacks – your podcasts can clarify all your customers’ queries and respond to their feedbacks.

The above mentioned are just few benefits and once you start using podcasting as your marketing tool with time, you will experience more such benefits. Podcasting can tap your hidden customer base and gives you reach to millions. So let go your podcasts on air and enjoy the experience.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

SEO Tips


Following are the few tips which can be taken in to consideration while you plan to get along with SEO process for your website. Although there can be many more points to be considered but these in my understanding are the basic tips to follow. Hope these helps to kick start SEO process for your website:

1. Make a long term commitment with your SEO process as it is not for one time

2. Do a proper Keyword research and Analysis keeping your product line or services in mind

3. Make sure you have unique Title tag, Meta tag, Description for each page

4. Develop search engine friendly and unique content using targeted keywords

5. Have Google or XML Sitemap in home page

6. Increase link popularity by exchanging quality links from the site which are of same industry

7. Keep simple and organised directory structure

8. Avoid Cloaking

9. Avoid making your website full of flash or graphics or Ajax

10. Don’t stuff keywords in Meta Tags, image alt tags, page footer etc

11. Don’t use the same anchor text in all pages

12. Avoid using underscores in urls

13. Try to avoid Java Script, Tables, and on-page styles in the main HTML code rather try to call them from location

14. Never trust SEO expert who promises to bring your website on first rank or top listings forever. There is no guarantee in SEO for this.

15. Go for PPC, it is worth investing in it

16. Write news articles and start blogging

17. Invest time on Social Media with good strategies

18. Don’t submit your website link to directories more than once

So you now that you know the basic steps to follow, get started and keep going. If you wish to add more to the list then feel free to comment and write back to me.